By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
Damaged playground equipment turned deadly for a Hughes boy Saturday afternoon as he played with friends in a park near his home.
The St. Francis County Sheriff's Department reports Kevin Jamal Woods, 8, was found hanging from a swing hook about 2:45 p.m. in a park at Hughes Towers Apartments on Blackwood Street where he lived.
The boy's body was sent to the State Crime Lab for an autopsy, and although police are awaiting the autopsy results, SFCSD Chief Criminal Investigator Glenn Ramsey said the boy's death appears to have been an accident. "I can truthfully say that all indications at this point show that it is an accident a terrible accident," Ramsey said, adding that although several children and adults were in the area, police have not yet found an "actual eyewitness who saw him slip or fall."
According to Ramsey, the playground equipment was made of landscape timbers with one end attached to a box containing a slide and the other end was an A-frame that held the swings. However, part of the A-frame had broken, and although the swings had been removed, the hooks holding the swings remained.
"It had been that way for the last month or so. The kids would go up in the box and walk down that pole," Ramsey said. "It appears he slipped off, and the back of his shirt collar got hung on a swing hook and it killed him."
The sheriff's department was notified of the incident Saturday evening by officials at Crittenden Memorial Hospital in West Memphis where the boy had been taken by a private vehicle after his body was discovered by friends, ages six and seven, with whom he had been playing. Ramsey was told the boy was dead when he arrived at the hospital, according to the report.
The seven-year-old said he saw the victim hanging on the hook and thought he was playing like he was asleep, but when the younger boy could not wake him, he got scared and ran away. The six-year-old sought help from a group of adults who were standing in a nearby parking lot.
Ramsey said the investigation is continuing.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce will soon be looking for a new executive director.
Danny Ferguson, who has served in that capacity, is leaving at the end of March.
"We're going to replace him," said Chamber President Randy Pearson. "We've got a search committee in place, and we're going to figure out what we can afford to do, and figure out a job description and a new contract. We'll advertise to take applications or call around and talk to applicants and so forth like that. Just the basic way we got Danny."
He said there was no definite timetable.
"We already have an economic response team in place, in case we have visitors," he said.
"We're trying to get someone who will be an all around executive director, and we haven't brainstormed about it yet. But we're going to."
Pearson said there will probably be a meeting this week "to try to set some parameters on what kinds of qualifications will be needed."
Ferguson, who will also be leaving a seat in the state House of Representatives due to term limits, will be taking a job in the private sector.
Ferguson said he has always seen himself as a recruiter.
"I've always really enjoyed industrial recruiting," said Ferguson, who is also a former Forrest City mayor. He said when he first interviewed for the Chamber job, he made it clear that he wanted to focus on economic development and industrial recruitment.
Ferguson said he believed his position in the Legislature and his position with the local chamber complemented each other.
"I felt that it would be a plus for the community, keeping me in constant contact with state agencies," he said. "And of course, after I got on the Joint Budget Committee, I was in contact with every agency."
Ferguson, who has served almost five full years as the Chamber's executive director, said it has been an interesting time for Forrest City, and said that in the last 12-14 months there have been a lot of industrial prospects looking at Forrest City and the area.
He said there is a move towards a concept called "Crossroads Coalition," which would be an organized effort of several communities in a region. It means that industrials recruiters in each town would have an inventory of available facilities in all the other participating communities. He said people need to realize that while a plant right here might be good, a taken by a private vehicle after his body was discovered by friends, ages six and seven, with whom he had been playing. Ramsey was told the boy was dead when he arrived at the hospital, according to the report.
The seven-year-old said he saw the victim hanging on the hook and thought he was playing like he was asleep, but when the younger boy could not wake him, he got scared and ran away. The six-year-old sought help from a group of adults who were standing in a nearby parking lot.
Ramsey said the investigation is continuing.
By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
A former state senator who escaped jail time after an alcohol-related accident that killed a distant family relative may be in trouble with the law again.
Arkansas State Police are still investigating how a car with papers indicating that Bill Lewellen had rented it ended up in a ditch off Interstate 40 outside Forrest City.
