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Fayetteville police officer ‘executed’ in parking lot

Fayetteville police officer ‘executed’ in parking lot

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FAYETTEVILLE — An Arkansas patrol officer was “ambushed and executed” while sitting in his cruiser at a police department parking lot, authorities said Sunday.

Police in Fayetteville identified the officer in a statement as Stephen Carr.

The shooting occurred shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday, the statement said. Two officers who heard gunfire in the parking lot responded and killed the gunman during a confrontation, police said.

The suspect, London Phillips, 35, was armed, police said. Carr and Phillips died at the scene, the statement said.

“Evidence shows that Officer Carr was ambushed and executed,” the statement said. It did not provide additional details. Carr had worked with the department for two-anda- half years, the statement said. He was assigned to patrol an entertainment district in the city of 85,000 near the Oklahoma state line.

The officers who killed Phillips were placed on administrative leave, per department policy, while local and federal authorities conduct an independent investigation, police said.

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Prosecutor drops out of Rebecca O’Donnell murder case without explanation

LITTLE ROCK — What was strange has gotten stranger in a high-profile murder case in northeastern Arkansas.

Without warning or explanation, the attorney prosecuting the death-penalty case of the woman accused of killing former state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith dropped out of the proceedings altogether this week.

The unexpected move comes a week after the judge in the case asked the state Supreme Court to replace him. Two weeks ago, the accused, Rebecca Lynn O’Donnell, was placed under strict jail segregation without legal justification.

And for months, the court has imposed a set of restrictions that have made it impossible for the public to understand what investigators have found and why O’Donnell was charged in the first place.

“Henry Boyce has moved to be relieved as Prosecuting Attorney,” according to a three-sentence order signed Wednesday by the new judge, John Fogleman. “The Motion for Withdrawal is hereby granted.”

Boyce’s assistant said the prosecutor had no comment.

Court officials said Boyce’s request to the judge was verbal, so no written record is available.

Lee Short, an attorney for O’Donnell, said, “The rules of professional conduct dictate when he must recuse. I trust that Mr. Boyce was following those guidelines when he made his decision.

The change in prosecuting attorney is not going to alter the defense.”

Collins-Smith, 57, a wellto- do businesswoman, was found dead at her Pocahontas, Arkansas, home on June 4. O’Donnell, 49, was her friend and employee and is now charged with capital murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence.

With all of the personnel changes, it is unclear how O’Donnell’s case will proceed. Prior to the moves of the last two weeks, O’Donnell’s next court appearance had been scheduled for Feb. 28, 2020, and the trial was tentatively set for next October.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A bank, a farm and a fallout shelter are among eight Tennessee sites recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Tennessee Historical Commission said in a news release Thursday that the eight properties have been deemed cultural resources worthy of preservation.

The Wooten Fallout Shelter in Memphis is one of the sites named to the register.

Historians say engineer and radio and founder of WREG-TV Hoyt Wooten designed and built the Cold War-era shelter in the backyard of his 27 acre home.

Built in the early 1960s, the shelter was designed to hold 65 people for a month if a nuclear bomb was dropped near Memphis. Rooms included a kitchen, male and female dormitories, recreation room, bathrooms, radio communication room, and a morgue.

The shelter is part of a gated community and it has been used as a community center.

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