Arkansas police officer allegedly shot colleague after threatening to shoot protesters

An Arkansas police officer who threatened to shoot any protesters who showed up on his doorstep now faces a manslaughter charge after he fatally shot a fellow officer who knocked on his door.

BuzzFeed News reported Sunday that 33-year-old Calvin Salyers is charged with one count of manslaughter over the fatal June shooting of 36-year-old Scott Hutton. An arrest affidavit obtained by the news outlet revealed that Hutton was shot at an angle through both Steyers’s front door and a glass storm door in Alexander, Ark.

Salyers said after the shooting that he saw a someone with a gun on his hip when he looked through the peephole of his front door in Saline County on the evening of June 3. Salyers said he then drew his gun and accidentally discharged it while attempting to move the weapon from one hand to the other.

Hutton was reportedly at the house to pick up Salyers’s police cruiser after attempting to reach him over the phone and by text, apparently unsuccessfully. Salyers was at home with his girlfriend watching TV before the shooting, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit included Salyers’s comments to a fellow officer, Sgt. Matt Wharton, shortly after protests began to spread across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Steyers told Wharton that he would “shoot through the door” if any protesters came to his house, prompting Wharton to admonish him for the remark, according to the affidavit.

Hutton was reportedly wearing a “typical” police belt as well as his badge and a black polo shirt when he was shot, according to BuzzFeed News. Salyers attempted to provide first aid, according to the affidavit.

Salyers, who joined the police force in 2017, was reportedly arrested on Wednesday and had his bond set at $15,000.