Lewellen, who practices law in Marianna and is a lawyer in the Lake View School District case, apparently became angry when asked about the vehicle. According to an Associated Press story, Lewellen said someone ran the vehicle off the road, that he wasn't hurt and that no one else was injured. Lewellen would not say if he was driving the car of if he owned or rented it, but said he "paid for" the vehicle. "I don't owe no (expletive) explanation to anybody," Lewellen told the AP.
ASP Troop D in Forrest City received a call just before 9 p.m. Friday of a one-vehicle accident in the eastbound lane of Interstate 40 at the 237 mile marker, west of Forrest City. Trooper Franklin McMillion found the 2003 Hyundai Elantra owned by U-Save Auto Rental in Marion, overturned without a driver or passenger, and no witnesses, according to ASP spokesman Bill Sadler.
McMillion said this morning that he is still working on the accident report and preferred not to comment on the case until the investigation is completed sometime today. However, McMillion said charges likely would be filed.
In 1998, Lewellen was driving along Martin Luther King Street in Marianna when Sheila Bowers, 40, stepped off a curb and into the path of his vehicle. Witnesses at the time said Lewellen left the scene, saying he was going for help. However, there were cell phones in his car and telephones in the nearby residences.
After the accident, Lewellen was taken, at the request of state troopers, to the Marianna Police Department where officers were told to administer a breathalyzer test. However, Lewellen refused to take the breathalyzer. The trooper later charged him with DWI, leaving the scene of an accident and refusing to take a breathalyzer test.
In December that year, Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long Jr., said Lewellen would not be charged with negligent homicide in Bowers' death.
According to McMillion, alcohol was found inside the wrecked vehicle Friday night, but there were no open containers.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City Airport Commission will seek to extend the parallel taxiways in its first step towards meeting its master plan.
Although the plan itself is approved, engineer Dan Clinton told the commission on Monday that the Federal Aviation Administration still holds the purse strings, and wants to know in what order the improvements will be made.
After some discussion, it was agreed to go ahead with extending the taxiways north and south.
Other projects include widening the runway from 50 feet to 75 feet, and extending the runway.
The commission also heard a presentation from Darrel Phillips of Shell Aviation. Shell Aviation is offering to set up a 24-hour credit card gas pump at the airport. The airport failed in an attempt to get a grant from the FAA for a similar setup. The commissioners agreed to consider the proposal, which would not cost the airport anything. There was some concern that the airport should make some profit.
Another topic of conversation was an airport sign. Kathy Martin with Commercial Signs discussed the sign proposal with commissioners. The sign would be located at the entrance to the airport. No decision was made.
A 52-year-old Forrest City woman who walked away from a local residential care facility over the weekend was listed in good condition at The Med Center in Memphis this morning.
According to a report from the Forrest City Police Department, the woman was last seen at Forrest Hills Residential Care Facility on Friday around 3 p.m. Police reported the woman's caseworker questioned officials with the facility about the woman's whereabouts on Monday morning, which was when efforts were reportedly made to locate her.
The police report said that an employee of the facility walked in an area where he told police the woman normally walks and located her behind the Church of Christ on Lindauer Road, next to the building in a weeded area, lying on her back in a wash-out, cold and complaining of stomach pain. The woman was transported to the Med via Med Flight shortly after being found.
According to the report from the FCPD, officials with the State Attorney General's Office have been briefed on the activity surrounding the incident and have been faxed a copy of the incident report as well as statements and documents obtained from Forrest Hills Residential Care. In accordance with a state statute, the AG's office will now handle the investigation. No charges have been filed.
A Colt man was sentenced to prison Monday on a variety of drug charges stemming from two arrests last year.
John N. Brown, 38, of Colt, was arrested in March and August last year during separate traffic stops. Following each traffic stop, police officers obtained consent to search Brown's home for illegal drugs where they found items used in the manufacture and use of methamphetamine.
After the charges in each arrest were merged, Brown was given two sentences of five years each in the Arkansas Department of Corrections, but those sentences are scheduled to run concurrently.