Police officers in the US state of Arkansas are engaged in a standoff with a gunman who is suspected of shooting two cops.
The suspect, identified as a 34-year-old man named Billy Monroe Jones, barricaded himself inside a home in Greenwood after shooting two police officers on Wednesday morning.
The victims included Hackett Chief of Police Darrell Spells and an unknown Sebastian County deputy who was in critical condition.
Police negotiators have entered the home where Jones was hiding. Family members inside the house were safely evacuated.
Local media described Jones (pictured below) as a convicted felon who has animosity towards law enforcement.
Police found his hideout after an hour-long manhunt. Multiple law enforcement agencies are reportedly engaged in the negotiation.
According to Sebastian County Investigator Philip Pevehouse , Jones is not being cooperative and is armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
The suspect’s prior offenses include a 2007 conviction for manufacture and possession of a controlled substance and a 2011 conviction for theft of property. In February, he was charged with possession of firearms.
In a separate incident, the New York Police Department (NYPD) reported a fatal shooting in the Bronx on Wednesday.
The shooter yanked an officer’s handgun from his holster and used it to kill a Bronx bodega worker during a late-night dispute over $2.
The suspect, identified as Efrain Guzman, fired 15 rounds from the NYPD-issued weapon before getting shot and wounded by the disarmed cop’s partner.
Apparently, Guzman lost his temper when his sales pitch for a cell phone charger was turned down by the clerk who told him to leave the store.
According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), firearms are the cause of death for more than 33,000 people in America each year, a number that includes accidental discharge, murder, and suicides. – Press TV.
