NEWPORT, Ark. (AP) – More than 1,000 mourners gathered on the campus of a northeast Arkansas university to memorialize a local police officer who was fatally shot earlier this week while investigating a vehicle break-in.Mourners filled an auditorium and overflow rooms Friday at Arkansas State University-Newport to pay tribute to 41-year-old Newport Police Lt. Patrick Weatherford.
Arkansas State Police say 18-year-old Tyler Calamese shot Weatherford on Monday as he investigated the break-in in Newport, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock. Weatherford died at a hospital that night.
Weatherford is the second Arkansas police officer to be killed in the line of duty this year.
Last month, Yell County Lt. Kevin Mainhart was fatally shot while making a traffic stop in rural western Arkansas.
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