KARK Photo at Democratic headquarters

Arkansas State Democratic Party Chair Bill Gwatney was fatally wounded at State Democratic Party Headquarters on Capitol Avenue about 11:50 a.m. today.

The suspected shooter was also fatally wounded in a shootout with police after a 30-mile chase into adjoining Grant County, a Little Rock police spokesman said. He has now been identified as Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, of Searcy. A sister who lives in Sheridan identified him, police said.

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Johnson (pictured) had no prior police record, according to the Little Rock police and a motive was still unknown. “This is one of those where we may never know,” said Police Lt. Terry Hastings.

Immediately after the shooting, police sources said they were working to confirm tentative information that the suspect was a former employee of a Gwatney car dealership. The Little Rock police said, however, at an afternoon news conference that the shooter, whom they did not identify, was NOT a Gwatney employee and, so far as they knew, never had been, contrary to some reports mentioned here earlier in the day. Hastings said they hoped to learn from family more about Johnson’s background.

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It developed later that Johnson had left his job earlier in the day at a Target store in Conway after an incident involving angry grafffiti he had scrawled on store walls. See his photo and a brief update here.

According to one source, information gathered about Johnson indicated he’d exhibited erratic behavior at least one other time in the past. He reportedly made an irate visit to a dentist a year or so ago, but later returned to apologize. But his neighbors in Searcy said he’d been a quiet neighbor and unremarkable while living alone in the home of his late parents.

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— Brian Chilson photo

Gwatney, 48, was taken from the scene in an ambulance and it was believed from the first that his condition was dire.   Police spokesman Terry Hastings (shown at crime scene briefing shortly after the shooting) said that he’d been shot three times in the upper body.  At 2 p.m., friends with the Gwatney family at the hospital told friends he was still in surgery. Friends say doctors were struggling to keep him stable because of the severity of the wounds.

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His death was officially announced at a police news conference originally scheduled for 4 p.m. After delaying the news conference for about a half hour, police announced that Gwatney was pronounced dead at 3:59.

The shooter had entered the party office and asked to see the party chairman. By one account, he said he was interested in volunteering. He walked past a worker who tried to stop him and the shots were heard shortly after.  The man ran out and drove off.

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We learned later that Gwatney, who doesn’t keep regular office hours at the party, had stopped by to sign some checks. He was with Mariah Hatta, the party executive director. She told a friend that she’d heard some noise outside and a man mentioning something about White County. He entered Gwatney’s office, shook his hand and then started firing. Hatta ran from the office after the first shot was fired and sought help at the nearby office of the Family Council.

At a briefing less than an hour after the shooting, police said the shooter left in a blue Dodge Dakota pickup. There was some initial conflict about whether the shooter changed vehicles, but those reports seem  likely to have been the product of early confusion. A chase of a blue Dodge Dakota pickup ensued minutes later and it ended in Sheridan, where police say the suspect was shot and taken into custody.

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Shots were fired at the suspect as the chase neared Sheridan, with county deputies, State Police and city police in pursuit. The chase was brought to a conclusion by driving tactics — a PIT maneuver – that forced the suspect’s pickup off the road near Highway 46 and Little Creek Cutoff.

After the car ran into a field near the Winston Clinic, on the northern edge of Sheridan, there was an exchange of gunfire between police and the suspect. The man was alive when he was airlifted from the scene, but Lt. Terry Hastings of the LRPD said he died later at a hospital.

At a Sheridan news conference, State Police described a chase of roughly 30 minutes and 30 miles that ended in the suspect’s fatal wounding. State Police on the Pine Bluff freeway got news of the wanted vehicle at 12:06 p.m. and spotted it at Dixon Road a few minutes later. They gave chase and followed when the driver took the turnoff to Sheridan.

Before it was over, four LR police cars, three state cruisers and Grant County deputies joined the chase. Five miles north of Sheridan, the suspect evaded a spiked puncture strip and roadblock. He was forced into a ditch near Sheridan, but kept driving. Sheridan police began shooting to disable the car, but, even with flattened tires, he kept driving on Little Creek Cutoff to its intersection with Highway 46. Finally, after multiple rammings by three police cars, as shots were being exchanged, the pickup came to a stop. The police say the suspect came out of his car with gun drawn and officers opened fire, finally mortally wounding him. That brought the chase to an end about 30 minutes after it began. Multiple weapons were seized, including a revolver, rifle and semi-automatic weapon.

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Officers had established a tentative identification of the man they were chasing, but were withholding it until confirmation. State Police wouldn’t discuss the man at their Sheridan news conference. Little Rock police said little more at their 4 p.m. briefing.

A Democratic Party office worker made the 911 call from a florist shop next door. She was heard to tell the police dispatch: “Help, our chairman’s been shot.”

The shooter was described in the phone call as a white man in his 40s, with whitish hair and wearing khaki pants.

Police  picked up the shooter’s trail because he threatened someone with a gun nearby not long after Gwatney was shot. A man with a gun confronted an employee in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention office building a few blocks east of Democratic headquarters around noon and said he’d lost his job. This was minutes after the shooting, police said. He pointed the gun, but didn’t shoot. He fled in a vehicle, a blue Dodge Dakota pickup, whose description was reported to police. That description led to the police chase.

Gwatney, a former state senator, was an executive in a car dealership group, a business in which employment changes are not uncommon. Rumors immediately arose that the shooter might have been a disgruntled former employee of a Gwatney dealership. But police were firm Wednesday afternoon in saying there was no connection between the man and a dealership.

Though the suspect, Johnson, had a sister in Sheridan, police said they had no idea if his drive in that direction was related or only coincidental.

Gov. Mike Beebe was en route by plane to Northwest Arkansas when the shooting occurred. He got word and returned to Little Rock. He was with the Gwatney family at UAMS. The scene grew crowded with media, family, politicians and others awaiting word on the progress of extensive surgery,

Under the Dome, Rep. Steve Harrelson’s blog, reported that the Capitol was in “lockdown” after the shooting.

KATV reported that Republican Party workers at their headquarters on Sixth Street, just two blocks away, were sent home early out of what an official said was “an abundance of caution.” Police gave no indication that the shooting was the work of anyone other than the man stopped in Sheridan.

Statements came from politicians and others who knew Gwatney — Barack Obama, Bill Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, among others.

The Pulaski County Democratic Women will hold a prayer vigil for Gwatney at 6 p.m. Thursday on the Capitol steps. The public is welcome.

Arkansas Business has an obituary here, including a tribute from Gov. Beebe.

John Williams, David Koon and Bob Lancaster contributed to the report.

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