Police say the suspect and victim did not know each other before the March 31 attack in Conway.
CONWAY, Ark. — A Walmart employee was fatally stabbed during a late-night shift at a Conway store on March 31, and police say the man arrested in the attack did not know her and appeared to target a stranger inside the store.
The killing of Jordanne Drinkwater quickly became more than a homicide case in central Arkansas. Investigators say the attack happened without warning, ended with officers confronting an armed suspect inside the store and now raises two tracks of review at once: a first-degree murder prosecution against Zeddrick Ross, 37, and a separate internal review after one officer fired a shot during the arrest. By April 3, Ross remained jailed in Faulkner County on a $1 million bond, while police were still asking witnesses to help fill gaps in the public timeline.
Police said officers were dispatched at 10:58 p.m. Tuesday to the Walmart on Skyline Drive after a report that a man was stabbing a female employee inside the store. Officers arrived within about a minute, according to Conway police, and found Ross still armed with a knife. Police said officers ordered him several times to drop the weapon, but he did not comply and moved toward them while still holding it. One officer fired a single shot, and another used a Taser before Ross was taken into custody. Police said Ross did not appear to suffer a gunshot wound. Officers and emergency medical workers tried to save Drinkwater, but she died at the scene. Police later said Ross was not employed by Walmart, was not known to Drinkwater and had no known interaction with her before the attack. That account has shaped nearly every public statement since then, because it turned what might have sounded like a workplace dispute into what investigators have described as an attack on a stranger.
New court reporting on the probable cause affidavit added the most disturbing details to the case. Investigators say Ross told detectives he believed he was trying to kill a demon. According to the affidavit, he said he stole a large knife from Walgreens before going into Walmart because he thought he needed protection. Once inside, investigators said, he picked up a machete because he believed it would protect him better. The affidavit said Ross described the figure he thought was following him as a light-skinned Black woman with brown eyes and a weave. Police said Ross told detectives that when the woman he believed was the demon came close enough, he grabbed Drinkwater instead and stabbed her multiple times in the neck and shoulder area. Investigators said he later realized the woman on the ground was not the person he believed he was attacking. Those details remain allegations in an affidavit, not findings by a jury, but they have become central to how prosecutors and the public understand the case. They also suggest that Ross arrived at the store already armed and already in a state of fear or delusion, though police have not publicly laid out a full medical or mental health history.
Officials have released only a narrow account of what happened inside the store beyond those broad allegations. Police have not publicly released surveillance video, named witnesses who saw the opening moments of the attack or explained exactly how long Ross had been inside Walmart before Drinkwater was stabbed. The public record also does not yet say where inside the store Ross first picked up the machete, how many customers were nearby or whether anyone tried to intervene before officers arrived. Conway Police Department spokesperson Daniel Hogan told local television that officers responded to what he called an “active threat situation” and acted to stop the danger before trying to save Drinkwater. Even with that description, important details remain open. Police have not publicly said whether prosecutors may add charges tied to the weapons investigators say Ross carried into or picked up inside the store. They also have not publicly addressed whether competency questions could become part of the case later. For now, the affidavit and the first police statements provide only the broad outline of a short and chaotic attack that unfolded in a place where people were shopping, working and expecting an ordinary night.
The victim’s death has shaken Conway in part because of how ordinary the setting was. The Walmart on Skyline Drive sits along one of the city’s main commercial corridors, a routine stop for late shoppers and overnight workers. Police have given no sign that Drinkwater was singled out for any reason tied to her job, her background or a prior relationship with Ross. Friends and coworkers have instead described her as the kind of person who made other people feel steady and safe. In an interview with KATV, friend Sam Slaughter said Drinkwater, known to some friends as Puff, helped change the way she saw the world and called her “an amazing human being.” The public mourning has added a second layer to the case. One layer is the criminal file, which is built on dispatch times, evidence and statements to police. The other is the loss left behind for people who knew Drinkwater as a co-worker, friend and family member. That difference matters in a story like this because the legal process moves slowly and in technical language, while the community response tends to show the human cost first and with more force.
The legal side is moving, but only in its earliest stage. Faulkner County jail records show Ross was booked by the Conway Police Department at 3:40 a.m. on April 1. The jail roster lists one charge of first-degree murder, a Class Y felony, and a $1 million bond, with a note that charges and bond can change after court appearances. No broader public filing had been detailed by Friday evening beyond the jail listing and the affidavit details reported by local media. That means some of the basic court markers remain unclear in the public record, including the precise timing of Ross’s next appearance and whether a defense lawyer had entered a public response by the end of April 3. In Arkansas, a first-degree murder charge carries the possibility of life in prison, making the early procedural steps especially important. Prosecutors are expected to begin building the case through witness statements, store evidence, medical findings and any recorded statements by Ross. Defense lawyers, once fully in place, are likely to examine the arrest, the affidavit and any evidence related to Ross’s mental state at the time of the stabbing. None of those later arguments had been tested in open court by Friday.
A second review is also unfolding because an officer fired a shot during the confrontation inside the store. Police said that step followed repeated commands to drop the weapon and Ross’s movement toward officers while still armed. The department has said the officer who fired was placed on administrative leave under standard policy, a common step meant to separate the internal review from the homicide case. That review matters because it will shape the official account of the final seconds before Ross was subdued. So far, police have said no other people were hurt by the officer’s shot or by the use of the Taser. The department has not publicly said when that review might be finished or whether body camera footage will be released. That leaves two sets of unanswered questions moving at once. One set concerns what Ross intended and why he attacked Drinkwater. The other concerns exactly how officers stopped him in a crowded store and what evidence will eventually be made public from that response. Those questions do not change the basic fact of the case, but they will affect how complete the public understanding becomes.
For friends and relatives, the case has already moved past police language and into grief. Ross’s mother told local television she no longer recognized her son and believed he had been unraveling for years. She said she was horrified by the affidavit and devastated for Drinkwater’s family. Those remarks do not answer the legal questions ahead, but they show how quickly the case has widened from a single crime scene into a story about loss, mental health, public safety and the limits of what police can explain in the first days after a killing. Conway police have continued asking anyone who saw the stabbing or the moments before it to contact investigators. As of April 3, the store killing had left a city mourning a worker who went to her shift and never came home, while a murder case built from a few violent minutes began its slow move through court.
As of April 3, Ross remained in the Faulkner County jail on the murder charge, and police were still seeking witness accounts and completing the officer-involved shooting review. The next public milestone is expected to be a court update that could clarify future hearings, defense representation and whether any additional records will be released.
Author note: Last updated April 3, 2026.