EPD continues murder probe
The El Dorado Police Department is nearly two months into the investigation of the fatal shooting of a 36-yearold man who was found Jan. 30 lying in his front yard with gunshot wounds.
Capt.
Scott Harwell, of the
EPD’s Criminal Investigative Division, said detectives are still following leads and interviewing people in connection to the shooting death of Rodney J. Hart Sr.
Investigators have not yet established a clear motive or developed solid suspect information.
At 1:16 a.m. on Jan. 30, officers responded to a report of shots fired in the 500 block of Cooper Drive and while en route, officers received a second call confirming there was a victim in the shooting.
Upon arrival, they found a man, later identified as Hart, lying motionless in the front yard of his residence.
Police said Hart was unresponsive and he appeared to have been shot several times.
Hart was pronounced dead on the scene.
The body was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for an autopsy.
A preliminary report from the crime lab confirmed that the manner of death was homicide due to multiple gunshot wounds.
Harwell said the crime lab has not yet completed a full report.
“I can tell you they are using every method at their disposal to get to the bottom of it,” EPD Chief Kenny Hickman said about the investigation.
Hickman previously said that it appeared Hart had just arrived home when the shooting occurred.
“There are some developments that have come up that we’re looking into. Unfortunately, as of right now, we haven’t been able to confirm if it’s good information or false information,” Harwell said.
He declined to release any further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police recovered several spent shell casings from the scene and Harwell said detectives are conducting new interviews and re-interviews as part of the investigation.
“As of right now, we don’t have enough to obtain any (arrest) warrants,” Harwell said.
“The investigation hasn’t gone cold by any means,” he continued. “We’re waiting on reports for other evidence that we’ve submitted (to the crime lab) to come back and it may lead us in other directions or give us the information we need to make a case.”
Harwell said rumors and “street talk” have been swirling around the case but much of it has not proven to be useful to investigators.
“There’s no doubt in my mind there are people who have information and I know a lot of people are scared to put anything on the line. That’s understandable,” he said. “It’s a question of if they’re willing to talk to us and how much they’re willing to tell us. If we don’t know, we can’t do anything.”
The fatal shooting is the first and only homicide to occur this year in El Dorado.
“We’ve had a couple of developments that we’re looking into further and we’re going to see where that’s going to take us,” said Harwell.
Anyone with information about the homicide is encouraged to call the CID at 870-881-4810 or Crime Stoppers at 870-863-INFO (4636).