On the early morning of Wednesday, March 27, a Little Rock guy was shot in the parking lot of the Hillary Clinton Children's Library. An internal e-mail sent by the Central Arkansas Library System to staff members the next day revealed that the shooter appeared to be the man's 11-year-old son.

The email explained the scene in this manner:

A little before 9am Wednesday, 2 kids and an adult remained in a parked automobile on the lot at Children's Library waiting for the library to open, when a weapon inside the cars and truck was fired, striking the grownup..

This boy had been driving the lorry when it pulled up. He and a more youthful woman came into the library and asked that someone call 9-1-1 and the young boy mentioned that he had shot his father.

The dad, Ahmad Waheed, survived after being taken to UAMS. He faces criminal charges for what took place on March 27. So does his child, according to a police report and an affidavit for Waheed's arrest warrant, dated April 3. The 11-year-old young boy was charged with first-degree domestic battery and possession of a handgun by a small..

Cops and court records paint a grim picture of the family conditions that led to the shooting..
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Waheed, 43, has a long criminal history that includes domestic violence, assault and years of substance abuse. As a felon, he was disallowed from lawfully owning a gun, however that did not avoid him from having a crammed gun in the cars and truck on March 27.

Logs of 911 calls from the family home expose that Waheed's unpredictable, worrying habits prompted his young son to call for assistance several times..
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Little Rock Police Department reports over the previous 2 years include at least 5 circumstances where officers got in touch with the Arkansas Department of Human Services about the children and at least 2 times where DHS took the kids away from Waheed because December 2022..

But on the morning of the shooting, Waheed appears to have been the sole adult accountable for his 11-year-old kid and 7-year-old daughter. The young boy later on informed police that when "his dad is high, he makes him drive the car," according to the police report for the March 27 shooting..
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Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones stated he was unable to comment on his workplace's decision to charge Waheed's child or whether the charges were still being pursued. "All the juvenile charging decisions are sealed by law," he stated.

John Wesley Hall, a criminal defense attorney in Little Rock, said that juvenile court is much less punitive than adult criminal court and can be a way of providing services to at-risk kids. "Maybe it's for the sake of requiring some sort of psychological treatment," Hall said upon being told the details of the case by the Arkansas Times. "The kid's going to have trauma from this.".
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Based upon the scenarios, the opportunities of the young boy going to prison were "slim to none," Hall said. "This has all the marks of being a mishap.".

However because juvenile records aren't publicly readily available, there's no chance to tell what has become of his case.
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March 27

It's unclear why Waheed's 2 kids weren't in school that morning. The household's car, a 2003 green Ford Expedition, was in the library car park before the 9 a.m. opening..

A lady who existed with her 2-year-old grandchild informed a 911 dispatcher the 11-year-old young boy was excited and upset to get assist for his dad. The kid can be heard in the audio recording of the 911 call stating the shooting was an accident..

According to an affidavit for Waheed's arrest warrant, cops got here on the scene at 9:02 a.m. and found Waheed "inside a Ford SUV with an evident gunshot injury to the upper body." After administering medical attention, detectives "situated the juvenile kid of Mr. Waheed, [name redacted], and took him into custody and situated a pistol in his best front pocket.". A cops report states the young boy informed officers that his father was "high up on sherm again" and that he knows when his dad is high since he "will begin stammering and not making sense.".
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Instead, the bullet hit his father in the "left side of his chest near the bottom of his underarm," according to the report. His sister was in the rear seat of the vehicle at the time. He likewise told officers that he did not suggest to shoot his daddy and hopes he is Okay, the report says.

" Detectives check out [redacted] his juvenile Miranda Rights in the existence of his grandma, Judy Billings," the affidavit reads. Both kids were transferred to the Little Rock Police 12th Street Station. From there, Billings "took custody" of Waheed's daughter and cops got in touch with the on-call district attorney to carry the young boy to juvenile consumption..

