CENTERTON — Neighbors’ silence about past events at the Royce Webb house, 14425 W. Arkansas 102 west of Centerton, spoke volumes about the environment leading up to a Tuesday shooting.
Velena Callis, who lives just east of the Webb residence, said she’d only heard a “guy had been shot.”
“We really didn’t know them,” Callis said.
Another neighbor refused to talk about the people who lived in the house, citing a fear of retribution.
However, the second neighbor said, gunshots coming from the direction of the house were not out of the ordinary
On Aug. 30, one of those gunshots from Royce Webb, 55, struck his cousin, Mitchell Webb, 57. The two were involved in a family feud over a road, officials said.
Authorities said the two cousins live on adjoining property.
Capt. Mike Sydoriak, head of the criminal investigation division for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, said Mitchell Webb was treated and released from Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville after being shot with a shotgun. Webb had pellets in the back of his upper right shoulder, Sydoriak added.
Mitchell Webb was working on a dirt road on a bulldozer when he was shot by Royce Webb, Sydoriak said.
“There are apparently problems with the right of the way on the road,” Sydoriak said. “The dispute over the road is what got everything started. Deputies had been out there before, several times.”
Royce Webb was not cooperating with the investigation, Sydoriak said. Sheriff ’s investigators were talking with a woman who was in the house, authorities added. Sydoriak said investigators also were talking to Mitchell Webb on Tuesday evening.
Capt. Mike Jones, head of the field division of the Sheriff’s Office, said Royce Webb fired one shot from the house.
“After the shooting, the man barricaded himself in the house,” Jones said. “Negotiators were calledin. A woman came out first, then the subject came out.”
No police officers, nor occupants in the house, were injured during the standoff, Jones said, although one officer had an “accidental discharge” of his weapon.
“That incident will also be investigated,” Jones said.
The shooting routed traffic along busy Arkansas 102 for just more than an hour beginning about 4:30 p.m., the height of rush hour.
Deputies’ cars blocked Arkansas 102 at Shady Acres Road on the east side of the residence and at Burgin Valley Road on the west side of the residence.
The house was about halfway between the two detours.
By early evening, deputies were wrapping up most of the investigation of the scene, putting theshotgun into a paper bag for evidence and awaiting Royce Webb’s discharge from the hospital for further questioning.
News, Pages 1 on 09/07/2011