Free Republic

LITTLE ROCK — The 19-year-old man charged in the Christmas Eve shooting death of a Salvation Army major pleaded guilty Friday to a murder charge and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Laquan Fitzpatrick was arrested March 16, nearly three months after the Dec. 24, 2009 killing of Philip Wise outside a Salvation Army community center in North Little Rock. Wise was shot in front of his three young children. Fitzpatrick entered the court shortly after 9:30 a.m. and told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims he understood his rights and was entering the plea. Sims accepted the agreed...

Arraignment today for teen in Yule killing Trial date scheduled in Salvation Army murder JOHN LYNCH ARDEMGAZ The teenager accused of gunning down a Salvation Army officer on Christmas Eve makes his first appearance today in Pulaski County Circuit Court to answer capital murder and aggravated robbery charges. Laquan Javaris Fitzpatrick, 19, who has addresses in Little Rock and Helena-West Helena, is to appear before Circuit Judge Barry Sims at 1:30 p.m. for arraignment on charges that carry the death penalty. The judge will also set trial dates for Fitzpatrick. Accused of killing Salvation Army Maj. Philip Wise on Dec....

Pastors, police plead for tip on NLR killing Salvation Army slaying reward at $10,000 JACOB QUINN SANDERS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Pastors, police and politicians begged and pleaded Monday for information about the unsolved Christmas Eve killing of a Salvation Army major in North Little Rock’s Baring Cross neighborhood. “I’m asking the community to start snitching,” said the Rev. Benny Johnson, founder of the Little Rock-based group Stop the Violence, during an afternoon news conference at the Salvation Army Corps and Community Center at 1505 W. 18th St. where Philip Wise was shot just after 4 p.m. on Dec. 24. The longer...

On Christmas Day, a Major with the Salvation Army taking his three children into the organization's community center in North Little Rock, was held up and shot to death (in what appears to be a botched robbery attempt). The Major and his children are white and the two perpetrators were black. Given what we know about how long it takes for racial wounds to heal, what's to say that these three young children (four, six, and eight) who witnessed the murder of their father become personally hostile to every black person they see, and who could really blame them?

‘Work is not done,’ widow says Wife of Salvation Army pastor speaks of prayer for his killer EVIN DEMIREL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Leading a Sunday service in the building where her husband was shot and killed in a Christmas Eve robbery attempt, Salvation Army Major Cindy Wise said her mission to minister to the people in North Little Rock’s Baring Cross neighborhood has not changed. “I believe I have peace today because I know the work is not done here yet,” Wise told nearly 50 people on Sunday. Standing before the congregation in her navy blue uniform, she said she will...