March 30 1981
West Fork Police Chief Paul Mueller died in a shootout with
Rodney Lovell Britton and
Billy Gale Henry on US 71 Highway approximately 1/2 mile
south of its intersection with Arkansas Highway 170 in
Washington County Arkansas. There is much about this story
that few people know and I think it is time to give a detailed
accounting as I was the lead investigator of the homicide
investigation but first I think a brief introduction about how I
came to be the lead investigator is in order.
Leadership is more about what people think you can do than what
you can actually do. One must sell the ideal then once
they have the "deal" they must figure out how to deliver.
That is how business is done in this world and I learned that
early as I began my law enforcement career straight out of the
US Air Force. None of my Air Force duties pertained to Law
Enforcement. Before my discharge I had become interested
in Law Enforcement mostly because of Efrem Zimbalist Jr and the
TV show "The
FBI" and Karla Malden and Michael Douglas and the popular "Streets
of San Francisco". My last 18 months in the Air Force,
a good friend had discharged and he was an Air Force Security
Police Officer who became an Alma Arkansas City Patrolman and
when I would visit my hometown I would do "ride alongs" with
him. My last year in the Air Force I became a
license Arkansas Private Investigator. I wasn't
certain I would discharge but I want to have an exit strategy
just in case. I made up my mind in December 1975 when the
Air Force gave me orders for a 13 month tour in Turkey which was
a very dangerous place in that time so I chose to discharge and
I had so much leave saved up that the Air Force paid me half and
I took the remainder as terminal leave. My discharge date
was March 20 1976 but I signed out and was basically out of the
Air Force January 31 1976. Two weeks later I was employed
by the Washington Country Sheriff's Department as a
deep undercover Deputy Sheriff, not
because I had any experience as a undercover, I didn't even
apply for that job, the Sheriff offered it to me and I accepted
not sure I could do it but I dam sure was going to try.
That is what leaders do, they try even if they think they might
fail.
Deep undercover meant I had no ID, no badge, and the only people
allowed to know was my wife, the Sheriff, his Chief
Investigator, his secretary, Fayetteville Judge Robert Wells,
and a trusted Fayetteville Police Detective. Should I be
arrested I was instructed to call Sparky Spencer a local bonds
man and tell him to contact Sheriff Herb Marshall. I
sometimes lived and slept among the drug dealers and users and I
was allowed to carry a weapon so I often had two, a Browning 9mm
that I carried without a holster in the back of my jeans and
slept with it under my pillow when I was in sleeping in the
"danger zone" and a S&W .38 Airweight that I wore in an ankle
holster and I practiced often with these weapons, both drawing
them and shooting them because I wanted to do it automatically
and without thought should I come face to face with sudden
death. I had no official police training, I had only my
wits to keep me alive. It wasn't uncommon for me to find
myself doing a drug deal with some very dangerous people in a
car at Lake Elmdale or some other isolated place. I have
never been one to brag so no one knows this story I am about to
tell and until I created this page in 2011 I pretty much kept it
all to but my law enforcement career wasn't like the average law
enforcement officer, I started out on the ground running
and never seemed to stop.
Almost 8 months later when I came out from
undercover I soon attended the Arkansas Law Enforcement
Academy and after spending a few weeks in patrol I was assigned
to the Criminal Investigation Division where in addition to my
investigation duties I was soon off to New York to be trained to
became a Voice Analysis Examiner (lie detection). I self
taught myself with the help of Lt Gordon Brack photography.
He gave me the chance to also process my own film and make
prints, something I learned to do as a teen from an ad in a
comic book. I taught myself how to pick locks a skill that
saved many doors during my law enforcement career and I suppose
it was my initiative that soon got me promoted to Sergeant and
for a brief time in 1980 I was transferred from CID to be the
Day Shift Patrol Sergeant with the occasional reassignment back
to CID when my expertise was needed during homicides. I
learned my skills as a homicide investigator from Sheriff Herb
Marshall who I consider to be the best investigator I have very
known but he was defeated in the 1980 election and in January
1981 Sheriff Bud Dennis took office and he asked me to me to
move to nights and be his "Night Commander" for a few months
until Bill Brooks and Clint Hutchins came on board February 1.
