Republished November 06, 2017 - 9:54 AM
Original Publication Date November 06, 2017 - 9:11 AM
JACKSON, Miss. - The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting deaths of two men by local police over the weekend.
Officers involved in both cases are both on leave.
Columbus Patrolman Jared Booth shot Raymond Davis, 24, early Saturday outside a Columbus nightclub after a call about a disturbance there. Local news outlets report that Booth is white; Davis was black. City officials said Booth's body camera video showed Davis holding a gun.
"We know for a fact the gun wasn't planted. We know that from watching the video," Columbus Mayor Robert Smith said at a news conference Sunday.
Friends and relatives of Davis held a vigil in a local park Sunday. The Commercial Dispatch reported that lights on the ground spelled out "Ray Ray." Some people held signs with the slogans, "Blood on Your Hands" and "Murder is Illegal; Arrest the Officer." Davis' children held a sign that read, "You Killed Our Dad."
In Meridian, police did not immediately release the name or race of the officer who killed a white man in a shootout early Sunday. Coroner Clayton Cobler told The Associated Press on Monday that the man killed was not carrying identification.
Meridian police received a call that two men and a woman were riding in a truck when one man pulled a gun and demanded that the other get out. The man with the gun then drove away in the truck with the other man's girlfriend still inside. A police statement said when an officer approached the truck, the man got out, started shooting and wounded the officer. The officer shot and killed the man. The woman was not injured.
Police said the officer has been released from a hospital. Capt. John Griffith told WTOK-TV that a protective vest saved the officer's life.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017