Is he running to get away from that murder charge?......
An Arkansas dad faces a murder charge for killing his daughter’s alleged abuser. Now he’s running for sheriff
Aaron Spencer announces his run for Lonoke County Sheriff in a video posted to his campaign's Facebook page.
An Arkansas father who killed his teen daughter’s alleged abuser has announced a bid for county sheriff, saying he’s running to fix a justice system that failed to protect her.
Aaron Spencer faces a second-degree murder charge in last October’s fatal shooting of a man accused of grooming and sexually assaulting his then-13-year-old daughter.
“Many of you know my story. I’m the father who acted to protect his daughter when the system failed …” he says in a Facebook video announcing his candidacy for Lonoke County sheriff. “And through my own fight for justice, I’ve seen firsthand the failures in law enforcement and in our circuit court. And I refuse to stand by while others face these same failures.”
Spencer gunned down Michael Fosler on October 8, 2024, after he found him driving with his daughter after midnight despite a no-contact order. Fosler, 67, was out on bond while facing dozens of charges, including internet stalking of a child and sexual assault.
The teen had vanished from her bedroom moments earlier. Spencer said he jumped into his Ford truck and scoured the roads around their home until he spotted her in Fosler’s truck, rammed the vehicle off the road and shot him during an altercation.
“This campaign isn’t about me. It’s about every parent, every neighbor, every family who deserves to feel safe in their homes and safe in their community,” Spencer said. “It’s about restoring trust where neighbors know law enforcement is on their side, and families know that they will not be left alone in a moment of need.”
Spencer, 37, pleaded not guilty but has admitted to shooting Fosler.
His trial is scheduled to start January 26, about six weeks before he’d face a March 3 primary in his campaign for Lonoke County sheriff. Spencer is running as a Republican.
And in an ironic twist, he’ll face off against the incumbent sheriff who oversaw his arrest.
‘No one seems offended by the idea’ of Spencer running, reporter says
Spencer is a farmer, a general contractor and an Army veteran who served in the 82nd Airborne and was deployed to Iraq as a paratrooper in the late 2000s.He and his wife, Heather, live on a farm near Cabot, a city of about 27,000 people some 25 miles from the state capital of Little Rock. They also have an adult son.
Heather and Aaron Spencer. "Through my own fight for justice, I’ve seen firsthand the failures in law enforcement and in our circuit court," Spencer says in a video announcing his campaign.
Spencer’s announcement over the weekend came nearly a year to the day of the fatal shooting.
Fosler was facing 43 criminal counts, including internet stalking of a child, sexual assault, sexual indecency with a child and possession of child pornography. Heather Spencer has said the family panicked when they awoke and discovered their daughter was missing.
“In that moment we realized that she may have been taken, but it’s the middle of the night and everything is happening in seconds and every second counts,” she later wrote on Facebook.
Spencer’s case captured national headlines and has sparked outrage and praise on social media among people who consider him a hero for protecting his daughter. It’s also prompted a defense fund and several petitions calling for the charges against him to be dropped, including one that has more than 360,000 signatures.
His decision to run for sheriff has drawn mostly positive reactions in the county, said Arkansas Times reporter Matt Campbell, who’s covered the case extensively.
“General consensus from the people I’ve spoken to seems to be a combination of ‘wait … what?’ and a kind of muted ‘hell yeah’ reaction,” Campbell said. “I don’t know that anyone thinks he has a chance — and if he’s convicted, he would be barred from running for or holding office in the state. But no one seems offended by the idea.”
Widespread distrust toward law enforcement in the county has worked in Spencer’s favor, Campbell added.
“Spencer’s become a cause célèbre for a lot of folks in the state. If he beats the murder charge, which is entirely possible, I don’t think it’s a stretch that he could ride that momentum and win.”
Aaron Spencer enters the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office in December 2024.
But John Wesley Hall, a veteran criminal attorney and author of “Trial Handbook for Arkansas Lawyers,” called Spencer’s campaign a bad idea. Hall, who has no connection to the case, said it’s highly unusual for a defendant to run for sheriff while awaiting a criminal trial in the same county. Hall added he wouldn’t allow it if Spencer were his client.
“No f**king way — wait for the verdict,” he said. “It will come up at trial in his cross-examination. Maybe he can handle it, maybe he can’t. Why risk it?”
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