As the Browning community mourns the Easter Day shooting death of a 60-year-old retiree, the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department continues to investigate the crime.
John Hemphill of 1388 County Road 165 was shot once in the chest late Sunday while standing in the driveway of his home.
No arrests have been made, and no clear motive has been determined, Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks said this morning.
“We’ve got a person of interest we’re looking at. I think it was something that could have happened earlier that day, or perhaps in the days leading up (to the murder),” Banks said when discussing a possible motive.
Hemphill’s wallet and money were still on him when deputies arrived.
Hemphill, who had retired from PYCO, operated a store that locals called the “Boom-Boom Room” out of a metal building in his back yard. A pool table was there, and locals could purchase beer and potato chips. Hemphill had a beer permit.
“He had closed it up just minutes before we got the call,” Banks said. A 911 call came into the Sheriff’s Department at 10:57 p.m.
According to Banks, Hemphill, who was blind in one eye, had entered his home and was preparing for bed. His live-in companion, Rosie Mae Harris, and another woman were inside.
The other woman, known only as “Faye,” asked Hemphill if he had any cigarettes. When he went out to his car, the women heard two gunshots.
After crouching for cover, the second woman looked out the kitchen window and “saw him laying right beside the car,” Banks said.
On Monday afternoon, a shaken Harris said she was sitting on the edge of her bed when she heard the two shots.
“I came out and he looked up and said, ‘Baby, they shot me,’” she said. “That was it. That’s all he said.”
When deputies arrived a short time later, Hemphill had a faint pulse, Banks said. The wounded man was put in an ambulance and died on the way to Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
The body has been sent to the state Crime Lab in Jackson for an autopsy.
Banks said the weapon used appears to be of a small caliber. Though two shots were fired, Hemphill was struck only once, on the left side of his chest. “It must have hit him in the heart,” Banks said.
Monday afternoon, family and friends gathered at Hemphill’s home.
“Mr. Hemphill was the salt of the earth,” said Marcus Nunn, nephew of Rosie Mae Harris. “It wasn’t just one person who died. This community out here is a family, and the family has lost a member. We’ve all died a little bit. This is a tragic end to a beautiful life.”
Nunn, who turned 33 Monday, said friends and family had gathered at Hemphill’s residence Sunday to celebrate Easter and his birthday. Throughout the day, Nunn said, many people had come and gone. He said he was still at the home when the shots were fired.
He declined to discuss who he felt was responsible for the shooting, but he said, “The individual who did this was a coward, and you can quote me on that. And he’ll have a face in a minute.”
Althea Sanders, Hemphill’s niece, described her uncle as a “people person.”
“If you asked anybody if they knew John Hemphill, they’d say, ‘Yeah, I know him, he’s a good guy,’” said Sanders, a Memphis resident.
As Harris, dressed in her nightgown, talked about Hemphill’s murder Monday afternoon, a small dried pool of blood was still visible on the home’s driveway.
“They just murdered my husband,” she said while standing near the blood. “And I want to get to the bottom of it.”
Like most others at the home Monday, Harris couldn’t understand who would want to kill Hemphill.
“No clue,” she said. “He ain’t never bothered anybody.”
Though no one has been arrested, several people have been brought in to the Sheriff’s Department for questioning. Banks said his department may subpoena cellular telephone records “to make sure they’re telling us the truth.”
