Police in Little Rock, Arkansas, reported that a man named Jerry Crutcher, aged 56, fatally shot a 66-year-old man named Charlie Williams with an arrow last Sunday in the victim’s apartment.
When the police arrived on the scene, they found Williams dead at 4:40 a.m. with the crossbow bolt still sticking out of him. During the incident, the police also found a second victim with an arrow wound.
The shooter, Crutcher, was taken into custody last Friday afternoon and charged with first-degree murder and second-degree battery. As of now, he is being held at the Pulaski County jail on a $500,000 cash bond.
Details regarding what triggered the attack have not been revealed by the police yet.
Other Cases of Crossbow Homicides in Arkansas
This is not the first crossbow homicide case in the state of Arkansas. In 2020, Clinton Young was arrested for shooting his 46-year-old girlfriend in the stomach with a crossbow bolt in Saline County.
And in 2015, 20-year-olds Jonathan Guenther and Brad Hunter Smith were charged with killing a 21-year-old pregnant woman named Cherrish Allbright by using a crossbow and beating her with a baseball bat in Cleveland County.
According to a study from Western Michigan University, there were at least 14 crossbow homicide cases in the US between 2015 and 2019.
Crossbow Bolts Can be Lethal
While crossbow bolts can be lethal, some people have survived being shot at, like Chinese resident Xiao Peng. In 2020, he was struck near the heart with an arrow but was able to survive the injury.