Northwest Arkansas can rest easily. But, no, it isn’t a good idea to walk around.
Area law enforcement got the word that a prison escapee from Michigan might be in the area. Adam Lee Leadford, 18, got out of one of those boot camps for relatively young, relatively nondangerous offenders. Leadford last April (so he then might have been 17) was convicted of “resisting and obstructing police, malicious destruction of a building, 11 counts intentional damage to a school bus, and breaking or entering.” So, we have a determined vandal. Area law enforcement won’t say whether he was armed when they dinged him inside of the Springdale Wal-Mart, but a witness said he dropped a gun — at the entrance. The hospital listed him in guarded condition.
That was Tuesday around 6 p.m. Twelve hours earlier, a state trooper shot and killed a man walking along a few miles west of Springdale on U.S. 412 after he apparently refused orders to show his hands. He was suspected of being the vandal Leadford, as the good citizen who reported him said, “Young white guy, bald head. It was him.” His identity remains unknown.
Oh, here’s the first-day article and as reported elsewhere.
Leadford most certainly was a thug. He was suspected of having stolen vehicles. His shooting followed a high-speed chase.
Inspired by Sunday’s Oscars, we finally rented a DVD of Crash. It’s different here. That was Los Angeles.
