A reader asked:

Do you remember the robbery of the young male near the Capital Hotel one night during Riverfest? He was walking west on Markham looking at his phone when a group of guys took his phone and gave him some scrapes and bruises when he tried to get it back. He said they asked, “What are you going to do, white boy?”. Capitol Hotel security had to intervene. The victim said he saw a police officer near and asked the officer why the officer did not intervene. The officer supposedly said, “I’m off duty”.

Terry Hastings said there would be an investigation because officers are supposed to help even if off duty. It’s been almost 3 months and there’s no word on this “investigation.”

I asked Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings. His response:

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We found nothing. None of our officers were working off duty in the area. The victim could not provide a good enough description of the person. Dead end for now.

UPDATE: Lt. Hastings checked back in Tuesday afternoon. He said he’d learned that, when the man sought help from Capital Hotel security, he’d pointed out a police officer nearby making an arrest. Hastings said the security guard told the man he was an off-duty police officer and didn’t know if he could respond. The guard never made contact with the officer, Hastings said. But it wasn’t the police officer who said he was off-duty. A call was made to the police from the hotel and officers eventually take a statement from the victim.

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