Copyright 2006 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
BY RICHARD MASSEY
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Prosecuting Attorney Stevan Darlymple said Tuesday that a Pine Bluff police officer and two Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies were justified in their use of deadly force when they shot a gunman at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant April 19.
Dalrymple’s preliminary opinion, issued jointly to Police Chief John Howell and Sheriff Boe Fontaine, allowed for the reinstatement to active duty of police officer Aaron Blanton and Deputies Yohance Brunson and David Wheeler. The officers, who had not been identified before Dalrymple’s decision, were placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting.
Ark. lawmen’s shots said warranted In a letter to Howell and Fontaine, the chief prosecutor for the 11th Judicial District-West praised the three men.
“The officers approached the suspect in an attempt to apprehend him, but the suspect pointed his weapons at the officers, leaving the officers no choice but to shoot the suspect,” Dalrymple wrote. “The officers used their professional training and experience, and followed the proper procedural steps.”
Julian English, who was still recovering from his wounds at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock, reportedly entered the plant about 10:30 p.m. armed with two semiautomatic pistols. English, 24, of Pine Bluff confronted a 34-year-old co-worker, Ronnie Smith of Pine Bluff, and shot him in the groin, authorities said.
English, who had been suspended from work and escorted from the plant earlier that night, returned with the guns, according to police reports and a spokesman for Springdale-based Tyson Foods.
At a hearing Friday, Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt found sufficient evidence to hold English on a $1 million bond pending the formal filing of felony charges against him, specifically one count of attempted capital murder and three counts of aggravated assault.
Tyson, the world’s largest meat company, evacuated about 400 employees from the plant at 5505 Jefferson Parkway on the night of the shooting and closed it Thursday. It reopened Friday morning.
Smith was hospitalized after the shooting at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff but was no longer listed as a patient Tuesday afternoon.
The plant shooting was still under investigation by the Arkansas State Police, called in whenever police officers use deadly force. State police will submit a report to Dalrymple after the investigation.