Rogers police have arrested two teenage boys in connection with Wednesday night's blow dart attack in Rogers, which injured a 21-year-old woman.
The boys face misdemeanor charges of third-degree battery. They have been cited and released, according to the Rogers Police Department.
Police responded around 7:10 p.m. Wednesday to the Pinnacle Hills Promenade area, where Dalia Gallegos was hit in the abdomen with a blow dart, according to the Rogers Police Department.
The suspects are 16 and 17 years old. They were shooting darts out of the window of a vehicle when they unintentionally hit the victim, whom they did not know, said Officer Keith Foster with Rogers police.
Gallegos' injury was minor, police said, although Gallegos did go to Mercy Medical Center in Rogers on Thursday to check on the injury.
“It is really sore now,” she said.
Gallegos was jogging northbound near South 28th Place and Bellview Street when an older model pickup going southbound passed by her. That’s when she was struck by the blow dart, police said.
“I saw more of the back of the suspect. He was the driver and was wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and was driving a black Silverado pickup,” Gallegos said.
Gallegos told police at the time that she saw at least two people in the vehicle, which sped off after she was hit.
“It wasn’t painful. I think it was more of a shock when it hit me. I wasn’t really in pain,” she said. “My cousin is the one that helped me get home. I was feeling really woosy and dizzy, and she helped me get home.”
This is the third confirmed blow-dart attack since 2012 in Northwest Arkansas. Police said the new case and the cases from 2012 are not related, but some locals are concerned about the trend in Rogers.
"I think there are crazy people out there that need to spend more time at home and in church than out harassing people and causing harm," said Jamey Cope, a local man.
Resident Dennis Hurless said if the suspects are found guilty, they should be properly punished.
"If it was just a playful thing but seeing the person was hurt...they need to give them a good punishment," Hurless said.
In September 2012, Leigh-Ann Archuleta, 19, was struck in the neck with a blow dart at a Kohl’s department store near Pinnacle Hills. She was hospitalized but received only minor injuries. Five days later, another woman told police she had been hit in the back with a dart.
An investigation led police to the Rogers home of Jeremy Robert Hendrix, 18. After searching his home, and the home of 17-year-old William Goines, police said they found evidence, including a blow gun, connecting the two to the blow dart attacks.
Goines and Hendrix were arrested Oct. 1, 2012, by investigators in the case.
Goines pleaded guilty to three counts of battery and two counts of assault in January 2013, receiving a sentence of 10 years supervised probation. Goines also received a jail sentence of 120 days, but was given time served after serving 119 days behind bars, according to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
Goines was also barred from ever stepping foot onto the grounds of the Pinnacle Hills and Scottsdale shopping centers, said Carrie Dobbs, deputy Benton County prosecutor.
Hendrix and Goines were also accused of shooting a man with a paintball pellet from a moving vehicle on Sept. 13, 2012, according to police.
As for Gallegos, she said this was both the oddest and scariest thing that has ever happened to her.
“Just a freak accident, terrifying really.”