Aggravated assault charges have been added to felony malicious mischief charges against Jumearo Williams, 18, a suspect arrested earlier this week in connection with a rash of attacks on moving motor vehicles on U.S. 49 between Greenwood and Tchula.
Williams, a resident of Tchula, is being held in the Leflore County Jail with a $25,000 bond on the malicious mischief charge and $500,000 on the aggravated assault charge.
Sheriff Ricky Banks indicated that he expects there will be more arrests in the case, which is being investigated by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation for the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
In at least one case, a victim reported seeing an arm coming out of the back driver’s-side window of an approaching car and hurling a bottle at him but missing. The bottle reportedly shattered on the highway.
The Leflore County Sheriff’s Department received two official reports of people whose cars were hit by flying objects on U.S. 49 — one in mid-June at Rising Sun and the other in late June near the county landfill.
One report indicated a hard flying object hit the driver’s door of a moving vehicle and broke the glass next to the outside panel but bounced off and did not penetrate into the car. An officer identified the object as possibly a small-caliber bullet. The driver was a woman from Greenwood.
The second report described a rock thrown from a passing car coming “straight through” the windshield of the victim’s vehicle.
Several other motorists have reported being hit by flying objects or being run off the road in various locations along U.S. 49 near Sidon, near Greenwood, near Cruger and in and near Tchula.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March said on Thursday he didn’t have any other suspects in the case and didn’t expect additional arrests, but apparently the Highway Patrol, MBI and Leflore County Sheriff’s Department don’t share that opinion.
An addendum to one of the sheriff’s office’s reports said a Leflore County deputy reported to the MBI that several reports of similar attacks have been made and that he had shared those reports with investigators.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