On the recommendation of Special Agent Dick O'Connell of the FBI
I was to transfer to head the Washington County Criminal
Investigation Division by spring because he wanted to give
Brooks and Hutchins some time to settle in but this transfer
came sooner than Sheriff Dennis desired when the current CID
head determined a death to be accidental due to a fall but after
the body arrived at the funeral home a bullet wound was
discovered. That became my first day back in CID and
barely six week later I would be called upon to investigate the
largest and most important homicide of my career, the Capital
Murder of West Fork Police Chief
Paul Hermon Mueller.
I suppose everyone has a single moment in their life that
defines their entire life. Paul was someone I knew, I felt
a connection to him, working as the "Night Commander" for the
Sheriff's Department I had many interactions with Chief Mueller
who also worked mostly nights. I knew his young wife,
daughter, and son. I had a young wife and two young sons
so what happened to Paul, could happen to me. We were
brother's bonded by the badge and when I got that late night
call and was told that Paul Mueller had been shot on a roadside
stop and Sheriff Dennis wanted me to head the investigation, I
felt very unqualified to do it. If they had asked for
volunteers, I wonder if anyone would have stepped up to have
such a burden put upon them but my US Air Force training kicked
in. If I didn't do it, and didn't do it right, how could I
expect anyone else to do it. I had 5 years and a few weeks
law enforcement experience and very little real training and in
many ways it was like when I started my career working
undercover, I mostly had only my wits about me to succeed and
the stakes were high if I failed but as I got into my car and
started the 15 minute trip from my home to the crime scene along
US Highway 71 about 1/2 mile south of its intersection with
Arkansas Highway 170 and as I drove I began to formulate a plan.
I am a planner, I do just allow things to happened, I like to
control them so I radioed the dispatcher to contact Sgt Doug
Fogley of the Arkansas State Police, an investigator I sometimes
asked to help. I was smart enough to know that unlike my
undercover assigment, this didn't all have to be on me, I had
people I could call to help and I wasn't too proud to ask for
help because I knew Doug was a confident criminal investigator
and we worked very well together.
My arrival on the crime scene was just like out of the movies.
Sheriff Dennis lived nearby and he was on the scene waiting for
my arrival. Two patrol officers had been posted to keep
everyone out of the crime scene and once Sheriff Dennis turned
the scene over to me, he left to command the manhunt to find the
suspect and the car. To know that Sheriff Dennis put that
much trust in me is something I still appreciate today. I
was still only a Sergeant but in that moment in time I was the
second most powerful man in Washington Country, Sheriff Bud
Dennis being the most powerful and he gave me a job to do, he
put his trust in me and I was determined to do it.
While Sheriff Herb Marshall, my mentor, was the best criminal
investigator and an excellent leader and commander, Sheriff Bud
Dennis had his strong traits as well. He knew his
limitations, he knew how to lead and he knew how to assign
responsibility to those he believed were better suited and that
is what he did and I find no fault in him doing it because that
is the true test of leadership. Sheriff Marshall built the
Washington County Sheriff's Office from a handful of untrained
deputies into a more modern police force which Sheriff Dennis
inherited. Sheriff Dennis came from the larger
Fayetteville City Police Department where the Chief was the
administrator and not one of the workers in the trenches so one
might correctly say that the murder of West Fork Chief of Police
Paul Mueller became the transformation of the Washington County
Sheriff's Department from a small town police agency into
becoming the modern force it is today and I was lucky to be a
part of that transformation and to be clear, we were making it
all up as we went along. None us had any real training for
this, we were all mostly military veterans who were making it
all up and doing the best job we knew how and it was one of the
few times that I saw it all come together but it wasn't easy.
