Fort Smith, AR- Police Officer Shot/LODD 03-23-07

[Truck4 48]

Date: 03-23-07

Time: 2130hrs

Location:

Departments: Fort Smith Police, Arkansas State Police, Oklahoma State Police

Description: Fort Smith P.O. Daniel Martinez shot in the head and killed by suspect while assisting a female after a domestic. Suspect fled into Oklahoma and shot himself in the head when found by State Police.

Writer: Truck4

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) - A Fort Smith police officer was killed while helping a mother retrieve her child from a residence where she previously had a run in with her ex-boyfriend.

Officer Daniel C. Martinez, 33, who had served as a police officer in Oklahoma for many years before joining Fort Smith police last year, was shot in the head Friday evening and Donna Stevens, 22, was shot in the back, shoulder and elbow, police spokesman Sgt. Jarrard Copeland said in a news release Saturday.

Richard Englebright, 26, the suspect and the brother of Stevens' former boyfriend, fled from the home in a car and killed himself before Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers found him near Spiro, Okla., Copeland said.

Martinez was taken to Sparks Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Stevens, who was shot as she was running from the residence, was taken to Saint Edward's Hospital before being air lifted to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock.

Copeland said Stevens and her ex-boyfriend, Bobby Englebright, 24, had had a dispute earlier Friday at the residence and he was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and battery. He was jailed in the Sebastian County Jail, Copeland said.

About 9:24 p.m. that same day, Martinez was dispatched to the home to help Stevens, who had asked for an officer to accompany her while she picked up her baby. Martinez met Stevens in a parking lot next to the residence, and they walked to the front door.

Richard Englebright came to the door, told them to wait a minute, then shut the door, Copeland said. Englebright then returned with a 9MM handgun and shot the police officer, then shot Stevens, Copeland said. Richard Englebright fled in a black Dodge Neon toward Arkoma, Okla.

Copeland did not say whether the child was in the home.

Martinez had served for several years with the Poteau and Panama police departments in LeFlore County in Oklahoma before becoming police chief in Shady Point and taking the same job in Wister, both also in far eastern Oklahoma. He joined the Fort Smith Police Department on July 3.