Officer Killed, Woman Shot, Suspect Takes Own Life, Police Say

Saturday, March 24th 2007, 4:49 pm

By: News On 6

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) -- A Fort Smith, Arkansas, police officer is killed while helping a mother retrieve her child from a residence where she previously had a run-in with her ex-boyfriend.

Fort Smith police say 33-year-old officer Daniel C. Martinez, who had served as a police officer in Oklahoma before joining Fort Smith police last year, was shot in the head last night and 22-year-old Donna Stevens was shot in the back, shoulder and elbow.

Police Sergeant Jarrard Copeland says 26-year-old Richard Englebright, the suspect and the brother of Stevens' former boyfriend, fled from the home in a car and killed himself before Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers found him near the town of Spiro.

Martinez served for several years with the Poteau and Panama police departments in LeFlore County in Oklahoma before becoming police chief in Shady Point and taking the same job in Wister, both also in far eastern Oklahoma.

He joined the Fort Smith Police Department on July 3rd.