There were all these little clicks, some of who were hired by
Sheriff Marshall didn't like the new people that Sheriff Dennis
had brought into the department and some didn't like the state
investigator I brought in or the FBI Agent I called to help but
I followed my US Air Force Training. Sheriff Dennis put me
in charge so I took command and called in those I have faith in
and I stepped upon anyone who tried to disrupt the
investigation, I believe to this day that is what leadership is
about, about making everyone play together and getting the
mission done and we did that. I put my job on the line and
I made command decisions that I thought were in the best
interest of the investigation and I doubt there is anyone alive
today that remember this but I didn't do it for me, I did it for
Paul Mueller and his wife and two children because I knew if the
tables were reverse Paul Mueller would do if for me.
A
Billy Gale Henry believed to be a passenger in the car that
Chief Mueller had stopped had been found at that the scene with
a gunshot wound likely from Chief Mueller's service revolver.
The suspects car was gone so we assumed there was at least one
other person who was driving the car. Henry was in route
to the hospital as was Chief Mueller when I arrived. I
took witness statements, I sketch the crime scene and fix its
location in the dark, and I photography everything. The
only photography training I had was self taught but I had good
equipment. I had both a department kit and a personal
camera. I had been teaching myself photography as a means
to relieve the pressure of my occupation during my off hours and
now I was using those skills to investigate the shooting of
someone I knew. It was certain that Paul was not going to
survive but it hadn't been officially determined by a doctor by
the time I arrived. I had barely completed my scene
investigation when I had to travel about a mile south where in a
dark driveway the abandoned suspect vehicle had been located and
was being guarded. Sgt Foley had arrived by this time and
we received the confirmation that Chief Paul Mueller had been
pronounced dead at the hospital. We had the vehicle
removed to the Sheriff's Department for closer examination in
the light and to provide a more secure location for a proper
search. We didn't know yet who the driver might be so with
fatigue setting in the pressure was great to at least identify
the suspect as to obtain a description and maybe a photo.
No one searching had a name, or a physical description of the
suspect other than what appeared on the vehicle registration and
who knew if that was valid.
Billy Gale Henry needed to be talked to, the car needed to
be completely searched and inventoried and these were not tasks
that I was allowed to delegate to any of my investigators,
Sheriff Dennis was clear in his orders to me, he wanted me to
not just command the investigation, he wanted me to conduct
personally every important aspect of it keeping him well
informed to ensure we didn't have another incident like the body
appearing at the funeral home with a bullet in her head. I
am not at whiner or a complainer so it is easy for those who
have never been in my shoes to think this was no big deal, I
think most people who know me just assume because I was
confident it wasn't a big deal for me but it was huge. If
I failed this investigation my career was over before it even
got started, this was a major investigation and it was mine to
either screw up or to get right and what I did would have
implication for decades to come and that was always in the back
of my mind.
Billy Gale Henry was in surgery being treated for his
gunshot wound so until he was able to be interviewed the
suspect's car was the only thing we had and we found papers in
the car that identified Bill Gale Henry but we also found a bag
in the car that had papers that identified a
Rodney Lovell Britton a former inmate recently released from
Leavenwort Federal Prison in Kansas. We soon had a
description and while this wasn't 100% confirmation, it was
enough to release to the officers who were searching for the
killer of Chief Paul Mueller and enough to seek the last
available photo of Britton from the US Prison and now Billy Gale
Henry had come out of surgery and he was transferred to the VA
Hospital I had a call made to Special Agent Dick O'Connell of
the FBI asking for his assistance. It wasn't the normal
duties of the FBI to investigate homicides in those days, not
even of law enforcement officers but I knew the FBI could help
greatly with the Federal Prison and the VA Hospital and it did.
