News

News Around Mississippi: Trooper runs over horse and flips, fatal motel shooting, fatal wreck

The Associated Press
News Briefs From Around The State

Here is a roundup of news and notes from around Mississippi this morning:

In Meridian, the Mississippi Highway Patrol says a trooper’s car hit a horse and overturned — as the officer was answering a report that another driver had hit a horse.
WJTV reports that officials did not identify the trooper, but say he was released after being checked at a hospital in Meridian.

The accident occurred Saturday night on Highway 15 in Jasper County. Officials say another horse ran into the road in front of the squad car… […]

News

Man found shot to death; suspect charged

Police said they have a suspect in custody in connection with a man found shot to death outside a residence early Tuesday morning.

Officer Colendula Green said 23-year-old Anthony Watson has been charged with the murder of 22-year-old Sherrod Vaughn. Green said Vaughn was found lying face down in the front yard of a residence in the 2000 block of Wisteria Street. […]

News

Police charge boyfriend in death of pregnant teen

Jackson police have charged 20-year-old Octavious Morrison with capital murder in the death of his pregnant girlfriend.

He is being held without bond.

Police say 17-year-old Octavia Love was seven months pregnant and the unborn fetus did not survive.

Detectives said Love was in a back bedroom at a residence in the 1500 block of Wood Glen Drive, Saturday afternoon, June 8, with her Morrison when the rifle was discharged. […]

News

Former Tenn. cop indicted for crash that killed mom and daughter

A former Memphis, Tenn., police officer who was involved in a fatal crash that killed two Mississippi residents – a mother and daughter – has been indicted.

The former officer, 24-year-old Alex Beard, is charged with vehicular manslaughter in the Aug. 26 crash that killed 54-year-old Delores Epps and her daughter, 13-year-old Mackala Epps.

Beard was responding to a call in his marked police car on Aug. 26 when he struck the passenger side of a 1996 Mercury Mystique that was trying to turn left. He did not have his lights or sirens activated when the crash occurred. […]

Top Stories

Starkville man killed in two-vehicle crash

A Starkville man was killed Saturday morning after colliding with another vehicle on Highway 45 Alternate.

Walter Sykes, 77, was attempting to enter the northbound lane from a private drive when he was hit by a 2009 Toyota 4-Runner driven by 26-year-old Meredith McClure, WTVA reported.

The impact caused Sykes’ vehicle to overturn throwing him from his 2002 Ford Ranger truck. Sykes was not wearing a seatbelt. […]

Top Stories

Coroner: Man shot self twice after killing officer

The murder suspect who killed a detective at police headquarters in Mississippi’s capital city last week shot himself twice in the head after shooting the officer four times, the coroner said Tuesday.

Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said 23-year-old Jeremy Powell shot himself once in the side of the head and once under the chin after shooting veteran Jackson Police Detective Eric Smith four times on Thursday, April 4. Grisham-Stewart said last week that Powell had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

“It is unusual, but the first shot didn’t kill him,” the coroner said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Powell was being questioned about a stabbing death when he grabbed Smith’s gun during an interview on the third floor of the department and shot the 40-year-old detective twice in the arm and twice in the chest, authorities say. […]

Top Stories

Video shows suspect killing police detective

Details continue to emerge into the shooting death of a Jackson police detective and the suspect he was questioning. Detective Eric Smith, 40, was killed in the line of duty early Thursday evening while questioning 23-year-old Jeremy Powell. Powell was being charged with April 1 murder of Christopher Alexander.

Alexander was found dead on Greenwood Avenue near Daniel Lake Boulevard early April 1. He had been stabbed to death.

The Associated Press (AP) said authorities have a video from the police interrogation room that shows Powell shot Smith to death before killing himself with the officer’s gun. […]

Statewide News

Tupelo teen charged in parking lot assault

An 18-year-old has been charged with aggravated assault after she allegedly cut another woman in the neck and throat in a Kroger parking lot earlier this month.

Virginia Flores was charged by Tupelo police for an incident that occurred on Feb. 9. Reportedly, an altercation between Flores and the female victim began as they were driving down the roadway in separate cars and escalated when they pulled into the parking lot of a Kroger grocery store on West Main Street. […]