Arkansas Democratic leader dies after shooting

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas was killed on Wednesday by a gunman who barged into the party's state headquarters and opened fire, police and Democratic leaders said.

Bill Gwatney "was shot multiple times" in the upper body and died of his wounds a few hours later, Little Rock police department Lieutenant Terry Hastings said in a briefing aired by FOX News.

The killing of Gwatney, reportedly 48, left fellow Democratic leaders in shock less than two weeks before the party's national convention in the midst of a fierce White House battle.

"We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away," former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary said in a joint statement. The couple lived for years in the Arkansas capital of Little Rock while Bill Clinton was governor and were close friends of Gwatney.

Police said the suspected shooter was also fatally wounded, after police exchanged gunfire with him following a high-speed chase into another county.

Gwatney was shot at least three times shortly before noon (1700 GMT) by a man who walked into the party headquarters near the state capitol building and asked to see the chairman, according to local media.

Police were reportedly alerted to the attack by a 911 emergency call from Gwatney's secretary who had dashed into a nearby florist shop. A witness there heard her tell police: "Help, our chairman's been shot," the Arkansas Times reported.

The shooting left the party's politicians and leaders deeply shaken less than two weeks before Democrats gather in Denver to officially anoint Barack Obama as their candidate for president in November's general election.

"This senseless tragedy comes as a shock to all of us," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said in a statement issued before Gwatney was pronounced dead.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chairman Gwatney and his family," Dean added.

In an earlier statement, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton - Obama's main rival in the heated battle for the Democratic nomination - said they were "stunned and shaken by today's shooting" of Gwatney, whom they described as their "cherished friend and confidante."

Obama reacted swiftly to the shooting as well, saying he was "shocked and saddened" by the tragedy.

Gwatney was one of the party's nearly 800 so-called superdelegates, who are allowed to vote as they wish at the convention. During the nomination campaign Gwatney supported Clinton, who handily defeated Obama in the Arkansas primary.

Lieutenant Hastings said the motive for the shooting was unclear.

"That's something that we'll be looking into. Right now we don't have an answer for you on that," he said, adding that the suspect was not a former Gwatney employee.

Hastings said the suspect fled the scene in a pickup truck and was chased into Grant County some 40 kilometres south of Little Rock, where he was fatally shot.

The violent attack is the second in several months targeting the Democratic Party. In November a man claiming to be armed with a bomb took over US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's campaign office in the state of New Hampshire and held five people hostage for more than five hours before surrendering.