A northeast Arkansas police officer who was fired after a deadly late-night pursuit of a man driving a side-by-side utility vehicle in the small town of Bay has escaped criminal charges and remains certified as a law enforcement officer.
In June, a Craighead County grand jury reported it had not found probable cause to indict former Bay officer Christopher Shull in the Oct. 21, 2023, pursuit that ended in the death of Stephen Kyle McMasters, 32, of Jonesboro.
McMasters was killed after Shull’s police vehicle struck the UTV, causing it to crash into a utility pole. Shull said he pursued the UTV shortly before midnight on Oct. 21 because it didn’t have any lights on and he feared that could lead to a wreck on the state highway with another car. He also has indicated he thought the UTV might have been stolen.
It was not.
Here’s a photo from the Arkansas State Police investigative file of the UTV after the wreck.
In his statement to investigators at the time, Shull said, “Due to the dangerous and hazardous situation this presented for the potential for serious physical injury of a dark colored small vehicle such as a UTV driving slowly with no lights on or reflectors at all on a state highway known for people to speed at high rates of speed at such a late hour with little or no illumination of the highway, I decided to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle … and determine the reason for the violation and what other potential criminal activity was involved, if any.”
As the chase worsened and McMasters refused to stop, Shull said, he notified dispatch that the side-by-side “could potentially be stolen as it appeared very new.” Shull said he knew of several other area thefts involving lawn mowers, tools and a trailer and because of what he called “the suspect’s very aggressive attempts to evade and elude me during the course of the pursuit.”
For those reasons, Shull concluded that “a reasonable officer would deduce there is a high probability for other criminal activity to be in play other than simple traffic violations.”
This was not Shull’s first firing.
In May 2022, the Jonesboro Police Department fired Shull after a series of policy violations, according to the website LEO Ratings.com. You can read about those violations here. Some are especially disturbing, and one would think there should have been more than enough to prevent another police agency from hiring the guy.
Yet even now, Shull remains certified as a law enforcement officer in Arkansas, Cindy Murphy, communications director for the Arkansas Department of Public Safety, said earlier this week.
That said, he’s apparently not working again as a police officer yet.
In a July 19 email, Murphy said, “We do not have any record of him being hired at another agency since then, and we have no records indicating approval is pending for him to be hired by any other department.”
One can hope the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training will decertify Shull before another police department hires him.
As it was, the Bay Police Department hired Shull on Jan. 11, 2023, less than a year after he lost his job in Jonesboro. The two cities are only about 12 miles apart, and both are in Craighead County.
In a statement to authorities after the Bay wreck, Shull said that he had activated his vehicle’s emergency lights and siren and pursued McMasters through streets and yards but that McMasters would not stop. At one point, according to Shull, McMasters suddenly slammed on the brakes, and Shull said he tried but could not avoid striking the side-by-side.
The Arkansas Times recently obtained Shull’s full statement, video footage of the chase and other documents from the Arkansas State Police under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Here’s dash-camera video of the chase from the LEO website.
Second Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Sonia Hagood said in an interview that she would honor the grand jury’s decision. “I don’t know that we use grand juries enough in Arkansas on hard cases,” she said. “They’re very useful in taking the temperature of the public.”
Even so, Shull’s legal troubles are likely not over.
Jonesboro attorney Jeannette Robertson said she plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit for the McMasters family, which includes McMasters’ wife Janie McMasters, two daughters and a son born after Kyle McMasters’ death.
“The officer had no reason to even begin a pursuit of Mr. McMasters. And when he did begin a pursuit, he used excessive and unreasonable force that resulted directly in the death of Stephen McMasters,” Robertson said in an interview.
Robertson said McMasters “had spent the day caring for his daughters and decided to go out on a side-by side drive and had family that lived in Bay.”
Shull’s attorney, Russell A. Wood, issued a statement saying Shull was pleased with the grand jury’s decision. “He and his family have been vilified, intimidated, threatened and harassed as a result of this matter,” Wood said.
Wood also said Shull had received letters from the town’s police chief and others “clearing him of any wrongdoing in this matter.” Still, Wood said, the mayor and the police chief in the town of about 2,390 residents “terminated and completely abandoned Officer Shull despite him doing nothing wrong.”
“Officer Shull did not PIT Mr. McMasters as has been repeatedly alleged. While it is tragic, Mr. McMaster’s death was the result of his own actions and his extremely dangerous and reckless behavior. Fortunately, the grand jury reached the same conclusion after seeing the evidence,” Wood added.
PIT is referencing a precision immobilization technique, a maneuver used by law enforcement to stop a fleeing vehicle.
Shull said, that after the first time his vehicle struck the UTV, he noticed a white cooler lid was “flailing around hanging over the back tailgate of the UTV.” After the fatal crash, he said he saw alcoholic beverages “strewn across the entire scene, some unopened and some shattered or busted and the scene wreaked of the odor of intoxicants.” He said he also saw a 12-ounce canned beverage in a “koozie” but didn’t know know if the can was open.