BRYANT, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas police officer was shot and wounded Monday night while checking on a reportedly suicidal man who fired a shotgun through a door at responding officers. The man was later killed by police.
Police responded to a call of a suicidal person at an apartment complex in Bryant, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) southwest of Little Rock. The Bryant Police Department said the man opened fire on the officers when they arrived, striking one of them.
Other officers returned fire when the man came out of the apartment holding a shotgun and refused to drop it, Arkansas State Police said. The man, identified by state police as 24-year-old Austin Chase Swindle, was killed.
The injured officer was airlifted to a Little Rock hospital, where she was in stable condition Tuesday, authorities said. Bryant Police Sgt. Todd Crowson told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette the shooting occurred just outside The Greens at Hurricane Creek apartment complex.
“You hate to see this happen to anybody,” Crowson said. “Prayers go out to all involved, and we are hoping for a speedy recovery for her.”
The shooting comes less than three weeks after a Fayetteville, Arkansas, police officer was shot and killed while sitting in a patrol car outside police headquarters.
