Arkansas lawmakers hear conflicting accounts from Capitol and Little Rock police on protest response

Daryl Headen, chief of the Arkansas State Capitol Police, told the Senate City, County & Local Affairs Committee that his officers endured rocks, bottles and bricks hurled at them while protecting the State Capitol during three nights of protests and that they would not use deadly force under the circumstances. "I stood there after my men were attacked with rocks and bottles and that brick and many more just like it," Headen said, describing flags burned and doors spray-painted on the Capitol steps.

The hearing in Little Rock turned into a testy, hourslong exchange between Headen and Keith L. Humphreys, chief of the Little Rock Police Department, with both men offering sharply different accounts of who led operations, who was present in unified command and whether city officers pulled back from the scene. Humphreys told the committee that Headen "has lied" about parts of his testimony and said LRPD resources were engaged across the city; Headen testified he coordinated primarily with the Arkansas State Police…