Thread: Democratic Party Shooting In Arkansas.

Original Story.

Bill Gwatney, a well-known former Arkansas legislator, is slain in his Little Rock office. The gunman is later shot and killed by sheriff's deputies.

By Miguel Bustillo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5:05 PM PDT, August 13, 2008

A gunman shot and killed the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party at its Little Rock headquarters today.

The man authorities said was the gunman later died after being shot by sheriff's deputies after a 30-minute car chase. The motive for the shooting remained unclear.

Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney, a well-known former state legislator and a superdelegate in the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver, was in his office shortly before noon when a man walked into the Capitol Avenue headquarters and demanded to see him, authorities said.

When Gwatney's secretary refused to let him through, the man barged into Gwatney's office, introduced himself and brandished a handgun and shot the chairman several times in the upper body, authorities said.

The Little Rock Police Department announced Gwatney's death during a news conference at 4:30 p.m. local time.

"We do not have any indication that he knew Chairman Gwatney," Lt. Terry Hastings said. "There were no heated words."

After the shooting, Gwatney's secretary rushed across the street to the Frances Flower Shop and urged employees to call 911, store clerk Sarah Lee said.

The suspect "kept asking to see the chairman, and she tried to stall him, but he went past her and she heard three gunshots," Lee said of the secretary. "She was sitting here going over it in her mind -- he was a white man in a white shirt with khaki pants, middle-aged."

Lee said Gwatney, 48, was one of the flower shop's best customers, always ordering flowers when people died or were ill. "He's very nice, a very polished man," she said. "It's very sad to hear that something like this has happened to him."

Witnesses said a man fitting the description of the shooter also entered the Arkansas Baptist State Convention offices in downtown Little Rock, Executive Director Emil Turner said.

The Arkansas television station KTHV reported that the man was wielding a handgun and said to people in the Baptist Convention offices that he had recently lost his job. He pointed the weapon at a security guard but did not fire, the station said.

The gunman then seized a blue Dodge pickup, witnesses said. State and local authorities started chasing him. After he shot at sheriff's deputies in Grant County, just south of Little Rock, the deputies opened fire, hitting the suspect, police said.

The 50-year-old man was airlifted to a hospital and later died, police said. His name was not immediately released.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat and close friend of the party chairman, was flying to another area of Arkansas when he learned about the shooting. He returned to the capital and was at the hospital with Gwatney's family, said the governor's spokesman, Matt DeCample.

Gwatney, who was Beebe's finance chairman in 2006, represented the Jacksonville region in the state Senate for a decade. He also owned several car dealerships.

"Arkansas has lost a great son, and I have lost a great friend," Beebe said. "There is deep pain in Arkansas tonight because of the sheer number of people who knew, respected and loved Bill Gwatney."

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said Arkansas would grieve for Gwatney, who was known as a forceful advocate during his years in the Legislature.

"It is indeed a tragedy for not only the city but the entire state of Arkansas," Stodola said. "I know sometimes in these days and times we see these senseless tragedies. . . . I hope we can learn the facts of this."

Former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said their prayers were with Gwatney's family.

"We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away," the Clintons said in a statement. "His leadership and commitment to Arkansas and this country have always inspired us."