CONWAY, Ark. — A Faulkner County judge has thrown out the Conway Civil Service Commission’s decision upholding the firing of a police officer over her response to the April 2025 mass shooting at Fifth Avenue Park, ruling that the commission’s 2-2 tie vote was not a decision at all.
Circuit Judge Susan Weaver granted summary judgment Monday to Brittany Byrd, the former Conway officer who now serves as Mayflower’s interim police chief, reversing her own order from eight days earlier that had denied Byrd’s motion.
State law says a civil service commission’s decision “shall be by a majority vote of the members of the commission,” Weaver wrote. Only four commissioners heard Byrd’s appeal, and they split 2-2, “resulting in a 2–2 tie vote that failed to reach the required majority.”
Weaver set aside her Sept. 21 order “upon sua sponte reconsideration,” meaning on her own initiative. She signed the new order Monday morning, the day the case had been set for a final hearing.
The two-page order does not address what happens next. Byrd’s complaint asked the court to reinstate her retroactively with back pay and lost benefits, and to award attorney’s fees.
The ruling also lands in the middle of a separate fight over whether Byrd can remain a police officer at all. At Conway’s request, the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training voted in November to begin proceedings to revoke her certification. That case is still pending.
The shooting and the firing
Byrd joined the department in 2015 and was a K-9 officer at the time of the shooting. On the evening of April 13, 2025, she and Officer Shawn Riddle were helping tow trucks remove cars parked on private property across Central Landing from Fifth Avenue Park, where a large gathering was underway, according to filings from both sides.
At about 7:45 p.m., gunfire broke out near the park’s pavilions. Seventy-three rounds were fired from multiple guns, killing two people and injuring at least seven others, according to the city’s filing. Byrd radioed “multiple, multiple shots fired” and both officers ran to their patrol vehicles.
What happened in the next four minutes became the basis for her termination.
The city says Byrd sat at the parking lot exit for about 13 seconds after Riddle passed her, then turned south on Central Landing, away from the nearest park entrance, and took an indirect route through downtown streets without her emergency lights or siren. Her dash camera stopped recording shortly after she began moving and did not restart until she was approaching the park from Maple Street, and she did not turn on her body camera, the city’s filing says.
By the department’s calculation, Byrd reached park property four minutes and 19 seconds after the shots, more than a minute behind Riddle, who had started from the same parking lot. Four officers who responded from elsewhere in Conway arrived before she did. Her average speed was 25 to 28 mph, at or below the posted limit, the department’s investigator testified.
Byrd’s attorney, Danny Crabtree, told the court her actual time in control of her vehicle was two minutes and 14 seconds. He argued the Central Landing entrance was impassable because of fleeing crowds and cars, and that Byrd drove to the northwest corner of the park, where Officer Cameron Pugh had radioed the only confirmed shooting victim at the time.
Once there, according to Byrd’s motion, she assisted the wounded and helped coordinate the police and ambulance response. Chief Chris Harris testified that she did a “good job” after arriving.
Harris ordered an administrative inquiry the next day into the department’s overall response. Lt. Tom Kennedy interviewed 17 employees and reviewed hundreds of hours of footage. Near the end, according to the city, two sergeants told Kennedy there were “rumblings” that Byrd had not responded, and he pulled her vehicle’s GPS data.
Kennedy recommended six policy violations. A review board of supervisors met June 26, 2025; four members recommended termination. The fifth, Maj. Lee Wood, recommended no discipline. Harris fired Byrd on June 30, 2025.
The termination letter cited conduct unbecoming, insubordination, truthfulness, unsatisfactory performance, emergency operation of vehicles and body-worn camera policies. It said she “drove away” from the scene and that “portions of your statements were found to be untruthful” in her interview with the investigator.
Byrd denies violating any policy. Harris testified that the insubordination finding was based “mostly” on her tone of voice during her second interview with Kennedy, according to her motion, and the termination letter described her demeanor as “argumentative” and “sarcastic.”
A federal lawsuit and a divided board
Byrd’s motion argues the department used the shooting “as an opportunity to rid themselves of an officer” who was already suing it. Byrd filed a federal lawsuit in December 2022 alleging retaliation and gender discrimination against the city, former Chief William Tapley, Assistant Chief Mike Welsh, Harris and others. That case, Byrd v. Tapley, remains open in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.
Welsh sat on the review board that recommended her firing. Harris, according to the motion, told another board member before making his decision, “She might sue over that, but we’ll already be gone by then.”
Maj. Clay Smith, another board member, testified that he did not “want to be involved in anything that has to do with Ms. Byrd” because “everybody at the police department knows” that speaking out against her leads to records requests, complaints and letters from attorneys, the motion says.
The city responded that Byrd’s termination “was not only warranted, but necessary” and that the evidence showed she “drove away from a mass shooting, ultimately took an indirect route to finally respond, did not respond expeditiously, did not use lights and sirens, did not activate her body camera, and was dishonest” in her interview.
Now running Mayflower’s department
Wood, the lone review board member who sided with Byrd, retired from Conway on Sept. 1, 2025, after 27 years. Mayflower Mayor Zach Jeffery hired him as police chief that December, and Byrd, a Mayflower native, joined the department as an officer in February.
Wood resigned April 6, effective April 17, after about four months in the job. Jeffery named Byrd, by then the assistant chief, interim chief the same day.
“I have full confidence in Interim Chief Byrd’s ability to lead the department forward,” Jeffery said in a statement at the time.
The city’s roster still lists Byrd as interim chief and department head. Wood is listed as a reserve officer.
Her hold on that job depends in part on the state commission. After firing Byrd, Conway police asked the commission to revoke her law enforcement certification, and on Nov. 19, 2025, the commission voted to proceed. Byrd was entitled to request a hearing; the commission’s published hearing results through June do not include her case.
Decertification would bar her from working as an officer anywhere in Arkansas, including Mayflower. Reinstatement in Conway, if Weaver orders it, would raise the opposite question of whether she stays in Mayflower.
The tie vote
Byrd appealed her firing to the Conway Civil Service Commission, which heard testimony over six days between Aug. 20 and Oct. 10, 2025. One commissioner, Cortney Kennedy, recused, leaving four to decide.
Commissioners Mike Mason and Eric King found the department had proved its case. Commissioners Harrell Clendenin and Dennis Moore found it had not. Under a commission rule that treats a tie among four commissioners as upholding the department, the firing stood.
Byrd appealed to circuit court on Nov. 7, 2025. Her motion for summary judgment, filed in June, argued that the commission’s tie-vote rule “directly conflicts with Arkansas law.”
The city’s lawyers, Annie Depper and J. Blake Hendrix of Fuqua Campbell, did not dispute the statute’s language. They argued Byrd had waived the issue because she never raised it before the commission, knew a tie would uphold her firing, and had herself moved for the recusal that left the board with four members.
Weaver’s order does not mention the waiver argument. It rests entirely on the statute.
The case is Byrd v. Conway Police Department, 23CV-25-2460, in Faulkner County Circuit Court.
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