Before the sun rose Special Agent Dick O'Connell had us in he
room of Billy Gale Henry where we confirmed that we were indeed
looking for
Rodney Lovell Britton someone he had met when he was also
serving time at
Leavenwort Federal Prison. Henry had a friendly
cooperative attitude, he wanted us to believe that he was afraid
of Rodney who had just shown up at his mother's home after being
released from prison and that Rodney did all of this.
Billy Gale Henry wanted us to believe he was just along for
the ride. But we would soon learn there was a problem with
his story as found in the glove box of
Rodney Lovell Britton car was a .38 Special which Special
Agent Dick O'Connell came through again by having the ATF
identify within hours that the handgun had been sold to Billy
Gale Henry's mother. She lived several counties away and
with no sleep, running on only junk food and caffeine Sgt Doug
Fogley and I setout to interview Billy Gale Henry's mother
before she could learn that her son was a suspect in a Capital
Murder. Much of police work is about trying to stay ahead
of the reporters and on the heals of the bad guys and this was
going to be big news and we had only a few hours to leverage our
position. It was on the trip to Mrs Henry's home that my
inexperienced revealed itself as a possible sighting of Rodney
Britton was broadcast and Sgt Fogley and I were not that far
from where he was thought to be and I wanted to go but Sgt
Fogley reminded me that I was an Criminal Investigator, not just
a Criminal Investigator but the Chief Investigator and my job
was to "put the chicken in the pot" it was the job of others to
"catch the chicken" and up to the prosecutor to "cook the
chicken" and we all had our parts to play and he was right so we
continued on our journey and while on the way we learned the
sighting was false and that was a conformation that it would
have been a wild goose chase and our journey to Mrs Henry's home
gave us critical information proving that
Billy Gale Henry's story about him being afraid of Rodney
Britton was false. Mrs. Henry tried to talk her son into
staying away from Britton and Henry being 25 years older than
Britton was the ring leader, Britton was
Billy Gale Henry's solder a story we would later backup with
interviews from guards and prisoners from the time when both
Henry and Britton served together.
You know the old saying, "be careful what you ask for, you might
just get it"? Well that happened on our trip back to
Washington County that day. We were in Sgt Fogley's unit
because it had a radio that could communicate anywhere in the
state. My car had a radio that was pretty much worthless
outside of Washington County so this was a no brainer but my
only weapon I was carrying on this trip was a S&W 5 shot
Airweight, all my big guns were in my unit and that was setting
at the Washington County Sheriff's Department and that shouldn't
have been an issue except on the way back another possible
sighting of Rodney Britton came in that was ten miles outside of
the search zone and we were barely one mile away. Sgt
Folgey looked at me as he turned off US 71 Highway headed
towards the sighting telling me I was about to get my wish.
Here we were going after a suspect cop killer armed with a .44
mag handgun and might have other weapons and all I had was a 5
shot .38 cal revolver with a 2" barrel. I clearly
hadn't thought this through. Doug was an excellent
marksman but he had only his 6 shot .357 revolver. That
was one of the few times that I think I understood what fear was
but I wasn't about to let Doug know it nor was I going to allow
it to deter me from doing my job. The suspect was thought
to be in a home and we drove past the home first to size it up
and form a plan. The caller had called back in and
reported that she hadn't actually saw Britton, only she came
home and found her door unlocked so she fled to a neighbors.
Because I could exit the vehicle faster than Doug who was
driving we decided I would run to the rear of the home and
guard, capture, or take down anyone trying to exit while Doug
would got through the unlocked front door and start a room to
room search of the home. This is the way it was done in
1981. There were some tense moments but I soon got the all
clear from Doug inside the home, we had the owner come and it
was determined that she likely left the home and forgot to lock
the door on her way out. By this time neither Doug or I
hadn't slept in almost 36 hours and it was taking it toil but we
still had work that had to be done and we weren't alone.
All around the search area were law enforcement officers taken
turns on guard while others tried to grab a nap in the back seat
of a police car.
The best thing about the manhunts of the 1980s were the people.
