The State Police have identified two other victims in the shootings in Yell County yesterday that included the slaying of Lt. Kevin Mainhart, a Yell County sheriff’s deputy.
Details are still scarce about how the shooting developed and how a hostage situation was resolved. Mainhart was killed in a traffic stop responding to a domestic disturbance that apparently had included the shooting of the other two victims.
He holed up in a house with a hostage, believed to be his girlfriend, and finally surrendered without incident after about five hours. He talked with relatives on the phone during that period and the woman also apparently communicated via social media.
The State Police release:
Arkansas State Crime Laboratory authorities and Special Agents of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division have identified two gunshot victims discovered yesterday (Thursday, May 11, 2017) outside 12084 Gum Springs Road west of Dardanelle.
Rita Miller, 61, and Ciera Miller, 17, were allegedly shot by James Arthur Bowden, 42, of Dardanelle. Both women were Yell County residents. Their deaths followed a law enforcement traffic stop along State Highway 27 where Bowden allegedly killed Yell County Sheriff’s Deputy, Lieutenant Kevin C. Mainhart.
During a five-hour stand-off with state troopers and local law enforcement officers along Gum Springs Road, Bowden had been holding one hostage who has been identified as Haley McHam, 31, of Yell County.
At this juncture the Arkansas State Police does not anticipate any further news release during the course of the investigation.
The relationship between the dead women, Bowden and the woman who was with him are not clear at this point. Bowden has been jailed on murder charges.
Photo and video coverage on the River Valley Leader Facebook page of the procession of police vehicles that accompanied a hearse bearing Mainhart’s body back following an autopsy in Little Rock. People lined streets in several locations to pay respects to the fallen officer.