The affidavit states all physical proof indicate Waheed being "in the passenger seat while the lorry was in movement and after the incident." The young boy informed authorities that "he was driving the vehicle due to his father driving unpredictably while on narcotics.".

" Ahmad enabled his [11] -year-old child to drive the household through the city of Little Rock," the document says.

A history of violence

Cops reports recommend Waheed is a regular substance abuser whose bizarre behavior has actually kept him on law enforcement's radar. Two cops reports from 2021 and 2022 explain separate instances where Waheed was discovered standing naked in the middle of crossways. Court records show he's formerly been charged with felonies including aggravated attack on a family or family member, 3rd degree domestic battery and a DWI.

In 2018, Waheed assaulted Sharhonda Vurger, consistently punching her in the arm while she was getting dialysis. He said, "I'm helping you die quicker and doing you a favor," according to a police report. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette covered the incident at the time.

Vurger died in 2019. According to her obituary, she was the mom of Waheed's two children.

When their father was in trouble, authorities reports from current years consist of numerous accounts of law enforcement looking for aid for the children. We understand Little Rock police contacted DHS in December 2022, after an event at the Arkansas Dream Center, a nonprofit Christian childcare center in Little Rock. Witnesses mentioned they saw Waheed grab his daughter-- who would have been 5 or 6 at the time-- and lie on top of her, preventing her from breathing. A DHS employee reacted to the scene and took custody of Waheed's kids.

By February 2023, though, the children were apparently back with Waheed. A report from that month states DHS "took custody of the children for the time being" after Waheed stopped working to select them up from the Dream.

A month later on, he as soon as again had the children: LRPD officers responded to a 911 call from Waheed's kid in March 2023. In the incident report, Waheed's boy, 10 years old at the time, informed officers that his daddy was "attempting to cut off his own penis" in the bathroom. An ambulance took Waheed to a medical facility, and officers filed a report with the state kid abuse hotline.

A July 2023 cops report details an event where Waheed misplaced his children after using drugs, triggering police when again to file a report with the child abuse hotline.

A report from December 2023 explains police reacting to a call at Waheed's address and finding him "speaking incoherently," triggering them to take his kids, who informed officers their dad was "high off something." The kids were taken to stay with their grandma, Billings, and cops submitted another child abuse report..

Billings has actually likewise made efforts to separate Waheed and his kids. 2 days after the March 27 shooting, she filed a petition for an order of protection from Waheed on behalf of her grandchildren to avoid any more contact. Billings stated in the petition that he has "lost the kids typically" and "uses PCP all the time." Billings did not appear in court for a hearing on the petition, though, and it was dismissed.

Billings declined to comment for this story.

As a result of the March 27 shooting, LRPD detained Waheed on May 9 on two felony counts of endangering the welfare of a minor. On the same day, a Little Rock district judge issued a no-contact order forbiding Waheed from contacting his kids. As of June 12, a trial date had not been set.

DHS policy is to stay closed-lipped about all kid well-being cases, so there's no way to know why the kids stayed in the custody of their struggling dad in spite of years of reports to authorities and DHS.

DHS spokesperson Gavin Lesnick said he could not speak about a specific case, but shared that in basic, the Division of Children and Family Services works closely with law enforcement agencies. DCFS is the area of DHS that deals with kid welfare cases and the foster care system.

" When the cops or DCFS get a report of kid overlook, abuse, or abandonment, they must examine. DCFS can get rid of the child if they feel a kid is in imminent threat. When the kid is put into foster care there are a series of court hearings that assist the next actions related to reunification. DCFS positions the kid with a suitable and safe relative or in an authorized foster home," Lesnick said.

From there, DCFS works with the household to make sure the home is safe before children can return, he stated..

" Even though reunification of the family is the goal, the court might choose that it is not best for a child to return to his/her family. When this happens, DCFS will assist a kid discover a permanent household with a relative, fictive kin, or adoptive family, or to live separately if she or he is old enough. A lot of kids who get in foster care return home to their households," he stated.

Austin Gelder, Benjamin Hardy and Mary Hennigan added to this story..