The Twenty-Third Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney has ruled that three Arkansas State Police troopers were justified in the fatal shooting of a Michigan man wanted for armed carjacking and kidnapping.
Prosecutor Chuck Graham announced Monday that the June 11 shooting of 33-year-old Felipe Millan-Gomez of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was lawful and in line with Arkansas self-defense statutes.
Troopers and U.S. Marshals attempted to stop Millan-Gomez’s vehicle around 1:30 p.m. on Interstate 40 eastbound near Carlisle. Millan-Gomez was wanted in connection with a June 9 incident in Manistee County, Michigan, where authorities say he threatened a woman at gunpoint, forced her to drive, and then stole her car.
According to investigators, Millan-Gomez exited his vehicle during the Arkansas traffic stop, retrieved a firearm, and pointed it toward officers. Troopers opened fire, striking him. He died at the scene.
The Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division conducted a review of the shooting and forwarded its findings to the Lonoke County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
“The Troopers reasonably believed that Felipe Millan-Gomez posed a deadly threat by retrieving a firearm and aiming it at them,” Graham said in a letter dated Aug. 18. “Therefore, their use of deadly force was fully justified under Arkansas law regarding self-defense.”
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