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WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — After financial losses, fire and special tax passed to support it, Crittenden Regional Hospital is closing. The hospital is no longer admitting people and will close September 7. We are told clinics located within the hospital are looking for alternatives. In a statement, CEO Gene Cashman said, ‘With counsel from national health care consulting firms and the passage of a county-wide sales tax, we had identified a long-term strategic plan that had set our organization on a path to improvement. This summer’s fire and the subsequent shut-down derailed that plan’s success.”

West Memphis police officer Bill Evans was found lying face down in a ditch after being shot multiple times by a 16-year-old, including a shot in the back, the city's police chief said Tuesday. The chief said his son, a sergeant over the criminal interdiction unit, took cover Thursday behind his vehicle as teenager Joseph Kane opened fire with an AK-47. He said bullets pierced the engine and the car and shattered glass. Brandon was riddled with bullets before being shot in the back of the head, Paudert said. SNIP Paudert told them that as of Tuesday, he wanted officers...

Just happened in the last hour or so. One of the killed police officers is the son of the Chief of Police.

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 gunbattle in the Walmart parking lot with Jerry R. Kane, 45, of Forest, Ohio, and his 16-year-old son, Joe Kane,...

Arkansas police authorities have sent the bodies of two people killed in a Thursday gunbattle with police to the state crime lab for identification. They refused to discuss any details about their investigation of the events that left two West Memphis police officers dead and two other law enforcement officers wounded. “The Arkansas State Police is not confident of the identification that we have at this moment in time, as of 8:40 on Friday morning ," said spokesman Bill Sadler. "We are waiting for results from the state crime laboratory. We don’t play CSI around here. We want it right.”...

West Memphis, AR - Police are on the scene of a car explosion in West Memphis, AR. It happened this morning near Avalon and Cooper. We're told a prominent doctor got into his car when it exploded. He was airlifted to The MED for treatment in extreme critical condition.

LITTLE ROCK — A Crittenden County judge does not have the authority to call a special grand jury to investigate the shooting death by a police officer of a 12-year-old boy in West Memphis, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled today. Circuit Judge Victor Hill wanted a grand jury to investigate last year’s death of DeAunta Farrow. But special prosecutors handling the case objected, saying their investigation was still open and it was inappropriate for the circuit court to conduct its own probe simultaneously. The court agreed. “Under our superintending control, we cannot allow coordinate divisions of a single circuit to...

<p>A West Memphis police officer has been exonerated in the June shooting death of a 12-yearold boy, special prosecutors who investigated the case announced Tuesday at the Crittenden County Courthouse in Marion.</p> <p>H.G. Foster of Conway said after he and special prosecutor John “Jack” McQuary of Benton held a lengthy investigation and determined that DeAuntae Farrow was carrying a replica of a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol when he was shot, they found insufficient evidence to charge Sgt. Erik Sammis in the boy’s death. DeAuntae’s family has claimed that he was only carrying a bag of chips and a soda. Foster said in an interview Tuesday afternoon, however, that paramedics who tended to DeAuntae found the toy handgun underneath the boy’s body. “One of the paramedics found the gun when they rolled DeAuntae over and tried to do life-saving measures,” Foster said. “The paramedic actually called one of the officers over and told him an officer had dropped his gun.</p>