Jefferson County JP recovering after club shooting

PINE BLUFF — A Jefferson County justice of the peace is recovering in a Little Rock hospital after being shot in the face early Sunday morning outside a downtown Pine Bluff nightclub.

Lloyd Franklin II, 34, a Pine Bluff resident who represents District 5 on the Quorum Court, was in the club when a fight broke out and moved outdoors where multiple shots were fired.

Jefferson County Judge Dutch King said Monday afternoon that he had spoken with Franklin’s parents, who reported that their son was in good condition.

“He is due for a little surgery [Tuesday], but he is going to be OK,” King said. “It’s certainly a blessing that he came through this all right. The good Lord is watching after him.”

According to a report issued Sunday by the Pine Bluff Police Department, officers were told by two witnesses that they broke up a fight just before 2 a.m. inside a club at 212 E. Fourth Ave.

The fight continued outside, and a witness told police that he discharged pepper spray to “control the crowd,” then shut the club doors to “protect everyone inside” from caustic fumes, according to the report.

A short time later, the witness said he heard “about 20 to 25 gunshots,” then saw Franklin — covered in blood and holding his face — running toward him, according to the report.

The witness said he saw a white car at Third Avenue and Chestnut Street “when

he heard several more shots being fired,” according to the report.

Franklin was transported to the Jefferson Regional Medical Center by private vehicle, then later was transferred to a Little Rock hospital.

Police are investigating the fight and shooting.

The club was the location of an earlier altercation involving Antonio Jenkins, 23, who was taken home by family members and found unresponsive Sunday morning on a couch at a house on Florida Street, according to authorities.

Jenkins’ body was taken to the state Crime Laboratory for an autopsy. Police have not said whether the two incidents are connected.

Pine Bluff is no stranger to nightclub violence.

Walter Ashley Jr., 38, died after being shot in the chest just after 3 a.m. outside the III Gables nightclub on Reinhardt Road in November 2011. Two other men were shot but survived. The club has since closed. Earlier this year, Franklin spoke before the Pine Bluff City Council against a proposed ordinance that would have required clubs to close at 1 a.m. instead of 5 a.m., saying the measure would financially hurt the small establishments’ owners.

Police and Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth pushed for the law — which failed in a 6-2 City Council vote Aug. 5 — because they said the number of police calls spike 200 percent between 2 and 6 a.m. on weekends.

According to statistics provided in August by the Pine Bluff Police Department, there had been 728 police calls to nightclub addresses since 2010.

Franklin addressed his displeasure with the proposed ordinance in advance of opening his own club, telling aldermen that they were “putting on a show of smoke and mirrors” with statistics related to the nightclub calls.

He said in August that some calls, such as one for reckless driving in March outside a club on University Avenue, are “assigned to club addresses but have nothing to do with the clubs themselves.”

Franklin added that “there is no reasonable proof that clubs are contributing to crime in this city.”