By Kevin McKenzie
The Memphis Commercial Appeal
Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby didn’t even have a gun Thursday when the suspects in the slaying of two West Memphis police officers jumped out of their minivan and began spraying bullets at him and his deputy chief.
“They got out shooting with what they had,” Busby said Saturday from his home in Marion, hours after his release from the Regional Medical Center at Memphis.
“We got back in the car,” Busby said. “Then all hell broke loose.”
The ensuing gun battle in the Walmart parking lot with Jerry R. Kane, 45, of Forest, Ohio, and his 16-year-old son, Joe Kane, left the two suspects dead, while Busby was shot in the shoulder and Deputy Chief W.A. Wren was hit three times in the abdomen.
Wounded and hunkered down in their unmarked sheriff’s car, the two lawmen continued to receive fire until a state wildlife officer rammed the suspects’ van.
About 90 minutes earlier in the day, during an 11:36 a.m. traffic stop of the minivan on Interstate 40 near College Boulevard in West Memphis, police Sgt. Brandon Paudert, the son of West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert, and officer Bill Evans were shot to death.
Busby and Wren were the first law enforcement officers to encounter the minivan after a massive search.
“We were looking for them,” said Busby, 73, who was unarmed because he had jumped in Wren’s car to ride with him, leaving his weapon behind.
As they pulled in to the store parking lot, Busby said, the minivan was attempting to exit onto Rich Road. They blocked the van, and the occupants of both vehicles got out.
Busby said he didn’t even see the younger suspect. He was looking at the elder Kane, who was firing some kind of high-powered rifle.
The sheriff said the gun looked like it could have been an AK-47, a weapon that Kane’s common-law wife in Florida said he carried with him on trips.
“The daddy jumped out of the van with (a high-powered rifle) in his hands shooting,” Busby said. “It was spitting those rounds out pretty quick.”
The younger Kane had a weapon, but the sheriff said he was unsure of what type.
Wren returned fire with his handgun, and both men got back in the sheriff’s car, where Wren continued to shoot back at the suspects.
Busby said he was wounded in the left shoulder after returning to the car.
He wasn’t certain when Wren was wounded in the abdomen. The deputy chief remained in critical condition at The Med on Saturday.
An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission officer participating in the manhunt, Michael K. Neal, 33, rammed the minivan with his state truck and also fired on the suspects.
Dozens of other officers were converging on the scene. The Arkansas State Police, leading the investigation, said determining who fired which rounds will take time.
Busby, set to retire at the end of the year after two decades as sheriff, said his shoulder is sore, but he is “very thankful to be here.”
Meanwhile, another witness who had been at the Walmart during the shootout described the chaos in the store.
Stephen Walters, a 21-year-old West Memphis resident, said that as the gun battle exploded outside, he was inside depositing his paycheck at a SunTrust bank.
“I heard a lady scream ‘Shootout!’” Walters said Saturday. He and other customers ran to the back of the store, to stock areas normally off limits to the public.
Police with guns drawn, including a state trooper with an M-16, came to ensure their safety, and they were later released through the store garden area after being asked if they had witnessed anything, he said.
Walters and Nathan Hunter, also 21, were leafleting vehicles on the Walmart lot on Saturday for the Black Label Tattoo Studio, which will raise donations for the fallen officers’ families on May 29 by applying “blue ribbon tattoos” and other tattooing.
“These guys put their lives on the line for us every day, every second,” said Jaclyn Kelly, 28, who owns the studio at 506 N. Missouri, where her husband, Danny Kelly, 32, is the tattoo artist.
At Tilden Rodgers Sports Complex on Saturday, a jar for donations for the officers’ families raised $134 during Boys & Girls Club of Crittenden County baseball games, said Sara Warhurst, a club board member and mother of two baseball players.
“It’s just awful for the families,” Warhurst said. “It will be a while before anything gets back to normal around here.”
Copyright 2010 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.