The wreath and flowers were placed carefully outside Lois Hicks’ apartment.
Hicks, 87, had lived at the complex for a long time. She was always friendly; always had a smile on her face.
“She was like an angel. She was a real sweet lady,” her neighbor Ron Gatling said.
Gatling added that Hicks was a good neighbor.
“She’s going to be missed,” Gatling said.
Police said Zachary Arnold, 26, shot Hicks in her home Saturday morning in an apartment complex in the 3500 block of South 74th Street. Arnold also lived at the apartment complex.
Arnold was armed with a semi-automatic rifle and after he shot Hicks, police said he continued to shoot at neighboring apartments.
Kris Jossi, who lives at the complex, told the Times Record that Arnold was shouting for people to exit their apartments.
Then another resident retrieved a hunting rifle and shot and killed Arnold. The resident who shot Arnold has not been named by police as of Tuesday.
Property Manager Cherre Miller said that after the shooting, the tenants formed a committee and decide to honor the resident who shot Arnold with a plaque remembering his actions, “just to show him how grateful we are.”
“If he had not done that, we don’t know how many people could’ve died,” Miller said.
Arkansas updated its stand-your ground rule in March when Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law a measure easing the state’s restrictions on the use of deadly force in self-defense. Any potential charges against the man who shot Arnold would be up to the Sebastian County Prosecutor, a Fort Smith Police spokesman said. The case is still under investigation. The case file is still being created to deliver to the prosecutor’s office, the police spokesman added.
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