Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A Little Rock police officer was wounded and a suspect was killed Thursday evening after officers responded to a call that shots were fired in a neighborhood.
At about 8 p.m., police were told by a resident that a man believed to have fired a gun had fled the area on foot. Police went after the man and saw him enter a house, and two officers pursued him inside.
The suspect fired at the officers, hitting one in the side, Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said. The other officer returned fire as he dragged the wounded officer to safety and killed the suspect, Hastings said.
The wounded officer was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, but the slug went between its front and back panels. Hastings said the bullet lodged in soft tissue and that the officer’s life was not in danger. He was in stable condition at a hospital, Hastings said.
Police did not immediately release names of the officers or the suspect.
The incident is the second time in five weeks that a Little Rock police officer was shot. Officer Jack Cooper died Feb. 2 from a gunshot wound inflicted by a suspect a day earlier.
The neighborhood where the shooting occurred is about a half mile northwest of the Arkansas State Fairgrounds.