Natural State News

Donations from the Pine Bluff community raised $50,000 for the establishment of a scholarship fund in the name of fallen Pine Bluff Police Department Detective Kevin Collins at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB).

The Kevin D. Collins Endowed Scholarship Fund is to be matched by a grant from the University of Arkansas Foundation, according to a UAPB press release. The scholarship fund will assist students pursuing a degree in criminal justice or a related field.

“I know if he was here he would be proud,” Dornetta Hobbs, Collins’ mother, said in the release. “He would always say he was meant to do something great.”

The funds were raised through donation by church and other community members.

Additional donations to the scholarship fund are still being accepted, according to the release. Donations can be made through a form on the university’s website.

Collins, 35, was involved in a shootout on Oct. 5 where he lost his life in the line of duty, according to coverage by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. He was a member of the Pine Bluff Police Department’s violent crimes division.

The shootout took place at an Econo Lodge near the corner of North Blake Street and the Martha Mitchell Expressway, according to the Democrat Gazette. Collins had responded to the scene with Lt. Ralph Isaac, who was also wounded in the incident.

Police Chief Kelvin Sergeant said at the time that Collins was an excellent police officer, according to the release. Collins had always wanted a career in law enforcement.

Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington, who was familiar with Collins from his assignments driving her to out-of-town conferences, said that he was one of the finest officers, according to the Democrat Gazette.

“He was committed to law enforcement,” the Democrat Gazette quoted Washington as saying. “He was committed to excellence. [Law enforcement] wasn't just a job to him. It was his mission."