Reports of multiple incidents of bricks, bottles and even a watermelon being hurled at passing cars and trucks on U.S. 49 between Greenwood and Tchula have regular drivers of that route on edge and wondering when an arrest will be made.
Michael Thompson of Greenwood, who farms near Tchula, first heard about the problem from a friend in Tchula who works near him.
“I saw him on the side of the road with a highway patrolman. I texted him and after he finished his business, he told me someone threw a brick at him and it was, like, the third incident that day. The brick hit him,” Thompson said.
Soon after that, Thompson had a confrontation with a car in Tchula that forced him off the road, beyond the shoulder, when the approaching vehicle swerved into Thompson’s lane.
Shortly prior to that, another man with whom he works, Christopher Pickens, also of Greenwood, told Thompson someone had thrown what he thought was a brick and it had hit his truck.
That was Wednesday afternoon.
Then, on Sunday, near the Leflore County landfill on U.S. 49, Thompson saw an approaching car he believed to be the same one he’d seen before. He had just picked up his son, who was in the truck with him.
“The car I had seen before was heading south. I was heading north, and when I got close enough, I saw an arm out of the passenger seat behind the driver’s seat. They threw a bottle and missed us, and it shattered on the pavement right behind my truck.”
Thompson said he called the Mississippi Highway Patrol at 7:36 p.m. and just 10 minutes later, near Sidon, “somebody right behind me was hit with a bottle that busted their windshield.”
Brad Garrard’s son, John Charles, was in the car with him when his Chevy Silverado pickup truck was hit on the windshield.
Garrard’s daughter, Anna Claire, snapped a photo of her father’s damaged windshield after he arrived home and said she had heard of several such incidents over the past two weeks.
Thompson said, “It’s happened to a bunch of people I know.” He said he has reported each incident in which he was involved to Highway Patrol.
Early on Monday, Highway Patrol spokesperson Ronnie Shive said he was not aware of any such reports. Later in the day, however, Shive forwarded an email addressed to his captain. “All the information we have is in that email,” Shive said.
The email, sent by Leath Johnson, reads:
“In the past few weeks there have been numerous incidences of bricks thrown at cars and running cars off the road between Cruger and Tchula. These incidences have been going on longer than the last few weeks but seem to have escalated in recent weeks.
“I have had several friends that this has happened to and it has occurred in both day and night. Cars have been damaged but cars can be repaired. What if the brick goes through the windshield or a major wreck results from being run off the road? There is a great potential for death to occur!”
Johnson’s email asserts that the Highway Patrol office in Greenwood has been contacted numerous times and the patrol says it is aware of the situation. Most incidents, Johnson said, were being handled by the Holmes County Sheriff’s Department.
Thompson said he shares Johnson’s concerns about the seriousness of the incidents, especially after being the target of a thrown bottle while his son was a passenger in his car.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March could not be reached for comment, nor could Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
