Suspect in NC kidnapping dies after police rescue 14-year-old girl, Arkansas cops say
A man accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from North Carolina died Sunday in Arkansas, police say.
On Saturday night, two officers from Lonoke, Arkansas, spotted a Dodge SUV believed to be connected with the kidnapping in a McDonald’s parking lot, according to a news release from Arkansas State Police. The officers, who saw two people inside the car, ordered the driver, 38-year-old William Robert Ice of Pennsylvania, to get out.
When he did, he began shooting at the officers, critically injuring one of them, the release says. Ice then drove off as the other officer “returned gunfire.”
An Arkansas state trooper saw the vehicle leaving the parking lot and chased it until it “became disabled in a snowbank” at which point the 14-year-old ran from the car before being “secured by a state trooper,” police say.
“Inside the SUV, the trooper found Ice critically injured from what preliminarily appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the release says.
Ice died at a Little Rock hospital Sunday, officials say. The injured officer is in stable condition.
Investigators later identified the teen “as the victim in a child abduction case,” police say.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina began investigating the case on Feb. 11 after the teen was reported missing from her home, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Richie Simmons said during a Monday news conference streamed live by WXII that the teen was reported missing after she “didn’t pick up her younger sibling at the bus stop.”
Investigators learned that Ice had been communicating online with the victim and other girls in Alamance County.
Officials said during the Monday news conference that they found the names and addresses of two 13-year-olds in Alamance County after a search of Ice’s home.
After investigators interviewed the teens and took their computers, they discovered Ice had been communicating with 10 children through multiple websites.
Officials later discovered Ice had taken the teen from her home on Feb. 11, the release says. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office then issued warrants for Ice for first-degree kidnapping and “soliciting a child by computer.”
Evidence from several agencies pointed officers to the area in Arkansas where officers later found Ice and the girl, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office says.
The teen was to be brought back to North Carolina on Sunday, Arkansas officials say.
Ice, whose cause of death has not been determined, was also wanted in “connection with other child predator cases” by Pennsylvania authorities, according to the release.
Officials said Monday he had been charged for “crimes against a child” and accused of being involved in an “exploitation sting” by law enforcement in the area.
McClatchy News is not identifying the victim because she’s a minor.
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Suspect in NC kidnapping dies after police rescue 14-year-old girl, Arkansas cops say."
