I-40 shooting involving men with FC ties called ‘botched assassination’

A police officer referred to a shooting on Interstate 40 in August that left one man dead and two injured as a botched assassination attempt during a bond hearing this week in Little Rock.

The hearing was for Justin Cantrell Mays, 24, formerly of Forrest City, who is charged with capital murder stemming from an Aug. 21 incident during which police said 21 shots were fired from a pair of vehicles traveling on I-40 near the Morgan/Maumelle exit.

During the court proceeding, according to a report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the State Police investigator told the judge Mays is an admitted gang member and the shooting was motived by revenge for an April murder at a Little Rock carnival where Deante Deshawn Smith, 22, of Forrest City, was killed after being shot in the back of the head. Keaton Jamal McGee, 17, of Alexander, is charged with capital murder in that case.

Seventeen of the 21 shots fired struck a red Ford Mustang, killing the backseat passenger, Kindylen Shakur Roberts, 21, of Marion, and slightly injuring Freangelo Dosty, 23, also of Forrest City, who was a passenger in the front seat of the Mustang. Driver Quinton Scott Lockhart, who police believe was the apparent target, was not injured, the investigator testified, saying the Mustang was raked by gunfire from the rear taillight to the engine compartment.

The investigator said the bullets were fired from a blue Dodge Charger in which Mays was a passenger. Four bullets pierced the roof of the Charger, striking backseat passenger Calvin Deshawn Howard in the head.

Mays was arrested a short time after the shooting at a Conway hospital where police found him with Howard. The investigator testified that Mays claimed to be a member of the Gangster Disciples. He denied firing a gun, but admitted he was a front seat passenger in the Charger. The investigator said that his examination of the Charger showed the bullets fired through the roof of the vehicle that struck Howard could have only come from a gunman in that front seat, the DemocratGazette reported.

He also said the men in both of the vehicles all know each other and live in and around the

(Continued from Page 1) Forrest City area. However, none of the Mustang’s survivors could identify Mays as the shooter. The gun used to kill Roberts has not been found.

At the time of the shooting,

Mays was on 36 months probation out of Faulkner County from April this year after pleading guilty to felony theft by receiving for a July 2020 arrest in Conway with a stolen rifle.

The judge ordered Mays to be held without bail until trial, which has not yet been scheduled. Mays is also facing charges of first-degree battery, felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of committing a terroristic act. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence.