Wednesday, February 22, 2006

TOP STORY >> Suspect is arrested in weekend’s homicide

By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer

A suspect in Saturday’s deadly shooting at a Jacksonville apartment turned himself in to the Jacksonville police Tuesday.
Tavoris M. Bone, 25, of 3711 Henderson Road, came to the police station early Tuesday with his lawyer. Bone was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree criminal attempt to commit murder and is being held in the Pulaski County Jail.
The murder was the first of 2006 in Jacksonville.

The police were also talking to Shanga Ridgeway of Jacksonville as a “person of interest” in the shooting, but he was not charged with any crime as of late Tuesday.

According to police, the shooting occurred in the Manor House Apartments, Apt. 24, 1705 Redmond Road.
The dead man was identified as Anthony Parker, 20, of that address. A friend of his, who was also at the apartment, Cameo Simmons, was shot once below the ear and was alive when police responded.

Capt. Charles Jenkins, with the Jacksonville Police Department, called the wound to Simmons serious, but not life-threatening. He was transported to Rebsamen Medical Center and has since been released.

Police responded to the apartments, after a woman called 911 and said police “needed to get someone over on Redmond Road.” As police were trying to get an exact location from the caller, another call came in about a shooting at the apartments.
Police made contact with Sharonda Stevenson, of 213 Belluvue Circle, at the apartments, who said that two people were involved.

Although the murder is the first one of the year in Jacksonville, it is the second one in six months.

In October 2005, a 5-year-old girl died when a ocal man took her and others hostage in a Jacksonville apartment.
Howard Neal Jr., 23, was charged in December with capital murder, kidnapping and first-degree battery in the smothering death of the 5-year-old girl in October 2005.

Jasmine Peoples, the 5-year-old North Little Rock girl, was discovered dead under a pile of heavy furniture in a Jacksonville apartment after Jacksonville police ended an unsuccessful 45-minute negotiation by breaking into the home of Neal’s sister, Crystal Pickens, at 314 Elm St., and arresting him.

Peoples apparently suffocated, but it was unclear at the time whether it was accidental or on purpose. Neal also allegedly attacked Ronald Redden, 29, of Whatley Loop with a screwdriver during the incident. Redden escaped over a fence and across the railroad tracks, where he was discovered bleeding from the head and was transported to Rebsamen Medical Center and then airlifted to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, where he was treated and released.