Bakery shootout leaves 2 injured

A Searcy County sheriff’s deputy and a 75-year-old Marshall man were injured in an exchange of gunfire Friday after the man held three employees hostage inside of a Leslie bakery shop, authorities said.

Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler did not name the deputy, but he said his injuries were not life-threatening. A dispatcher at the Searcy County sheriff’s office said she could not release the name of the deputy Friday evening.

Searcy County Sheriff Donald Ragland was not available Friday for comment.

Sadler said John T. Kolata was in surgery at the UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock. His condition was not known.

Police said Kolata entered the Serenity Farm Bread pastry shop on U.S. 65 about half a mile south of Leslie on Friday morning. After receiving reports of an armed man hold- ing hostages inside the store, the deputy and a state police trooper responded at 11:15 a.m., Sadler said. When the two officers entered the store, Kolata began shooting at them. The deputy and trooper returned fire, striking Kolata. The trooper was not injured. David Lower, owner of the store, said in an interview that an employee called him to the store Friday morning after Kolata entered the business and began “acting weird.” Lower also owns the Serenity Farm Bread bakery at 423 Main St. in Leslie.

Kolata, who had frequented the pastry shop before and was known to the employees as “Tom,” was brandishing a handgun, Lower said.

Lower said Kolata let several customers and two other employees leave the store before holding Lower, a pastry chef and another employee at gunpoint.

“He was acting strange,” Lower said of Kolata. “He said he had a premonition that ‘this day something was going to go down.’

“I asked him, ‘Why would you want to shoot me?’” Lower said. “I never really felt like he was going to shoot me.”

Lower said officers “stormed into” the store and yelled for Kolata to drop his weapon.

He said Kolata began firing at them. Twelve to 18 shots were fired, Lower said.

“My shop is torn up, ” he said. “There’s glass everywhere. There’s blood all over.”

Sadler said Friday evening that the state police’s Office of Professional Standards will review the shooting. The state trooper is on paid administrative leave in accordance with state police policy.

“It’s a tragedy,” Lower said. “I’m thankful the deputy will be okay, and I’m thankful none of our staff was hurt.

“You don’t realize that police sacrifice their lives for us every day until you see it,” he said.