They were so appreciative of all the officers; churches would
open for the officers to sleep on the pews, women would bring
blankets and pillows and fry chicken and make coffee and their
husbands with their shotguns in their trucks would drive around
handing out food and coffee to anyone on guard. Doug and I
missed out on that but that isn't what we signed up to do.
Investigators are born to their role and we both loved our jobs
and were very good at what we did. We had work that had to
be done that we couldn't take a break, not yet and our food came
from the burger and fries we bought. Everyone thought we
had the best job because we were not in a car setting on a
roadblock, maybe we did have the best job because we were doing
everything we could to put a case together to make sure that
Rodney Lovell Britton and
Billy Gale Henry didn't get away with the murder of
Paul Hermon Mueller. Late on the night of March 21
1971 I decided that the critical part of the investigation had
been completed and it was time for both of us to go home and
sleep and start with clearer heads the next day. With the
help of Special Agent Dick O'Connell we had photos of Britton
that was being distributed to everyone in the search and we knew
all we could know about him so our critical work had been done
so we headed home and I was greeted at the door by my wife and
two sons, I kissed them and went to bed. I never brought
my work home. They never knew what their father and
husband was actually doing, I kept them as far from it as
possible and never complained. I think I fell asleep
before my head hit the pillow. The next morning March 22
1981 refreshed, showered, a hot breakfast in me, I put my
shoulder holster on with my model 19 .357 mag and stuck three
speed loaders in my jacket and I headed out the door. My
.38 special airweight was in my ankle holster a reminder that
the last time I was so heavily armed was when I worked
undercover narcotics 5 years before.
Doug was on call because we had a bit of lull, there was still a
lot of work to do processing the suspect vehicle but that was
mostly for court so there was time, we had what we needed for
the prosecutor to file charges on
Billy Gale Henry and he wasn't going anywhere, he was under
guard at the VA Hospital so the rush was over for us and the
focus now turned to finding
Rodney Lovell Britton. The Sheriff directed me to
running the Sheriff's Office so he could remain commanding in
the field it was about mid day when one of our Civil Process
servers on stakeout at Devils Den State Park spotted a young man
who generally fit the description of the suspect
Rodney Lovell Britton trying to avoid detection at the edge
of the woods. Washington County Deputy Dewey Seaborne was
a good friend of West Fork Chief Paul Mueller and he felt
certain this young man was in the wrong place and he drew his
weapon from about 30 feet away and identified himself as a
Deputy Sheriff and ordered him to freeze. He didn't
freeze, the young man broke and run and Dewey thinking he was an
armed felon opened fire with his 6 shot 2" barrel .38 Special a
common weapon for plain clothes officers. Dewey fired all
6 rounds or tried to, he had a few misfires but he missed the
suspect who could easily outrun Dewey who was near 50 years old
at that time. Dewey called it in and backup was sent
including tracking dogs. For several hours an intense
search was on going then the dispatch called my office telling
me that a University of Arkansas Police Officer asked to see me
and he had someone with him. I asked they be brought to my
office. I knew the officer from the times I worked
security at the football games and he introduced me to a man of
about 25 who was nervous and shaking. I asked what I could
do for them and they young man began to tell me his story.
He said he was at Devil's Den State Park about two hours earlier
and some older man yelled something at him and he took off and
the guy started shooting at him. I pulled out my paperwork
and read the young man his rights then I wrote down his story in
great detail. When I got to the part about him running I
asked why he ran and he had some story and I told him that was
"bullshit", that I was conducting a "Capital Murder
Investigation" and if he lied to me or withheld important
information I would make his life very miserable. The
young man looked at the DPS officer and the officer told him,
"you better tell him the truth". The guy lowered his head
and told me he was putting out some Marijuana plants that he had
raised from seed and ran because he thought he was being
arrested". I took his statement and released him without
charges. I figured being shot at would be a greater
deterrent than anything the court would do so I accepted justice
had been done. I contacted Sheriff Dennis and make him
aware so he could call off the search and redeploy the search
teams back into their primary positions. I finished March
22 1981 still working on detailed reports as I inventoried and
photographed items from the suspect vehicle and
Rodney Lovell Britton was still at large and some resources
were beginning to call it quits thinking that he made it out of
the area. Sheriff Bud Dennis loved a good manhunt more
than anything and he wasn't about to give up. He had a
smaller force that was now working 12 hours on and 12 hours off
but for him this search was far from over. I got to go
home and have another good nights sleep and visit with my young
sons and wife then got up the next day and went to work at 8 AM.
