Shots fired on Pershing and abduction report result in multistate search, but no charges

A report of a possible abduction and shots fired Wednesday evening in Poplar Bluff led authorities on a multistate search for a woman and her possible kidnapper.

The woman and man, both of whom were from Memphis, Tennessee or West Memphis, Arkansas, were found together in her car in Arkansas, officials say. She reported to authorities she was fine, according to Poplar Bluff Police Lt. Josh Stewart.

The department had received a report nearly three hours earlier at 5:45 p.m., about shots being fired, Stewart said.

Officers arrived in the area of the 600 block of Pershing Street, where they were contacted by multiple subjects, Stewart said.

“These subjects advised that the female in question was at the residence when a vehicle arrived with three black males,” Stewart explained. “One of the males exited the vehicle, barges into the house, assaulted the female, then drug her to her car.”

The man, Stewart said, was supposed to have had a gun with him, but “I don’t know that he was pointing it at her.”

As the vehicle the men arrived in and the woman’s vehicle began to leave the area, “one of them fired four or five shots,” Stewart said.

The “suspect,” according to Stewart, was identified by the other people present at the residence.

“We began attempting to track him,” said Stewart, who indicated authorities believed he was heading back to Memphis or West Memphis.

As officers tracked the man, “we were updating agencies between here and there,” said Stewart.

Those agencies, he said, included the Arkansas State Police, as well as “the counties and municipalities down here.”

The man and woman were located between Truman and Marked Tree, Arkansas, according to Stewart.

“The female said she was fine and had not called police,” said Stewart. “ … Information indicates that the suspect and female may be in a relationship, and she fled the abusive relationship to Poplar Bluff.”

Since the woman told authorities she was fine and had not been abducted, Stewart said, they had no reason to “hold our suspect without her cooperation.”

No arrests were made and no firearm was located, he said.