Authorities say police officers have shot and killed a handcuffed Arkansas parolee who fired at them from inside a patrol car.
It happened Tuesday night in Cabot, 25 miles northeast of Little Rock, after officers with the state Department of Community Correction and Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office detained 35-year-old Jonathan McIntosh for suspected drug possession.
ADCC Deputy Director Dina Tyler says officers patted down the suspect, then placed him in a Lonoke Sheriff’s Office patrol car while they went to look for a second suspect. She says the officers then returned to the police cruiser to question McIntosh further.
"When they opened the door, his hands were still cuffed, but they were in front of him, not in back, and he was firing at them from a small pistol." She says officers, two from the ADCC and one from the Lonoke Sheriff’s Office returned fire, killing McIntosh. None of the officers were injured.
At this point, Tyler says authorities don’t know how McIntosh had the weapon after being detained.
"That is the big question. How did McIntosh get the gun? Where was it?"
The Arkansas State Police department is now handling that part of the investigation.
"There are a bunch of theories going on now," Tyler said. "Was the search (of McIntosh) through enough or did someone walk up to that patrol car and drop the gun to him through an open window. Right now we don’t know. All we know is that he had it, he was using it and he was shooting at our officers."
Tyler says McIntosh had been on parole since last September and until Tuesday night had been doing well. She said he was employed, was checking in regularly with his parole officer as required and had been passing drug tests. If that had continued, she says McIntosh would have been discharged from the system on July 2.
