LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Police records have shown the woman who was arrested in connection to the tragic death of a child on Tuesday has had a ‘combative’ and ‘erratic’ history with police.
The following reports have been made in order:
On April 11, 2017 officers with the Little Rock Police Department were called for a disturbance. They spoke with Whitney Turner-Tyson who told officers her boyfriend took her keys and threatened to beat her up. She told officers she lets her boyfriend drive her car on occasion. Turner said she did not feel like her life was in any danger. Officers told her she would go and seek warrants for her boyfriend for Terroristic Threatening.
A couple of months later on June 9, 2017, officers responded to another residence regarding a disturbance. Once officers arrived they could see the caller (Turner’s new boyfriend) entangled with his girlfriend (Whitney Turner). Turner could be heard from the parking lot screaming obscenities and acting belligerently. Turner was asked by police to move away from the caller multiple times. Turner refused to cooperate with the police. While speaking to the police it seemed she was under the influence of narcotics or substances. Police had a feeling she had also been drinking due to the smell of intoxicants on her. Due to her being disorderly and uncooperative, police placed her in handcuffs. She continued her tirade of erratic behavior until she was put into the back of a patrol car. Police spoke to her boyfriend regarding the disturbance and saw he had scratches on him but he said they were self-inflicted. Police said her boyfriend did not want to cooperate with a domestic battery case. He did ask the police to take her away from his house at that time. Turner’s daughter was inside the house during the incident and she told officers it would be okay for her daughter to be taken to her grandmother’s house in Little Rock. Turner was then taken to Pulaski County Regional Jail. Police say Turner later was combative at the jail in which she was pepper-sprayed by deputies. She was charged with disorderly conduct, public intoxication, and obstruction of governmental operations.
On July 16, 2017 officers responded to a location regarding a criminal mischief call. Once officers arrived they made contact with the man in the first report. He was standing on the porch and seemed as if he was under the influence of narcotics. Police say he wasn’t making any sense and he was mumbling about Turner and then would trail off and forget what he was saying. The man seemed to be upset because he went looking for Turner after police left earlier on a different disturbance between them. The man told police Turner was across the street smoking crack with another guy. A while later Turner showed up while officers were still with the man. Officers said she seemed to be under the influence of narcotics. She told officers she was going inside to grab her daughter’s things to leave. Turner told police her daughter wasn’t living there and had been at her cousin’s house for a while. Turner grabbed her things and was taken to her cousin’s house. When she got there her cousin pulled an officer aside and wanted to speak with the officer in private. Her cousin told officers she has been taken care of Turner’s daughter for three months with no help. She also told officers she didn’t want Turner at her house if she was going to act out. She told officers Turner had been doing ‘Sherm’ (PCP). She told officers she wasn’t able to take care of Turner’s daughter financially anymore because she had her own children to take care of. Police asked if she wanted them to contact DHS, but she said no. Officers checked on the welfare of the children and they all had clean clothes on and looked well cared for.
On August 13, 2017 officers were called to the cousin’s house in reference to a disturbance. Once officers were on the scene they spoke with Turner who told officers she wanted to go to a shelter. Officers spoke with her cousin who told officers that Turner had been standing in front of her house refusing to leave. She also told police that she had allowed Turner to stay there in the past but because of her drug use, she thought it would be best if Turner left. Officers conducted a warrants check on Turner and found two failure to appear warrants out of both criminal and traffic court. Turner was then taken to Pulaski County Regional Jail.
Turner is now facing a capital murder charge in the death of a child on I-30. This comes after state police say the child was reportedly dropped from a moving car.
