Posted on 11/15/2007 8:22:29 AM PST by DCBryan1
LITTLE ROCK — A North Little Rock man died early Wednesday, hours after he and his stepfather were shot during a robbery at the home where the stepfather sold soft drinks, snacks and Avon products.
A police officer, who had been dispatched to “a robbery in progress,” was already on the scene when the shots were fired about 7:30 p.m. inside the small white house at 1903 W. Long 17th St.
Shawn Bisbee, 30, was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock, then transferred to Baptist Health in Little Rock. He died at 5:05 a.m.
Bisbee’s stepfather, 53-yearold David Rogers, was taken to Baptist Health in Little Rock, where he was in good condition Wednesday.
Just before the shooting, someone had called 911 to report a robbery in progress, said Sgt. Terry Kuykendall, a spokesman for the North Little Rock Police Department. Thecall was then disconnected, he said. He declined to say who made the call.
An officer arrived at the house in time to hear the gunshots, Kuykendall said.
A man who lives next door, who asked not to be identified, said he had gone out to his porch to smoke a cigarette when he saw the officer get out of a patrol car on the street.
The officer went behind Rogers’ house. The neighbor, who by then had been joined by his wife,
then heard somebody shout “No!”
“Then we heard pop, pop, pop,” the man said.
The neighbor said he saw three men all dressed in black run out of the house and down the street. One of them had dropped a semiautomatic handgun outside Rogers’ house.
The neighbor then saw Rogers step outside, covered in blood.
“He said, ‘I’ve been shot. ... Call 911,’” the neighbor said.
The officer who arrived first had been waiting for backup, Kuykendall said. If shots had not been fired, the police would have surrounded the house before trying to enter or contact someone inside, he said.
“As a police officer, you cannot help someone if you yourself get shot or killed,” Kuykendall said.
On the house’s front door, small handmade signs announce the name of the business - Candyland - and its hours - 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“Only two customers in the store at a time. No exceptions,” another sign says. Still another says, “No smoking.”
The couple next door saidRogers sells Avon products, as well as sodas and snacks that he buys at Sam’s Club. Last weekend, he had set out a table to sell Avon in the front yard.
Bisbee, the neighbors said, was mentally “slow” but cheerful and outgoing. He visited nearly every day, usually wearing a baseball cap turned sideways, the neighbors said. The woman said she talked to Bisbee earlier Tuesday and he was “just as silly as he could be.”
“You couldn’t help but smile when you saw him,” she said. She said her family’s house was broken into and ransacked about three weeks ago. Now they plan to put bars over their windows.
Down the street, at the clubhouse of the Road Baron motorcycle club, Jody Hill said the shooting was “typical” forthe neighborhood, where many of the houses are empty and boarded up. In the 1700 block of Crutcher Street, around the corner from Rogers’ house, a man was shot and killed in the street just over a year ago. In August, the North Little Rock Special Weapons and Tactics team arrested a man on a domestic-battery charge after a three-hour standoff.
The clubhouse, where Hill lives, was broken into the same day as the break-in at Rogers’ next-door neighbors’ house.
“My pistol’s on the coffee table,” said Hill, 63. “I keep it handy.”
The shooting brought the number of homicides in North Little Rock this year to 13, the same number the city had during all of last year. Last year at this time, the city had had 12 homicides.
This article was published Thursday, November 15, 2007. Arkansas, Pages 11, 13 on 11/15/2007
If he was mentally handicapped then it probably isn’t a good idea.
I think this is the first time that I have ever disagreed with one of your comments.
He runs a small enterprise. He is cheerful and friendly. He was a threat to no one and wouldn’t have been one even with a gun in his hands — except to the perp who killed him because he couldn’t defend himself.
Maybe if I knew the man personally I would agree but for safety sake I will say that I don’t want people who are mentally handicapped to be armed with firearms. Especially someone who doesn’t have regular access to a coach and a range.
I always assume that the bad guys have guns and don’t want the good guys to be restricted and unable to protect themselves.
This is a man who, like any other, has access to knives and baseball bats and other every day items that can be used to harm others, but he didn’t. Don’t buy into the grabber argument that guns are the problem — even if it sounds ‘reasonable’.
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