Death of inmate at Cummins Unit being investigated by Arkansas State Police
GOULD — The Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the death of Cummins Unit inmate Dionte Gurley, 31, at the request of the Arkansas Division of Correction.
ADC staff responded to reports of a disturbance around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and found Gurley and another inmate in a physical altercation. Gurley was pronounced deceased approximately 30 minutes later after being taken to the unit’s infirmary.
Gurley was serving a 12-year sentence for aggravated robbery from Arkansas County.
The Lincoln County Coroner’s Office was to transfer his body to the state Crime Lab to determine the cause and manner of death. The investigation is ongoing.
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New Arkansas legislative directory released by grassroots coalition
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Citizens First Congress released an essential tool for Arkasnans wishing to advocate with their state lawmakers. The new directory for the AR Legislature is now available to download for free on the Citizens First Congress website: http://www.citizensfirst. org/2025-arleg-directory.
“What makes our directory unique is that it not only contains contact info for each Arkansas legislator, but it also has a map of the membership of each legislative committee with their contact information embedded right in the map,” said Kymara Seals, Policy Director of the Citizens First Congress. “So if there’s a bill you’re concerned about going to the Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee – for example – you can quickly see who is on the committee, where they are from and how to contact them. This helps you identify who else you know in those key districts – as local calls are what moves lawmakers more than nearly anything else.”
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Vilonia man charged with 7 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder shootout with
Searcy police
SEARCY — AVilonia 53year-old fired “multiple shots” at Searcy officers Tuesday night after driving recklessly through yards and getting stuck in a field, resulting in officers returning fire and a chemical agent being used to get him to surrender, according to Lt.
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Todd Wells, public information officer for the Searcy Police Department.
Three officers were placed on administrative leave per department policy pending a review of the use of force by the 17th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Neither the suspect, Scott Wayne Stracener, nor any officers were injured in the gunfire exchange, Wells said, which happened after officers responded around 6:45 p.m. to “the area of” Arkansas Highway 267 and Adams Lane for a reckless driver call. “The caller stated that the person was driving through yards in an erratic manner and eventually got stuck in a small field,” Wells said. “An officer located the truck and attempted to make contact with the driver. The driver rolled a window down and told the officer that he had a gun to his head and then asked the officer several times if he ‘wanted to die tonight.’” Wells said the officer “backed away from the vehicle and waited for additional units to arrive. After additional officers arrived, they started yelling commands for the driver to exit the vehicle.
After several minutes of yelling commands, the driver fired multiple shots at the officers.”
The officers returned fired and gave more commands to Stracener, but received “no cooperation from the driver,” so Searcy’s Special Response Team was brought in to “extract” him, Wells said. “A chemical agent was fired into the truck, causing the driver to surrender.”
Stracener was initially placed “on a 72-hour medical hold with charges pending upon his release,” Wells said Wednesday morning. By that afternoon, he had been booked on seven counts of class Y felony criminal attempt to commit murder and three counts of class D felony first-degree terroristic threatening. He remained in the White County jail on Thursday morning.
