Almost a year after he was charged in Arkansas with killing a man accused of assaulting his daughter, Aaron Spencer sat down for a campaign announcement.
“I’m the father who acted to protect his daughter when the system failed,” Mr. Spencer said in the video, posted on Facebook in October. He added, “I have seen firsthand the failures in law enforcement and in our circuit court, and I refuse to stand by while others face these same failures.”
Mr. Spencer, who has yet to stand trial for the shooting, is now one of two Republican challengers to Lonoke County’s sheriff, John Staley — whose office is involved in his case.
The campaign has drawn outsize attention, and has appeared to tap into local frustration that the justice system does not help the most vulnerable, especially after Mr. Spencer successfully challenged a gag order last year for being overly broad and violating his constitutional rights. The county — east of Little Rock, the state capital, and home to roughly 74,000 people — is overwhelmingly conservative, which means the winner of the Republican primary on Tuesday is likely to become sheriff.
The shooting victim, Michael Fosler, 67, was released on bond in the summer of 2024 while facing 43 felony charges all involving Mr. Spencer’s young daughter, including sexual assault, according to court documents. A few months later, after his daughter went missing in the middle of the night in October 2024, Mr. Spencer found Mr. Fosler trying to flee with her and shot him in the middle of a confrontation.
Mr. Spencer has not denied shooting Mr. Fosler. Instead, his lawyer has argued in court that “when the system failed and Fosler took the child to harm her further, angry or not, Spencer did what was necessary and justified to save her.”
During his campaign, Mr. Spencer has pledged to focus on supporting survivors of sexual assault, as well as bringing more transparency to law enforcement.
His trial has been delayed, after a new judge was assigned to the case in late January. If Mr. Spencer wins the race but is ultimately found guilty, he will not be allowed to remain in office.
Sheriff Staley, who has held the position for more than a decade, has emphasized his experience and framed his service as “doing what’s right, not what’s easy” in campaign ads.
Over the past decade, his office has at times faced criticism and legal challenges — including outcry over whether he used excessive force against a jail inmate. (He denied doing so at the time.)
He did not immediately respond to a request to speak about the race.
Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville.
The post He Is Charged With Murder. He Could Become a Sheriff. appeared first on New York Times.
