charlie sherrill
Member
I've participated in a lot of them during a 40+ year LEO career. I lost a lot of sleep on this one. It started in a very rural area north of Sumrall,Ms. near the Bouie River bridge on Ms. Highway 589. I was a deputy with the Lamar County Sheriff's Department at the time. An elderly man was sitting in his wheel chair on a screened in porch waiting for the rural mail carrier to bring him his mail. The old man was out there every day waiting on the mailman whether he had any mail or not. When he did, the mail carrier would bring it to him and take any outgoing mail he had right there on his porch. The old man left his screen door unlatched when waiting on the mail man. An ex-convict with a long record came onto the porch and slit the old man's throat with a large knife. He then ransacked the old man's house and threw several valuables into a pillow case. As the ex-con was leaving the house the mail carried was approaching it. The ex-con emptied a .22 caliber pistol into him, killing him on the front step. A distant neighbor heard the rapid gunfire and called the SO. She knew that sound wasn't normal. When officers arrived they found two deceased victims and footprints headed toward the river. A trail was found on several sandbars that appeared to be headed down river. There were no tracking dogs available and the area was vast and required a very large perimeter to try and contain the suspect. We worked with what we had and several officers attempted to track him down the river and keep the heat on him. The pillow case and the stolen tiems were found several mils from the Highway 589 bridge. I don't think he got much rest. We don't know how the suspect got there or why he singled out that house. We got assistance from many local departments and attempted to keep him in one area. Word got out to local residents (with our help) and they locked up and loaded up. It had been a little over 24 hours when someone called in along River Rd. that a strange man was seen eating raw items from their garden. The fired over his head and he headed back toward the river. He was spotted and fired at several times over the next couple of days. We didn't go home. We were living and sleeping in our cruisers. Neighbors would bring us food and water, all while armed to the teeth. We were all in it together. Finally, on the third day since the murders, 12 miles and another county away the perp showed up at a house trailer located a couple of miles off the main road. I was about a mile away just waking up from a cat nap when the call came in. When he approached the trailer he saw a father in the yard and started chasing and shooting at him with the .22. Daddy was lucky that all the shots missed. About the third lap around the trailer Daddy's 13 year old son came out the front door of the trailer with a Nylon 66 .22 semi auto rifle. His Mom was at work and his younger brother and sister were in the trailer. The perp didn't see him as the kid emptied the magazine into him. Six of the shots were head shots. I got there in less than two minutes. I had been paralleling the river trying to anticipate where he might be. Perp was DOTS. (dead on the spot) The perp had obviously live a hard life for the last few days. His clothes and body were shredded from three days of barbed wire and briars. His shoes were almost worn out. Daddy begged me not to tell anyone else the son had fired the shots that killed the perp. He asked me to put in the report that he did it. I guess he felt like he was protecting his son. I never told anyone this...until today.
