A kangaroo, with joey in her pouch, rests in a walk-through portion of the Wild Wilderness Safari in Gentry last week.

This week’s issue of the Eagle Observer is in mailboxes and in news racks today. Some items in this week’s issue include the following:

Included in this week’s issue are the following:

• Gentry man arrested for taping up 9-year-old girl;
• Renaissance Fair set Saturday;
• Springtown park plans approved;
• Old Settlers’ Day coming up on Saturday in Colcord, Okla.
• Wedding anniversaries;
• Obituaries;
• Weekly Devotion;
• Kids’ fishing derby set for Saturday at Crystal Lake;
• Council hears complaints on traffic, leaking sewage;
• Opinion pieces on camping, worship, hay making and more;
• Gravette senior center now wellness center;
• Summer reading programs;
• Fun run planned in Gentry;
• Ransom resigns from city post;
• Decatur kindergarten graduates.

A horse grazes in a sea of yellow wildflowers west of Gentry. Photo by Randy Moll

Gravette Police and other law enforcement officers stand by outside a Gravette home where a shooting allegedly occurred around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14.
Photo by Randy Moll

GRAVETTE – What was reported as a shooting in the 300 block of Dallas S.E. and a gunman at large ended as a botched burglary in which a man accidentally shot himself.

Oliver

According to a Benton County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, Deputy Keshia Guyll, Anthony Jacob Oliver, 25, of Gravette, was arrested late in the day on May 14 after being shot in the leg and transported and treated at Ozarks Community Hospital in Gravette.

According to Guyll, Oliver is being charged with filing a false police report, residential burglary, theft of property and communicating a false alarm following the reported shooting and manhunt. All the charges are felonies, according to Guyll.

Oliver is alleged to have burglarized a neighbor’s home and stolen some guns. While attempting to hide his stash, one of the guns went off, with a bullet striking Oliver in the leg. Oliver then allegedly filed the false report stating he was shot by a young man in his 20s with straggly blond hair.

Police responded to the scene and secured it so that medical personnel could transport Oliver to the hospital. Additional law enforcement officers came to assist, including the Benton County SWAT team, which searched a home and buildings for the alleged shooter.

Guyll

At 4 p.m., the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, through Guyll, released information that one man had been shot in the leg and police were searching for another. Later in the evening, Guyll updated her release to say that Oliver was now the suspect in the shooting and that he had been arrested and would be charged.

Because of the proximity of Gravette’s middle and elementary schools, schools were locked down until the SWAT team had conducted a search of the area. Officers then watched over children as they left the schools.

The Gravette Walmart Express was also reportedly locked down for a brief period of time. The public library also closed during the ordeal.

Benton County SWAT members approach a home to searched for an alleged gunman on May 14. Photo by Randy Moll

Donald Mayes is pictured at work in the blacksmith shop at the Tired Iron of the Ozarks showgrounds near Gentry a few years ago. Members honored his years of service to the club at this year’s spring show.

Members of the Tired Iron of the Ozarks and the Blacksmith’s Organization of Arkansas put on demonstrations of old engines, farm equipment and blacksmithing at the spring show last weekend. More photos will be available in tomorrow’s Westside Eagle Observer.

“The brief lock-down at the high school today resulted from a prank text from one student to another regarding another student bringing a gun to school.

“The high school administration acted quickly, in cooperation with the Gentry Police Department, to determine there was no actual danger to students.

“The students involved in the pranks face serious consequences for their reckless behavior.”

Gentry Police Department released the following earlier today:

Today, at approximately 1:30 p.m., Gentry High School officials, notified the Gentry Police Department that a student may be in possession of a gun.

Gentry Officers responded to the call, and school officials issued an immediate lock-down at that location. Police officers and school administrators quickly detained two male students, ages 14 and 15. A brief search turned up no weapons and the lock-down was lifted.

At this time, police and school officials believe the incident is a case of a “prank-gone-wrong” scenario and there was never an immediate physical threat to any of the school’s students or faculty members.

Parents were notified of the situation by school administrators via the school’s mass-emergency notification system. This scenario was handled quickly and efficiently through cooperative efforts between police and school officials and demonstrates the importance of emergency protocols.

The students, later, were released to the custody of their parents and are facing serious criminal charges for their actions.

Keith Smith
Chief of Police
Gentry

Water streamed behind the Apple Crest Bed and Breakfast Thursday morning and flowed over a portion of Dawnhill East Road after heavy rains in the early hours of the morning.

GENTRY – Balmy weather yesterday had the feel of severe weather coming, and tornado sirens sounded in Gentry during the wee hours this morning as a severe thunderstorm, with some rotation detected, passed south of the city, near Siloam Springs.

While no local damage has been reported from the storm, heavy rains, which continued throughout the early morning hours, caused localized flooding, making some road impassible and other spots risky to cross.

Water ran across Dawn Hill East and Dawn Hill Roads and appeared to be rising at the bridge over Flint Creek, just north of Ozark Adventist Academy. Water was up to the bottom of the bridge at 8:15 this morning and appeared to be rising. Water crossed the roadway to the north of the bridge, making the road hazardous for cars to cross.

Water ran across Dawnhill Road East just off of Arkansas Highway 59, and the corner of Pioneer Lane and Marion Lee Road was also turned into a shallow waterway.

With the possibility of additional rains today, flooding could become worse and motorists are advised to use caution when driving through low-lying areas and crossing creeks and rivers.

Temperatures also fell this morning with the arrival of the thunderstorms, with the current temperature being only in the upper 40s.

Article and photos by Randy Moll, managing editor of the Eagle Observer.

Water from Flint Creek overflowed its banks, was up against the bottom of the bridge at Ozark Adventist Academy and overflowed the road to the north of the bridge.

Notice how the leaves encircle and clasp the stem and flowers. This is henbit.

Henbit: Lamium amplexicaule

But, growing in the same yard or field, you may also find purple deadnettle (nettle without the sting). In fact, both were growing together in my yard. Deadnettle is also reported to be edible, but I haven’t tried either plant for taste or ill effects.

Notice the square-shaped stems and the leaves which are red near the top of the plant and which do not clasp and encircle the stem.

Purple or Red Deadnettle: Lamium purpureum