On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at approximately 6:40 p.m., the Sherwood Police Department requested assistance from Arkansas State Police as they pursued a fleeing suspect on Interstate 40.After locating the suspect, who was driving a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, an ASP Trooper joined the pursuit. When the suspect failed to stop, he deployed a tactical vehicle intervention. The suspect’s vehicle exited the interstate and then traveled down an embankment, where it came to a final rest in a grassy area adjacent to the I-40 eastbound on-ramp from Prothro Junction.
The suspect, later identified as Marquez Smart, 26, was found in the vehicle with a gunshot wound to the head and holding a pistol. ASP’s Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the incident. Preliminary findings were that no officers involved in the incident discharged their weapons.
Smart was transported to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, where the Medical Examiner’s preliminary finding was that Smart’s cause of death was gunshot wound of the head and the manner of death was suicide.
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