Arkansas officer fatally shot outside station; suspect dead

An Arkansas police officer was killed Saturday night outside a police department and the suspected shooter is dead, officials said.

The suspect was shot and killed by responding officers, the Fayetteville Police Department said in a release.

Officers inside the station heard gunshots at around 9:41 p.m., and found an officer shot in a parking lot, next to a cruiser. Officers then “chased and engaged the suspect a short distance away,” the release said. Police Chief Mike Reynolds specified at a media briefing that the suspect was chased into an alley between the police department and city prosecutor’s office.

Reynolds said he didn’t know of a motive.

“It appears the suspect came into the back parking lot and just executed my officer,” Reynolds said.

Emergency medical personnel responded to the scene, but both the officer and suspected shooter died of their injuries.

The names of the officer killed and suspect were not immediately released, and neither were the names of the officers who engaged the suspected shooter. The release said several law enforcement agencies would be involved in the investigation.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were to work the crime scene, Reynolds said.

The gunfire sparked a scare at the nearby city square, where a crowd was taking in the Lights of the Ozarks installation, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Police say there’s no threat to the public.