Arkadelphia police kept busy Thursday evening on the west side of town, working two separate car accidents that landed one person in jail.

At 4:44 p.m., the Arkadelphia Police Department got a 911 call from a Dollar Tree employee who reported a vehicle had just driven through the facade of the establishment. In addition to APD, the Arkadelphia Fire Department and Baptist Health Medical Center-Arkadelphia responded to the scene.

Police observed a black 2004 GMC Yukon XL, driven by a local female resident, had driven through the business, smashing the front doors, glass and glass framework before coming to a rest inside the building. A police report notes that paramedics assessed the driver. No arrest was made, although a passenger was given a court date for a failure to appear warrant.

At 9:55 p.m., police were again summoned to W.P. Malone Drive, but this time to the Walmart parking lot, where an employee called 911 to report a woman “might be having a seizure” as she had struck three cars and was unconscious inside her vehicle.

Sgt. Jody Evans responded and was informed that the driver was clutching a can of aerosol dust remover, and that when she finally regained consciousness she thought she was in Malvern and was unaware she had been involved in an accident, according to the police report. Informed that an ambulance was being called, the woman reportedly shoved the dust remover beneath the front passenger seat.

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Evans was then directed to Row 8, where he found a silver 2015 Chevrolet Impala parked at about a 90-degree angle against the parking spaces and partially in the travel lane between Rows 8 and 9. He spoke with the driver, a Friendship woman. 

According to the report, the driver relayed that she must have “blacked out briefly,” assured police she was fine and “just wanted to go home.” Police wouldn’t allow her to drive away from the scene out of concern for her welfare. She eventually admitted to another officer that she had been under the influence of an inhalant while operating her vehicle and allowed police to retrieve the can.

Witnesses at the scene told officers they had seen her back out of a parking space in Row 9 into a sedan in Row 8, then forward into two other vehicles before coming to a halt.

After an assessment by BHMCA paramedics, she was placed under arrest for driving under the influence and transported to the Clark County Detention Center, where she was booked and later released into the care of relatives.