The Leflore County Sheriff’s Department has arrested two Greenwood men in connection with a fatal shooting incident Tuesday night in the Rising Sun community.
The shooting led to the death of a 21-month-old Greenwood toddler and the hospitalization of three other children and an adult woman, who were all inside a vehicle traveling on Champagne Street.
The two male suspects — a 20-year-old and a 19-year-old — live at separate residences within Rising Sun, located just south of Greenwood’s city limits on U.S. 49.
The suspects were immediately arrested Tuesday night following the shooting and are being held for investigation at the Leflore County Jail. Sheriff Ricky Banks said Wednesday afternoon that each suspect should officially be charged with murder soon.
The Sheriff’s Department received a call around 10:18 p.m. Tuesday about a white Nissan Altima full of passengers traveling on Champagne Street being struck by gunfire several times, Banks said.
Inside the car were five people, including a 25-year-old Leflore County woman who was driving and four children ages 9, 6, 5 and 21 months. The four children are believed to be siblings, and the woman is not the children’s mother, the sheriff said.
All five victims were taken to Greenwood Leflore Hospital to be treated for injuries from the shooting incident. Two of the victims — the toddler and the driver — were struck by gunfire, Banks said.
The 21-month-old, Dailee Hammond, was pronounced dead at the hospital around 12:41 a.m. Wednesday, Leflore County Coroner Debra Sanders said. The driver was released from the hospital later Wednesday, Banks said.
The sheriff was not able to provide the conditions of the other three children Wednesday afternoon. He said that two of the children were flown to a hospital in Jackson and the other child was flown to a hospital in Memphis.
The two male suspects allegedly shot at the Altima while standing on the side of Champagne Street as the vehicle traveled by, Banks said.
Then they shot at the vehicle again as it traveled on U.S. 49 South.
Banks said authorities have not determined the motivation for the shooting. He did say, however, that the men might have been targeting someone else whom they expected to be in a similar vehicle. “We feel like that it was the wrong car they wanted to shoot, and I don’t know why they shot at the car. That particular car just came through there, and they shot at it, shot through it, shot it up,” Banks said. “They shot it up on one street, and the car kept going and got back on the highway, and they shot at it on the highway.”
Authorities collected a number of spent shell casings at the crime scenes. Banks said there were “a lot” of them but wasn’t able to provide an exact figure.
Two types of casings were collected, leading authorities to believe that two different types of guns were used, Banks said. Casings of one type are believed to come from an assault rifle, the sheriff said. Authorities are still trying to determine from what type of gun the second type of shell casings might have come.
The suspects were arrested at the residence of the 19-year-old, Banks said. The assault rifle that authorities believed was used was recovered from a vehicle at the residence. Authorities have yet to recover a second gun.
Banks lamented the tragedy behind the violence.
“Why would you shoot kids? Why would you shoot at a whole family and not even a male in the car that’s old enough to shoot? I feel like whoever they were mad at, whoever they were trying to kill, they shot the wrong car and almost killed the whole family and they need to pay for it,” he said. “It just breaks our heart that a 1-year-old baby gets killed for nothing. This type of shooting is careless and ridiculous.”
If Banks’ theory of mistaken identity is correct, it would be at least the third time in less than a year that gunfire in Leflore County has felled people who were not intended targets.
According to Greenwood police, Eaven B. Troutman was targeting someone else when he allegedly shot a gun at a graduation party held May 20 at the Confederate Memorial Building.
Tania Samone Harris, the 19-year-old Itta Bena woman who died from the shooting, was an innocent bystander, Chief Terrence Craft said. Troutman was charged with murder in Harris’ death.
Tyrell Stigler, who was charged with murder in connection with last October’s mass shooting on West Martin Luther King Drive, in which two people were killed and at least eight others were injured, told authorities he targeted the wrong house, a Greenwood detective said during Stigler’s preliminary hearing in December.
Dailee’s death marks the 10th homicide this year in the county, all of which involved guns, according to reporting by the Commonwealth During the same period last year, there were seven homicides in the county, all of which but one involved guns.
After four people were killed in three shooting incidents in Greenwood late last week, the City Council declared a state of emergency on Monday, enabling the police to take necessary actions for safety and allowing the city to reach out to other enforcement agencies for assistance.
The Leflore County Board of Supervisors will hold a special called meeting at 4 p.m. Friday to hear from Banks about what can be done to combat violent crime.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
