The supposed reason for an October mass shooting at a post-funeral gathering that killed two and wounded at least eight others may have been a case of a hired slaying gone wrong.
That’s what Megan McKinnon, an investigator with the Greenwood Police Department, claimed she was told by Tyrell Stigler, the 24-year-old Greenwood man who authorities believe is responsible for six murders in the area that began in 2018 and concluded with the mass shooting six weeks ago.
Details about Stigler’s alleged confession to the mass shooting and a series of other murders were revealed by authorities during a preliminary hearing Tuesday at the Leflore County Courthouse.
Meanwhile, Stigler’s court-appointed attorney, Arthur Calderon of Cleveland, highlighted what he claimed were flaws in the authorities’ investigations into the murder charges. Calderon also argued that there was no probable cause to arrest Stigler and asked that the case against his client be dismissed and that Stigler be released.
Leflore County Court Judge Kevin Adams, however, ultimately sided with the arguments made by authorities and Leflore County Prosecuting Attorney Kelvin Pulley. Adams ordered that all of Stigler’s charges be turned over to a grand jury for possible indictment since “there’s clear, sufficient probable cause to believe that your client committed these acts,” Adams told Calderon.
Adams also ordered that Stigler remain in detention and bail not be set until Stigler’s attempted murder charge in connection with a shooting incident at Williams Landing apartment complex from November 2019 is resolved.
According to McKinnon, Stigler told authorities that the mass shooting occurred after he was hired to carry out a killing. When asked by Pulley, however, McKinnon did not provide the name of the person who allegedly hired Stigler. She said that part of the case was still under investigation.
“He said he actually hit the wrong house. He was hired to hit another house,” McKinnon said.
The mass shooting occurred on Oct. 24 at a house on the 400 block of West Martin Luther King Drive. The house Stigler was supposed to target that night was just a street over, McKinnon said she was told.
Killed in the shooting were brother and sister Jonathan and Katrina Pitts, who had come from Chicago to attend the funeral of their grandmother. Family had gathered for a wake at the house on West Martin Luther King Drive when their night was upended by a bloody assault by a gunman who was wielding a semiautomatic rifle, according to authorities.
Police, however, have no evidence that Stigler was a hired hitman other than his confession, McKinnon said.
Authorities were able to identify Stigler as the suspect based on camera footage from a nearby building that pointed toward the area of the mass shooting. The footage showed an SUV pulling up near the crime scene and an unidentified male suspect exiting the vehicle and firing shots from his weapon before speeding off in the SUV, McKinnon said.
Using footage from cameras located at other businesses as well as the city’s installed cameras, police backtracked the movement of the SUV until camera footage at a convenience store seemed to show Stigler with his recognizable red dreadlocks.
In addition to the two murder charges resulting from the mass shooting, Stigler was charged with eight counts of aggravated assault, shooting into a dwelling, possession of marijuana enhanced by a firearm and trafficking a controlled substance (ecstasy). These charges were also turned over to a grand jury for possible indictment.
While in custody, Stigler allegedly confessed to four other gun-related murders. Those include the May 7, 2018, death of his younger brother, Jakarrius Thomas, and three slayings that occurred earlier this year — the deaths of Larry Montgomery and William McGee Jr. on Sept. 17 and the death of Cordarell Stanley on Sept. 27.
Bill Staten, the chief investigator with the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department, testified that deputies had considered Stigler the prime suspect in the death of Thomas. Deputies recovered shell casings — a gun has still not been recovered — but otherwise lacked enough evidence to charge Stigler at the time, Staten said.
Following Stigler’s arrest for the mass shooting, deputies again questioned him in connection with the death of Thomas. This time, according to Staten, Stigler confessed, telling authorities “that his mother and father and sister all wanted Jay killed and that’s why he did it.”
The family members all lived in a mobile home on Sherman Street in the Buckeye community.
As for the deaths of Montgomery and McGee, McKinnon testified she was told by Stigler that he shot them in what Stigler believed was an act of retaliation.
He said, according to the officer, that on Sept. 17 he was at Westside Grill on West Gibbs Street when someone shot at him from a black Cadillac Escalade SUV. Later in the day, McKinnon thought he spotted the same vehicle, heard someone holler at him and fired shots, killing Montgomery and McGee.
In the case of the death of Stanley, McKinnon said that Stigler told her he killed him because he believed Stanley had fatally shot a cousin of Stigler’s.
McKinnon and Staten were the only people to testify at Tuesday’s hearing. In his cross-examination of the officers, Calderon argued that authorities were largely relying on confessions allegedly made by Stigler and had little in the way of forensic evidence to tie Stigler to the killings.
The defense attorney pointed out that officers did not conduct gun residue tests on Stigler or other family members following the shooting of Thomas. Nor did they use GPS or cellphone tower pings to independently identify where Stigler was the night of the mass shooting.
Calderon also took issue with how Stigler was apprehended by police officers on Oct. 27 outside of the Golden Coach Inn.
Even though, according to Calderon, no warrant was issued to search Stigler or his vehicle and no one had filed a criminal affidavit against him, he was transported in handcuffs to the Greenwood Police Department’s investigation annex for questioning. Calderon argued that the arrest was illegal and that there was no probable cause to detain Stigler.
After the hearing, Calderon said he was optimistic about Stigler’s case. Stigler’s father, who was at the hearing, declined to comment afterward.
• Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
