Two Sebastian County Officers Shot in an Apparent Ambush
[UPDATED August 11, 2016 9:30 a.m.]
Sebastian County deputy Bill Cooper has died from the injuries sustained in a shooting with Greenwood, Arkansas suspect Billy Jones.
According to law enforcement, Jones was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning when the police were called to his home for a family disturbance. When they arrived they found Jones wearing a ballistics vest and pointing a rifle at them.
Jones started shooting at officers around 7:15 a.m. and Cooper was shot around 7:40 a.m., Hollenbeck said. A few minutes later, Hackett Police Chief Darrell Spells was grazed by a bullet, law enforcement said.
“Immediately when three officers got [to the house] they were basically ambushed,” Sgt. Daniel Grubbs with the Fort Smith Police Department said. “The information we have received right now is it appears this guy was waiting for us to get here. It seems [he had] full intent to inflict violence against us.”
It appears the officers who were shot were unable to move from their positions for a long period of time while officers made it safe for them to be removed by EMS.
Jones eventually surrendered to authorities around 11:45 a.m., he waved a white towel out the window, walked out of the home with his hands up, and laid down on the ground to be handcuffed, authorities at the scene said.
[UPDATED August 10, 2016 12:30 p.m.]
Officers in Greenwood, Arkansas were able to negotiate a peaceful ending to an almost 4-hours long standoff between police and Billy Jones, suspect in the shooting that wounded 1 officer and critically injured another.
At approximately 11:45, Jones came out of the house he had barricaded himself in with his hands in the air. Officers immediately took him into custody.
Officers from neighboring counties as well as Arkansas State Police and SWAT teams were brought in for negotiations after Jones used a semi-automatic weapon to shoot at a robot police sent towards the house to check out the house.
The officers who were wounded in the shooting have been identified as a Sebastian County deputy Bill Cooper and Hackett Police Chief Darrell Spells. Spells has been released from the hospital and Cooper remains in the ICU following surgery this morning.
Original story below.
At least two law enforcement officers were shot by a man on Wednesday in Sebastian County, Arkansas according to the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office.
The suspect has been identified as Billy Jones of Greenwood by officers and city leaders.
Authorities have confirmed Jones has barricaded himself inside a home where officers are trying to negotiate with Jones.
The injured officers were called to Highway 253 and Boone Road around 7:15 a.m. to respond to a family disturbance when they were shot.
Both officers were taken to Sparks Hospital in Fort Smith. The Sebastian County deputy is in critical condition, said Van Buren Detective Jonathan Wear. Chief Spells is also being treated at the hospital, however his condition is still unknown. Both officers are currently in surgery.
The Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Smith Police, Greenwood Police and Arkansas State Police are all responding to the shooting.
Officers searched Jones in a wooded, rural area between Greenwood and Hackett, before discovering he was inside the home. Two helicopters were also deployed to search for the suspect, who is still on the loose. Johnson County Emergency Management all terrain vehicles were also brought in.
Sebastian County’s Philip Pevehouse said Jones is not being cooperative and is carrying a semi-automatic weapon.