By Chelsea Boozer
Writer
Pine Bluff police released a report late Sunday night about a shootout Saturday between a SWAT team and a 107-year-old man that left the man dead.
Monroe Isadore was killed after he fired a handgun at SWAT officers, who were called in after Isadore had fired on other officers. The police report did not include details on the SWAT shooting.
"We aren't commenting until the prosecutor's office investigates it," Interim Police Chief Jeff Hubanks said during a phone call Sunday. "We are going to get our detective division to get a case file to them as soon as humanly possible. From there,it's on their time."
According to the report, police were summoned to 1411 W. 16th Ave. at 4:26 p.m. in reference to a domestic disturbance.
"Three victims reported they had been aggressed by a gentleman with a handgun," Hubanks said.
The report said that Laurie Barlow told police she had gone to the house to pick up Isadore and take him to a new home. He initially locked himself in a bedroom but after being talked into opening the door, pointed a gun at Barlow and told her to "stop breaking into my house," the report said.
Police negotiated with Isadore for hours before entering the residence, at which point Isadore shot through the bedroom door, according to the report.
According to a Saturday news release from the police, a SWAT team then arrived and gassed the bedroom in an effort to force Isadore to surrender, but that prompted the man to fire more rounds at SWAT officers. The team threw a distraction device into the room, but Isadore fired again. The officers fired back this time, striking and killing Isadore.
According to Chelisa Canada, who lives across from the house where the shooting took place, Isadore wasn't a permanent resident at the house, but had been there only a few days after he either left or was kicked out of his own home.
Pauline Lewis lives at the 16th Avenue address and was one of the assault victims Saturday, according to Canada. Canada said Lewis' granddaughter, who also stays at the home, told her that Isadore became hostile because Barlow had arrived to take him home and he didn't want to leave. Lewis is staying with family in Little Rock for now, Canada said.
Hubanks would not comment on why Isadore fired at police and refused to surrender.
"I saw a lot of police cars and the woman on the bullhorn," Canada said of the negotiation attempts. "The police were trying to get the man to come outside. She said he had a handgun. He had already shot before they came. They tried like, I'd say about three or four hours trying to get him to come out of the house. And that's when the SWAT team came and they threw gas up in there. They went in on him. I heard four shots, which was the man's shots. After he got through shooting, that's when they shot him."
She questioned whether police acted properly during the fatal standoff, suggesting that officers should have waited until Isadore ran out of bullets and then gone inafter him.
Police have not said how many officers were involved in the shooting and will not release the names of those officers until an internal investigation and the prosecuting attorney's investigation are complete.