LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Prosecutors said Friday that they aren't filing criminal charges in the case of a 107-year-old Arkansas man who died in a police standoff this year.
Special prosecutor Jason Barrett said Monroe Isadore was "seemingly confused" on Sept. 7, the day he shot at police in Pine Bluff. An officer returned fire and killed Isadore.
Police have said they tried using a camera, negotiating tactics and gas before shooting Isadore. But Isadore's death prompted questions from some in Pine Bluff, a community of about 50,000 people about 45 miles southeast of Little Rock.
Barrett and deputy special prosecutor Jack McQuary were appointed to handle the case after the county prosecutor sought to recuse himself.
"Mr. Isadore, for whatever reason, was seemingly confused on the day and basically when the police tried to make contact with him, he fired five individual rounds at various times at their attempts to make communication and ultimately at them personally," Barrett said Friday. "The last rounds that were fired were fired directly at individuals, who returned fire."
An officer involved in the shooting remains on paid leave, Pine Bluff police spokesman Lt. David Price said Friday.
According to a police report obtained earlier this year, Laurie Barlow told officers she had gone to the house where Isadore was living temporarily to help him move to a new home. She said Isadore previously had been excited about the move, but that when she arrived, Isadore barricaded himself in a room.
Police said Isadore's granddaughter eventually got him to open the door, but he pointed a gun at her.
Authorities said after officers moved Barlow and the granddaughter across the street, Isadore fired at a door. When negotiations failed, a SWAT team maneuvered a camera into the house to see how Isadore was armed. The team then stormed inside after deploying gas and a distraction device, the report said.
"There was an entry team at that point in time that was trying to enter the room and still, by the way, trying to end this without violence," Barrett said Friday. "But as they tried to enter the room, at that point in time, Mr. Isadore fired his weapon at them. They scattered, and only one individual was in a position where he was able to try to protect himself and the other members of his team."
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