MH man upset with cleaning crew’s music shoots motel employee 3 times, charged with attempted murder

A Mountain Home man has been arrested on two charges, including attempted murder, after he became upset with a cleaning crew’s music and shot an employee of a hotel three times Sunday afternoon. Being held in the Baxter County Detention Center is 64-year-old Gary Neal Frans, whose blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit at the time of the shooting.

According to the probable cause affidavit and information from Mountain Home Police, officers were called to the Mountain Home Inn at 963 Highway 62 Business East at 2:18 Sunday afternoon. When they arrived, they found Frans in a room with a gun at his feet. He was taken into custody without incident. The victim was found in the room next door.

According to two female cleaning crew members, one of them a 16-year-old, Frans was upset about their music while they cleaned the room next to his. The victim came to the room to give instructions to the cleaning crew when the shooting happened.

The two employees told police the victim told Frans he needed to go back to his room and mind his own business. That is when Frans pointed the gun at the victim. The victim three times pleaded, “Don’t shoot me!” The witnesses said Frans never said a word and fired three shots, all of which struck the victim. The victim was transported to Baxter Health and then airlifted to CoxHealth Medical Center South in Springfield for treatment of his injuries.

Frans was given a portable breath test at the jail which registered .27. The legal limit in Arkansas is .08.

Frans is charged with criminal attempt to commit first degree capital murder and aggravated assault. His bond is set at half a million dollars.

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