In the late summer evening of August 13, 2014, the community of Altheimer, Arkansas, was shattered by an act of violence that claimed the life of 26-year-old Thrisdon Deshawn Eason. The male victim was near the intersection of 3rd Street and Main Street when an argument escalated into a fatal shooting just before 8:22 p.m. When authorities arrived, Eason was found deceased at the scene.
Another man, identified as Alfred Burton, Jr., also 26, was injured by a single gunshot wound during the incident and was transported to Jefferson Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Witnesses reported that an argument between the victims and the suspect preceded the deadly gunfire, though the specific nature of the dispute remained unclear to investigators. In the aftermath, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office quickly identified 30-year-old Keith Darnell Shelton of Altheimer as the primary suspect in the shooting. While the weapon used in the incident was not immediately recovered, investigators did find shell casings at the scene, which were collected as evidence.
A little over twelve hours after being named as the person of interest, Keith Darnell Shelton surrendered to deputies. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder for the death of Thrisdon Eason and attempted murder for the shooting of Alfred Burton, Jr. These charges carry a potential sentence of ten to forty years, or even life, in the Arkansas Department of Corrections. The arrest brought a swift, though somber, development to a case that had tragically cut a young man's life short.
