Former Oklahoma Officer Shot In Back Of Head

Wednesday, April 11th 2007, 2:34 pm

By: News On 6

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) _ A Fort Smith police officer, killed while helping a woman retrieve her child, was shot in the top of his head, according to the state medical examiner's office.

Police originally believed that Officer Daniel Martinez, 33, of Summerfield, Okla., was shot in the back of the head March 23 when he answered a call to help Donna Stevens retrieve her 3-year-old son from the residence of her estranged boyfriend, Bobby Englebright.

When the officer and Stevens, 22, approached the house, they were met at the front door by Englebright's brother, Richard Englebright, police say. Richard Englebright asked them to wait at the door, then returned with a gun and shot the officer and Stevens.

Sgt. Jarrard Copeland, a police spokesman, says that immediately before the shootings, Martinez received a call from a police radio clipped to his shirt and may have tilted his head down to respond to the call. He was shot at the hairline on the front top of his head and the bullet exited the back of his head.

Richard Englebright fled toward Arkoma and shot himself while in his vehicle after the Oklahoma Highway Patrol stopped him near Spiro, police say.

Stevens is recovering from her gunshot wounds. The night of the shooting, her son was placed in the care of a relative.

Martinez worked for several years in the Poteau and Panama police departments in LeFlore County and served as police chief in Shady Point and Wister.