The city of Blytheville recorded its fourth homicide of the year Sunday morning with the suspect taken into custody at the scene, according to a report from the Blytheville Police Department.
At 8:25 a.m. Sunday, Blytheville Police received a 911 call for a report of a woman being stabbed at an apartment in the 1100 block of Willow.
Officers arrived at the scene and knocked on the door, at which time a man covered in blood, later identified as Shawn Rainer, 36, of Blytheville, came to the door telling the officer to "come and help her" as he led the officer to the rear bedroom of the apartment. Officers observed a blood trail leading from the front door to the bedroom, with a large kitchen knife laying in the floor outside the bedroom doorway.
When officers entered the bedroom, they found a woman, later identified as Takina Douglas, 27, of Blytheville, seated on the edge of the bed, coughing up blood, with blood all over her body. Douglas then collapsed and fell on the floor on her stomach, gasping for air. She was trying to hold her body up with her forearms. Officers observed Douglas turn and look over her shoulder and appear to point at Rainer, before she went back to supporting her body with her forearms. Douglas was then unable to communicate with officers any further, and stopped breathing just before Mississippi County EMS personnel arrived. Officers started CPR on Douglas with ambulance personnel taking over when they arrived before transporting Douglas to the Great River Medical Center emergency room. Douglas was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the emergency room.
Officers escorted Rainer from the room into the living room while other officers began administering aid to Douglas. When officers asked Rainer who stabbed Douglas, he said he and Douglas had been arguing, and while he was gathering his clothes up to leave, Douglas had the knife and fell on it.
Rainer was taken into custody by police and charged with first degree murder after learning that Douglas had passed away at the hospital.
Shawn Rainer appeared in Blytheville District Court before Judge Shannon Langston on Monday morning for arraignment on the murder charge. Judge Langston bound Rainer over to Circuit Court and gave him a trial date of July 31, and set his bond at $750,000 cash.
Security was tight in the courtroom and outside as Judge Langston only allowed family and those people who were on the court docket to be in the courtroom during the proceedings.