I hadn't been in my office long when a couple came into my
office with news that would change everything. If had been
assumed that
Rodney Lovell Britton was moving south but this couple lived
almost about 3 miles due west of where he ditched his car and
they had come home the night before to find him in their home.
I had interviewed a lot of victims by this time in my life but
none impressed me like this couple. They were about my
age. They had no children and lived a rustic life mostly
off the land. They were not church going religious, they
were "assured in their faith religious" and made no apologies
and they showed none of the fear or trauma that most victims
display. This husband and wife knew they were in God's
hands, that it didn't matter what Rodney did, it was all God's
will and I suspect they had the same influence upon Rodney that
they had on me because he didn't harm them. They fixed him
food, he tied them up so he could shower and sleep but when
morning came they tried to get him to surrender, told him they
would protect him with their lives, they prayed with him and the
woman gave him her personal pocket New Testament asking him to
read it an pray and if he decided to surrender to return and she
would see he wasn't harmed. He left them tied and left and
it took then a few hours to get loose. She extracted a
promise from me that I would not tell the other officers where
they lived so if Rodney came back she would have a chance to
help him surrender. I contacted Sheriff Dennis and he
agreed, but just to make sure, the couple allowed me to send an
officer to their home which was in a very rural location not far
from West Fork and after a search and not finding
Rodney Lovell Britton they were allowed to remain in their
home but we kept officers nearby for rapid response.
This change our search pattern. Sheriff Dennis moved the
men who were searching homes and outbuildings into a new pattern
based upon how we believed
Rodney Lovell Britton would move from their home because
they had given him a map of the area so he knew the lay of the
land and the following day, March 24 1981 Washington County
Sheriff' Posse Buddy Ledford and Fayetteville Patrol Officer
John Shuster part of the teams that were using mules and horses
to search buildings not easily accessible by any other means
searched a home not all that far from where Deputy Sheriff Dewey
Seaborn had shot at the UA Student just two days before and as
John with his service revolver drawn lowered a ceiling ladder
and then went up into the attic space of a log home, he came
face to face with
Rodney Lovell Britton and a shootout occurred. The
later investigation would show that Officer Shuster fired his
weapon "from the hip" so to speak and after he was struck twice
by
Rodney Lovell Britton's .44 magnum, John dove through the
attic opening landing on the floor below and then extracted
himself from the home. Deputy Ledford hearing the shots
from outside took a defensive position to cover Shuster's exit.
A call went out for backup and medical aid for Office Shuster
and soon the country side was crawling with Northwest Arkansas
Lawmen from every agency. So many that a roadblock at the
drive going down to the log home had to be posted denying
further law enforcement access. It was believed that
Rodney Lovell Britton was still alive and inside the home
but repeated attempts to get him to come out all failed. A
decision to use tear gas was made but it needs to be understood
that in 1981 tear gas was rarely used in Arkansas so little was
know about the canisters that were fired into the home.
Someone made a mistake and fired a canister that was intended
only for outside use and a fire occurred created a hazard
because the fire department couldn't risk putting the fire out
if
Rodney Lovell Britton was still alive and able to shoot
back.
Right out of the scene from the movie "Dirty Harry", young
single Washington Country
Deputy Sheriff Denny Halfacre, one of my new investigators
volunteer to enter the burning home to learn if
Rodney Lovell Britton was dead or alive. Equipped with
an air pack, bullet proof vest, and fireman's coat and his
handgun he entered the home and soon returned dragging the dead
body of
Rodney Lovell Britton behind him. The fire department
was then allowed to fight the fire but the home was greatly
damaged.
