An Arkansas couple killed on Saturday while walking in a state park with their two young daughters were stabbed to death in what seems to have been a random attack, authorities said Thursday.
The researchers believe that Clinton David Brink, 43, was attacked first in the state park Devil’s Den, and his wife, Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, took the children to a safe place. Then “she returned to help her husband,” authorities said at a press conference.
Andrew James McGann, a former Oklahoma teacher, was arrested Wednesday at a Springdale store, Arkansas, Barber after a one -day human hunt and reserved capital murder charges, as shown by the prison records.
It is not clear if McGann, 28, has a lawyer.
The children of the couple, who are 7 and 9 years old, were not injured and officials do not believe they were the objectives. A reason is not clear.
“That is still part of the investigation,” said Mike Hagar of the Arkansas State Police. “I can tell you that we have no reason to believe that there was a known association between our suspect and our victims.”
Clinton’s sister, Katrina Hutchins, said the couple and her children had moved to the state about three weeks ago.
The family said Clinton and Cristen died “protecting their girls.”
“They deserve justice,” said the family in a brief statement. The couple has another daughter who was not with them along the way.
The authorities said that McGann’s DNA coincided with the DNA found on the scene and that he made statements to the researchers “indicating that he had committed these atrocious acts.”
Hager said McGann suffered an injury during the attack that caused blood loss, which was used to link it with crime.
During a search for their home, “articles were found that are consistent with being involved in this particular crime,” said Hager.
Brandon Carter, Washington County lawyer, said his office will not resign from the death penalty.
The Arkansas State Police had published a sketch of the suspect after they were notified of the deaths shortly before 3 pm on Saturday in Devil’s Den, where the paths have remained closed. The authorities said the witnesses described seeing a four -door black sedan with tape that covers in part its plate.
Adriana Guadalupe Ruiz Avalos, a barber in Lupita’s beauty hall in Springdale, said he had been cutting McGann’s hair for about five minutes when an agent of the law asked who was parked outside.
She told NBC News that McGann seemed to doubt before he replied. The officer asked McGann some questions inside the store, and then stopped, he said.
Ruiz Avalos said that because he looks at many documentaries of true crimes, he made sure to leave his hair on the floor.
“I know the police want to have hair in cases like this, so I left it there,” he said.
McGann did not speak while cutting the haircut and seemed “very reserved, very shy and very shy,” he said.
She said she was “really sad” for deaths. “I am thinking about what those two girls happened … I was thinking about them. I had my hands in that monster.”
Sprindale is about 30 miles north of the State Park, where the couple was killed.
The Major of the Arkansas State Police, Stacie Rhoads, said McGann had recently moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma, where he had worked in several schools.
He was hired as a teacher in Springdale public schools in Arkansas, but he hadn’t started yet, said a district administrator. He “did not come in contact with Springdale students or the families we serve,” said Superintendent Jared Cleveland in a statement.
McGann had worked for about a year in Public Sand Springs schools in Oklahoma, but resigned in May to move from the state, the district said.
During the 2023-24 school year, he worked as a fifth grade teacher at Spring Creek Elementary School in Oklahoma. Broken Arrow’s public schools said McGann left at the end of the school year to work outside the State and that they had not faced any disciplinary action while being employed.
He had approved background verifications for employment in the districts of Oklahoma, as well as for the Department of Education of the State of Oklahoma.
A mother whose son was in the McGann class in Spring Creek said that the teacher was “uncomfortable with the parents” and “fought to make visual contact during the conferences of parents and teachers.” She said she was “quite quiet, but all the children loved him,” including her son. While he was at school, a career club began.
He also worked during the 2022-23 school year with the Lewisville Independent School District in Texas, a spokesman said Thursday.
He was placed on administrative license in the spring of 2023 of the Donald Elementary School, “following the concerns related to classroom management, professional judgment and students’ favoritism,” said the Texas district.
Donald’s father, Lindsay Camp Polyak, said his son was periodically taught by McGann. She said she was among the parents who worried that he was not adequately teaching her children and that some students were staying behind. He also said he noticed the “preparation” behavior.
The district said in a message to the shared school community on Thursday with NBC News that an internal investigation “did not find any evidence of inappropriate behavior with a student.”
Polyak said his student told “Mr. McGann loves to play the label. He plays on the label at recess every day with the girls.”
She said her son also told her that she would deliver sweets and special awards to students.
Polyak remembered having gone to school for events and having seen students “accelerate around them.”
“In early May, at the end of April, other parents begin to tell me that I was taking special lunch during lunch, where all children would go to the cafeteria, but then asked some of the special girls to stay in their classroom and have lunch with him, which was strange,” Polyak said. “Other mothers alleged that he had encouraged some girls to sit in his lap.”
She said the parents raised their concerns to the school director.
In his message to the school community, the district said that his research determined that the “classroom management and McGann’s professional trial were below the district expectations, but that there was no evidence of inappropriate behavior with a student.
He resigned from the district in May 2023.
