On a summer day in Arkansas, what began as a routine traffic stop tragically ended the life of a dedicated law enforcement officer. Louis Perry Bryant, a 37-year-old male Arkansas State Trooper, was shot and killed on June 30, 1984. He was a United States Air Force veteran who had served with the Arkansas State Police for 10 years, and before that with the Fayetteville Police Department.
On that fateful day, Trooper Bryant pulled over a van on U.S. Highway 71 near De Queen.
The driver of the van was Richard Wayne Snell, a member of a white supremacist group who was traveling with a vehicle laden with weapons. As Trooper Bryant approached the van, Snell opened fire with a modified Colt. 45, striking the officer multiple times. Tragically, Trooper Bryant's wife and two children were on their way to meet him for lunch and came across his patrol car on the side of the road, only to discover that he had been fatally wounded.
Following the shooting, a frantic call from a driver who witnessed a brown and white van leaving the scene initiated a search for the suspect. Police in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, spotted the van heading west and pursued it. The driver, identified as Snell, refused to stop and engaged in a shootout with the officers before he was eventually wounded and apprehended. A search of Snell's van revealed numerous weapons, including a semi-automatic pistol and a grenade.
Richard Wayne Snell confessed to the murder of Trooper Bryant, stating he was trying to evade arrest on outstanding warrants from Texas. It was later revealed that Snell held extremist beliefs and did not recognize the authority of Black law enforcement officers. For the murder of Trooper Bryant, Snell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, he was also sentenced to death for another murder. His death sentence was carried out in 1995. A further tragedy compounded the loss of Trooper Bryant when four members of the DeQueen Police Department were killed in an automobile accident while en route to his funeral.
