Cop Tries to Set Police-Corruption Activists’s Business on Fire, Ends Up Dying
LITTLE ROCK — Ean Bordeaux, a Little Rock police-corruption blogger (and hot dog vendor) was the victim of an arson attack this morning at his home at 1510 of Bragg street in Little Rock (just south of Macarthur park).
According to Ean, he awoke at 4:00 am to the sound of his dogs barking.
Looking at his security monitors, he saw that his hot dog cart in his yard was on fire.
He rushed down to put out the flames which were now lapping against his house and threatening his cart’s propane tank.
Ean burned his hands putting out the fire, and immediately called the police.
Fifteen minutes later, watching his video monitor while waiting for police to arrive, he saw a man approach the cart (apparently for a second time).
The unidentified man then began pouring lighter fluid onto the cart.
Ean ran down the stairs and confronted the man, who then ran.
He noticed that the man was wearing a hat and a mask. Ean chased down and tackled him.
The masked man landed face-first onto the pavement, and they both then laid there catching their breath.
Ean claims that he didn’t strike the man, but since he feared the man might have a weapon, he continued to hold the suspect down until police arrived.
The masked man died shortly thereafter.
The masked man turned out to be ex-LRPD police officer Todd Payne, who had been a subject of Ean’s blog investigation at Corruption Sucks.
Officer Todd Payne tried to set flames to a local business whose owner blogged about police corruption, but he ended up falling face-first on the pavement and dying.
Ean claims that Todd had been harassing him for some time due to his posts and that he and Todd had worked in close contact for several years in the River Market area. (Ean’s hot dog cart was on a corner in Todd’s Rivermarket beat).
The LRPD sent the following press release, which doesn’t conflict with Ean’s narrative.
“1510 Bragg Street. Around 0400 hours Ean Bourdeaux called 911 in reference to someone attempting to destroy his property (hot dog cart). The suspect left and later returned attempting to damage the property a second time. Mr. Bourdeaux confronted the suspect, whom was still next to the property. The suspect fled on foot and was caught by Bourdeaux within a short distance. Details are limited, but while Bordeaux was engaged with suspect, the suspect sustained injuries that later lead to his death at a local hospital. The suspect was later identified as Todd Payne, former Little Rock Police Officer. The investigation is ongoing and no additional information is available.”
To this point, police have expressed no intention of charging Ean with a crime.
As you would expect, police were not happy to hear that an ex-LRPD cop had done this.
Here is a snippet of an overheard police radio conversation from around 5:00 AM this morning:
“This is going to put a lot of us in jeopardy with his stupid action.”
“Yeah, that idiot dead dude just put us in a lot of danger doing that crap.”
