PHILLIPS COUNTY, Ark. — Friends of an Arkansas funeral home employee are searching for answers after he was gunned down Wednesday morning on a Phillips County highway.
Cedric Wilson, known as C.J., was shot and killed near a church on Highway 242, a few miles west of Helena-West Helena.
Phillips County Sheriff Neal Byrd hasn’t returned WREG’s repeated phone calls, so details surrounding Wilson’s death are scarce. However, a source said a 17-year-old was taken into custody.
“Shocked, shocking to me,” said Tyrone Lewis, who said he practically watched Wilson grow up.
“I just couldn’t believe it when they told me. I said, ‘C.J.? No, not C.J.,'” he said.
Wilson, who at one point owned a funeral home in Helena-West Helena, most recently worked for Paradise Funeral Home in Little Rock. He’s listed on the website as a business consultant.
In a statement posted online, Paradise said Wilson “brought dedication, professionalism, love and laughter to all who encountered him.”
“I’ll tell you what: everybody liked him around here,” Lewis said. “He was good with those funerals. I tell you man, he was good with that. That was his calling there.”
According to a family member, Wilson leaves behind seven children.
