Hope police arrested 18-year-old Freddie Adams III at 3:40 a.m. on September 18 after gunfire struck a home where a man was sleeping. Texarkana Today reports that a Wednesday court information formally charges Adams with a Class B felony count of terroristic act and two counts of theft by receiving a firearm.
Police were called to the area of Dairy and Allen streets after a report of shots fired, according to Texarkana Today. Investigators say bullets entered a house where a man was asleep in bed; one passed one to two feet above him. One round entered through the back of the house and exited the front door, while another passed through a shower wall and lodged in a bathroom wall.
The formal charges reported in Wednesday's information are a Class B felony count of terroristic act and two Class D felony counts of theft by receiving a firearm, according to Texarkana Today. Those charges should be distinguished from earlier booking descriptions: the outlet also described misdemeanor marijuana possession and a city ordinance violation for discharging a firearm inside city limits, while hopeprescott.com listed discharging a firearm in the city limits, terroristic act, theft by receiving and possession of a controlled substance, as well as a warrant for forgery in the first degree.
Shell Casings Scattered Across Two Scenes
Officers collected 14 9mm shell casings along roughly 50 feet of East Hickory Street, the report states, along with three additional 9mm casings near North Long and Oak streets. The scattered evidence pointed to gunfire at more than one location before police closed in on the North Long Street area.
A resident on Oak Street reported seeing a man dressed in black carrying what appeared to be a gun run into an abandoned house in the 1200 block of North Long Street, the outlet's report notes. That tip helped guide officers toward the trailer where Adams and a 14-year-old were ultimately found hiding, and the pair were arrested after coming out and lying on the floor.
Three Handguns, Two Reported Stolen
Underneath the trailer's back steps, officers found a green Glock 9mm fitted with a drum magazine, a black-and-silver Glock 9mm, and a black Glock .40-caliber pistol, the report states. The green Glock had been reported stolen to the Texarkana, Arkansas, Police Department, while the black-and-silver Glock had been reported stolen in Magnolia. A bag of marijuana was also found where Adams and the juvenile had been hiding, according to the same account.
According to the affidavit, officer Casey Singleton found that ammunition in the pistols' magazines was consistent with casings from both scenes. Singleton concluded that two people had been shooting at each other—one near East Hickory Street and Adams near Long and Oak streets—and that the shots that struck the house came from the Long Street shooter.
Adams's Account and Unresolved Questions
Adams told officers, making statements on his own and not in response to questioning per the affidavit, that he had been shot at from a white Buick and was running away. He also told officers he did not have a gun and had not been shooting, the report states.
A Pattern Seen Beyond Hope
Gunfire tearing through homes where people sleep has surfaced in other communities recently. In Cheatham County, Tennessee, a teenager is facing multiple charges after a drive-by shooting damaged a house with children inside, according to WKRN. In Hudson, North Carolina, a bullet struck near a couch where an infant had been sleeping, with no injuries reported, as detailed by WCNC; the Hickory Record reported that an 18-year-old was charged with giving the gun to the Caldwell County teenager.
What injury data can—and cannot—show
The CDC WISQARS NVDRS module covers fatal injuries, so it cannot count shootings that damage homes without causing a death. The verified information here does not provide recent Arkansas totals for firearm deaths or nonfatal firearm injuries, and this fatal-injury dataset cannot supply a count of nonfatal incidents.
Freddie Louis Adams III is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. No other person has been charged in connection with the case in circuit court records reviewed by Texarkana Today, and the full scope of the charges against Adams remains unsettled given the conflicting accounts from police and prosecutors.
