Mom in Arkansas park attack killed after helping kids to safety, police say
The 28-year-old schoolteacher suspected of fatally stabbing a married couple in an Arkansas state park made his first court appearance Friday as police released new details on the crime.
The seemingly random act of violence unfolded in Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday when Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were hiking with their 7- and 9-year-old daughters, Maj. Stacie Rhoads of Arkansas State Police said in a news conference Thursday.
Andrew James McGann, who Rhoads said has admitted to the slayings, is believed to have attacked Clinton Brink first. Cristen Brink took the children to safety before returning to help her husband.
McGann sustained injuries during the attack, resulting in a blood trail that police used to create a DNA profile and connect McGann to the crime scene, Arkansas State Police Director Col. Mike Hagar said Thursday. McGann was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a barbershop after a four-day manhunt. Hagar said he did not know the extent of the suspect’s injuries.
When a reporter asked whether those injuries could have been related to a “loving parent trying to do whatever they could to protect their loved ones,” Hagar responded, “Absolutely. I would say you’re correct.”
The couple also had a third daughter, who did not accompany them that day, Hagar said. All the children are safe and in the care of relatives.
“We’re in awe of this mom and dad,” Hagar said. “We’re also in awe of these girls, [and] the information that they were able to provide to start us down this path to be able to make this arrest. It all started with those two little girls.”
McGann is charged with two counts of capital murder, a crime punishable under Arkansas law by the death penalty or life in prison without parole if he is convicted. Brandon Carter, prosecuting attorney for Washington County, Arkansas, said Thursday that the state will not waive the death penalty in this case. It is unclear whether McGann has a lawyer.
Rhoads said McGann did not have a criminal record and did not appear to have a history of mental illness.
McGann was arrested at Lupita’s Beauty Salon in Springdale, about 30 miles from Devil’s Den, shortly after sitting down for a haircut. The establishment’s owners said in a Spanish-language Facebook video that McGann was silent when he arrived at their business.
Stylist Adriana Ruiz told local media she noticed a sunken expression on McGann’s face. She said she was about five minutes into the haircut when police entered the property, asking McGann if he was the owner of a vehicle outside. After McGann confirmed he was, the salon’s owners said, police handcuffed him. Police also collected McGann’s hair samples, the owners said.
State Rep. Diana Gonzales Worthen, Arkansas’s first Latina state legislator, said the location of the killing and of McGann’s arrest made the case especially shocking.
“When you go to a salon, a lot of times you have your children with you. You’re going with your whole family to the park,” she said. “These are all spaces that we take for granted, and they’re all family-friendly, family-oriented spaces in our community.”
Rhoads said Thursday that the crime, “probably one of the most heinous that we’ve had,” appeared to be random. The Brink family had recently moved from South Dakota to Prairie Grove, according to the city’s mayor, David Faulk, who said their water service had been connected just 10 days before the killings.
McGann had relocated from Oklahoma, where he worked as a teacher, to Springdale. He lived about 30 minutes from the Brink family.
Springdale Public Schools Superintendent Jared Cleveland confirmed in an email Thursday that McGann had been hired as a teacher candidate for the coming school year but had not yet begun work. “This individual has not at any time come into contact with Springdale students or the families we serve,” Cleveland wrote.
Worthen said it was “horrific” that McGann had been hired to teach.
“It makes you stop and think, ‘Okay, are we doing all that we can to make sure we’re vetting our educators?’ Because we certainly don’t need this type of person working in our school system,” she said.