Posted on 07/16/2012 2:49:57 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
INDEPENDENCE COUNTY, AR (KAIT) – The Independence County Sheriff's Department's Criminal Investigations Division is investigating the death of a teenage inmate who is accused of stabbing a Paragould 18-year-old.
The sheriff's department said the 16-year-old died shortly after Juvenile Detention Center employees found him hanging at the detention center around 9:30 p.m. July 13. The teen was taken to the White River Medical Center in Batesville and then airlifted to the Children's Hospital in Little Rock before being pronounced dead by the Pulaski County Coroner's Office at 3:22 a.m. July 14.
According to Paragould Police, the teen was accused of stabbing to death Nicholas Zurosky, who police say died from a number of injuries July 12. Officers have also arrested 28-year-old Jennifer Dickson, 18-year-old Hunter Glasgow, and a "juvenile female" for hindering apprehension.
Paragould Police said they were called around 12:30 Thursday afternoon in regards to a stabbing at 906 Alice Street. When officers arrived, they found Zurosky dead.
Police said the stabbing does have a connection to the shooting death of 18-year-old Lisa Steele at the same address July 6. That shooting death remains under investigation, and Zurosky is thought to be of significance in that case.
Police said all investigations are ongoing, and Greene County Coroner Dick Pace said an autopsy is planned for Zurosky.
Independence County Sheriff' Deputies sent the teen, who was found in the Juvenile Detention Facility, to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in Little Rock pending an autopsy per state requirements of any death that took place inside a jail and prison.
The Sheriff's Department said the death is being investigated as a suicide at the time, but no other information is being released in the teen's death due to his being a juvenile.
After the stabbing and shooting, people along Alice St. were left asking themselves what was going on in their community.
Joyce Booth has lived in the Alice St. neighborhood for nearly two decades. Region 8 News asked her what kind of neighborhood it was and what kind of people lived there.
"Mostly, I think it is working people. We have a few houses on this street that are renters," She said.
Booth said she can't recall anything more than a few car break-ins in the area.
"I can't remember anything seriously, nothing in comparison to what's just happened."
Corporal Brad Snyder, with the Paragould Police Department, added that this is not a problem neighborhood.
"We'll get a call periodically, it could be anything from barking dogs to a disturbance like that. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not a problematic repetitive place."
Paragould is like most towns in America it has its good and bad points, but Booth says she doesn't feel safe anymore, anywhere.
"Not really, No, they's too much going on. Maybe not exactly here but all over town you know," Booth added. "I had my doubts it will ever get back to the way it was when I moved here. I moved into this house 17 years ago."
"I don't think we're immune like anybody else," included Snyder. "We're all in the same boat basically."
Nicholas Zurosky stabbed to death. 16 year old a suspect.
16 year old found hanging from a sheet in juvenile detention.
And his life of crime was just getting started....
I think the writing of this piece could have been greatly improved if the writer was capable of composing an outline like yours for the story.
Sounds like a typical revenge killing. I suspect some policeman told the 16 year old that he would be tried as an adult and spend the rest of his life in prison, or be executed. Trying to get information out of him.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the authorities could not state whether the decedent was alone in the cell when he died. Perhaps not just one revenge killing.
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