A police report from a Little Rock gas station arrest describes a “felony takedown” — and then goes quiet. What it never mentions is the moment two cameras caught: an officer pressing his service weapon against the back of a 23-year-old man’s head while he lay face down, unarmed, on the store floor.
Officer Thomas Shook of the Little Rock Police Department is the officer in the footage, obtained and published by KATV. The man on the floor is Gregory Williams. The incident happened August 9 at a Valero on South University Avenue, and it has since put the department’s internal investigation, the mayor, and a neighborhood gas station under the same spotlight.
What happened
According to the police report, officers were dispatched after the store clerk reported that Williams had threatened to shoot him during an argument over a sale. Williams denied making any threat.
Body camera footage shows what happened when officers arrived: Williams lying face down as multiple officers surrounded him — and Shook placing the barrel of his handgun against the back of his head. Williams can be heard asking, “Why you have a gun at my head?” In the footage, another officer brushes Shook’s weapon away from Williams’ head, according to the Arkansas Times.
The search turned up nothing. Officers searched Williams and his backpack and found no firearm or other weapon, according to the report. The clerk later told officers he did not wish to press charges. Medics evaluated Williams at the scene and cleared him; officers then drove him home, and the report lists no further action.
The aftermath
The department’s own paperwork is part of the story: the report documents the “felony takedown” but does not describe a gun being placed against anyone’s head.
When the bodycam footage surfaced roughly two weeks later, the response was fast. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. called the footage disturbing and said he was “deeply disappointed in what occurred.” Community organizers Quintessa Hathaway and Dawn Jeffrey of the Little Rock Freedom Fund led a rally outside the Valero on August 24, demanding Shook’s firing and decertification.
Little Rock police confirmed Shook was relieved of duty pending an internal investigation. By August 31, the department confirmed he had turned in his badge and gun and will not return to work until the investigation is over. He remains on paid leave — still employed — and no criminal charges have been announced.
The gas station moved faster than anyone. Nick Chowdhury, uncle of the store’s owner, told KATV the clerk who called police has been fired, apologized to Williams and the community — “he should have not encountered it. I don’t think that it should have gone that far” — and laid out plans for employee counseling, written conflict policies, and community events, along with support for the Williams family’s GoFundMe.
What’s known about the officer
Shook is a Little Rock police officer; the Arkansas Times identifies him as white and reports that the two officers working with him that day were both Black. Beyond that, little has been made public: the department has not released his tenure, his service record, or any explanation for the draw. What is known is his status — on paid leave, stripped of badge and gun, his employment riding on an internal investigation.
What happens next
The internal investigation continues, on no public timetable. Prosecutors have announced no charging decision, and LRPD has not said what standard the internal review would apply or when it would conclude. The Freedom Fund has pledged to keep pressure on both the department and the store’s promised reforms.
Shook has not been charged with any crime and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty — the same standard his badge was supposed to represent. This post will be updated as the case develops: any charging decision, the internal investigation’s outcome, and any disciplinary action.
The clerk who made the call was fired within three weeks. The officer who put the gun to a man’s head is still on payroll — what does the gas station understand about accountability that the police department doesn’t?
Sources
KATV · Arkansas Times · THV11 · KARK · Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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