Woman says SWAT team damaged home during search for shooting suspect

WYNNE, Ark. (KAIT/Gray News) - Arkansas State Police are investigating a fatal shooting that left one man dead on Tuesday.

A Wynne resident said her home was destroyed during the search for the suspect.

Police confirmed 34-year-old Javon Beal was shot and killed Tuesday near the intersection of C Street and Fitzhugh Circle in Wynne. Flowers now mark the spot where he was shot.

Wynne police received multiple calls around noon on Tuesday regarding the shooting. When officers arrived, they found Beal with gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital where he later died.

Grandester Johnson-El, a Wynne resident who lives down the road from the shooting scene, said Arkansas State Police destroyed her home while searching for a suspect who was never found inside.

“All they had to do was turn the knob, but they didn’t turn the knob,” Johnson-El said.

Johnson-El was working when she got a call that police were surrounding her home around 2 p.m.

“Somebody said that they seen him come through here, cut across the yard, could have went anywhere,” Johnson-El said. “I parked. The police all over there, guns, everything, but they just standing there.”

Johnson-El said police thought the shooter was in her home.

“But he was not here, and I kept telling them, ‘Don’t destroy my home because I need somewhere to lay my head,’” Johnson-El said.

Johnson-El waited hours. She said a SWAT team was called, people were evacuated and lights in the neighborhood were turned off.

“I ain’t had nothing to eat. All my medicine was on the inside. Couldn’t get it,” Johnson-El said.

Johnson-El waited at a nearby park for hours.

“I went over to my nephew’s house and it went, ‘Boom, boom, boom.’ Then you hear them on the bullhorn. It was lightning. ‘Come out with your hands up,’” Johnson-El said.

Johnson-El said she didn’t make it home until 3 a.m. the next day. She found it torn to pieces.

Windows were broken, walls were torn apart, debris was everywhere and tear gas canisters were stuck in surfaces.

“That smell, I couldn’t stay too long, but they destroyed my home,” Johnson-El said.

Johnson-El’s previous home was destroyed in the Wynne tornado in 2023. Her current home was built for her.

“When I moved here, when they gave me my home, keys to my home, everything came new. I didn’t have to buy nothing,” Johnson-El said.

Johnson-El said she has many questions, including who will pay for the damage and where will she sleep.

“I take it one day at a time. God blessed me and set me with something greater, but main thing is, I hate what they did. Only if they would have went in. That’s what they should have did,” Johnson-El said.

Johnson-El said her heart goes out to the family of the shooting victim.

“My heart goes out to everybody because I know how it feels to lose someone,” Johnson-El said.

Arkansas State Police have not identified a suspect in the shooting.

Beal’s body was sent to the state crime lab to determine a cause of death.

State police said more information will be provided as it becomes available.