A newly released dashcam video shows a dramatic police chase on Interstate 40 that ended in a deadly shooting on May 21.
Arkansas State Police completed the investigation and turned the findings over to prosecutors, including the following footage that was part of the inquiry.
In the video, we see a West Memphis police car going in pursuit of a black fourth-generation Nissan Altima after receiving reports that it was driven by a runaway shoplifter. Ronald Clinton, 46, was allegedly seen shoplifting from a Mid-South Walmart at around 5 p.m. on May 21, after which he left the store in the Altima and headed for I-40.
The police officers spotted him and tried to pull him over, but he did not stop and started speeding. At one point the police car follows the Altima at 123 mph (198 km/h), but it was only when two additional police vehicles joined the chase that the officers managed to slow him down by boxing him in.
However, that wasn’t enough to stop the alleged shoplifter, who managed a lucky escape out of the box of police cruisers and then drove in the wrong direction down I-40. It was at that moment that one officer fired off five shots at Clinton, later explaining he opened fire because the evader tried to run into him.
Clinton then crashed into a truck, with a coroner later determining he died from a single gunshot to the chest. No officers were injured in the pursuit and the policeman who shot the suspect dead was cleared by the Arkansas State Police.