Investigator Denny Halfacre also recovered
Rodney Lovell Britton handgun and personal items and
maintained custody of the body until I could complete my search.
The manhunt for
Rodney Lovell Britton was over and the funeral for Chief of
Police was so large they had to hold it in the high school gym.
It was a hard day to endure but now the case to prosecute
Billy Gale Henry moved forward and several months later the
Washington County Prosecutor Kim Smith put on a flawless case,
Henry was convicted for his part in the Capital Murder of West
Fork Chief of Police
Paul Hermon Mueller and was sentence to die in the Electric
Chair. Eventually the Arkansas Supreme Court commuted his
sentence to Life in Prison without Patrol because he didn't pull
the trigger and in one of those ironies of life,
Billy Gale Henry filed a lawsuit in US Federal Court against
me for failing to prove him innocent. Federal
Judge Franklin Waters dismissed the case.
Billy Gale Henry died serving his time July 11 1994 and is
buried in Leek-Drake Cemetery Star City Lincoln County Arkansas
and his Arkansas Department of Correction ID number of 80355.
He was a US Marine and according to Henry and the FBI he was a
veteran of Guadalcanal.
Rodney Lovell Britton a Vietnam Veteran is buried at the
Cement Cemetery at Cement, Caddo County Oklahoma
But this page isn't about
Billy Gale Henry or
Rodney Lovell Britton, or me or anyone else, it is about one
of the bravest men I have ever known. The investigation
revealed that Chief Mueller thought he was making a routine DWI
traffic stop and he had no method to know that he was about to
confront two trained and experienced war veterans who had just
robbed the Pizza Hut on South School in Fayetteville Arkansas of
barely $100 dollars, the bag of mostly change was found in the
car.
Rodney Lovell Britton was the driver of the car wearing his
long barreled .44 magnum revolver in a shoulder holster under
his jacket. In a classic distraction move
Billy Gale Henry exited the passenger side of the vehicle to
distract and gain the attention of Office Mueller and Mueller
was standing near his passenger side headlight likely ordering
Billy Gale Henry back into the car so he could focus on
Rodney Lovell Britton who exited on the driver's side.
The investigation concluded that when
Rodney Lovell Britton fired at Chief Paul Mueller, Officer
Mueller returned fire and that he was mortally wounded firing at
Britton through the trunk of the car and also firing and
striking
Billy Gale Henry in the back as he was attempting to reenter
the car.
Billy Gale Henry collapsed to the ground and
Rodney Lovell Britton drove away. Office Mueller
collapse to the shoulder of the roadway but was immediately
attended by a physician who witnessed the shooting and stopped
giving aid to Office Mueller.
This year will mark the passing of 34 years since the murder of
Office Mueller and I think this story is timely as we see often
in the news where officers fire sometimes more than a dozen
rounds hitting a suspect only a few times. West Fork
Police Chief Paul Mueller was likely already mortally wounded
when he fired his first round from his 6 shot .357 revolver.
He was either already on his knees or firing from the hip as
Britton drove away. He didn't reload yet he struck
Billy Gale Henry in the back and he fired through trunk of
the suspect vehicle missing
Rodney Lovell Britton by mere inches and his dying actions
were critical in the conviction of
Billy Gale Henry because it proved that Henry was not just
an innocent passenger as he wanted everyone to believe. He
was part of the murder and Chief Mueller marked him as such.
The investigation concluded that West Fork Police Chief Paul
Mueller went down fighting still focused on doing his duty
trying to take these killers off the street the only way he
could.
Rick O'Kelley, Captain Retired 1976 - 1991
Chief Investigator 1981 - 1991
Washington County Sheriff's Department
Fayetteville, Arkansas
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