Rogers : Lawman healing, police ID 2 taken in
Posted on Sunday, October 22, 2006
ROGERS - Police on Saturday released the identities of two people who were arrested Friday after a Rogers police detective was shot in the leg during a drug search.
Jose Mora, 32, was arrested on charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and use or possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture methamphetamine.
His brother Ricardo Mora, 23, was arrested on a charge of failure to appear.
Both men, who weren't involved in the shooting, were in the Benton County jail Saturday and have holds on them from U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Rogers Police Chief Steve Helms.
A woman, whose name has not been released, was arrested Friday on charges in relation to the shooting of Rogers Cpl. Brian Culpepper, said Benton County sheriff's deputy Doug Gay.
Further details on her arrest were not available Saturday.
Culpepper remained in intensive care at St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers on Saturday, Rogers Police Chief Steve Helms said.
"He's conscious and alert and he's telling jokes and feeling good,"Helms said. "He's continuing to show miraculous improvement and has amazed the doctors."
Culpepper is expected to make a full recovery, and doctors said the bullet didn't hit any bones, Helms said. Fellow officers have rallied around Culpepper at the hospital, he said.
"He's a very well-respected officer and is very well-liked by his fellow officers and his supervisors,"Helms said. "This case just bring home that there is a lot of danger in what we do."
Culpepper, who has been with the department for more than seven years, was among a group of Rogers police and Benton County sheriff's office drug task force members serving a search warrant Friday afternoon at 703 E. Mimosa St. in Rogers.
The Arkansas State Police is investigating the shooting and will turn its findings over to Benton County Prosecutor Robin Green, spokesman Bill Sadler said Saturday.
There were four police officers and five to six deputies who served the warrant at the house.
Police had served a search warrant minutes earlier at a room at the Town and Country Inn on South Eighth Street in Rogers, Helms said.
"They served the search warrant at the motel and then went over to the house,"Helms said.
The shooting occurred after a woman inside the house started struggling with a sheriff 's deputy who had his gun out. The gun went off, with the shot hitting Culpepper.
Helms and Ferguson both declined to talk about what else happened inside the house because the incident is under investigation.
"We're still trying to figure out what happened,"Benton County Sheriff Keith Ferguson said Saturday.
The deputy whose weapon discharged has been given time off while the shooting is being investigated, Ferguson said. The deputy's identity has not been released.
"It's hard on [the deputy ] because they've worked together a long time,"Ferguson said. "It's hard on a lot of these guys because they never want anything like this to happen. Every hour [Culpepper ] gets better it's a good thing for all of us."
Benton County sheriff 's deputy Nate Atchinson used a shirt to apply pressure on Culpepper's wound until emergency workers got to the scene, Ferguson said.
"He lost a lot of blood, and the doctor said he wouldn't have made it had it not been for what the deputy did,"Ferguson said.
"When Rogers Fire Department got there, they took over applying pressure until they could get him to the hospital."
Helms said there were two women in the house and some children. The children of the woman not arrested were taken to other family members, he said. The arrested woman's children were taken into protective custody while she was taken to jail, Helms said. Helms didn't know how those women were related to the Jose and Ricardo Mora.
To contact this reporter: sfitzgerald@arkansasonline. com
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