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3 former Mississippi police officers are charged in man’s death after New Year’s Eve confrontation | CNN

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3 former Mississippi police officers are charged in man’s death after New Year’s Eve confrontation | CNN




CNN
 — 

A Mississippi grand jury has indicted three former Jackson police officers in the death of Keith Murriel, a man who died shortly after a confrontation with the officers in a hotel parking lot on New Year’s Eve.

In police body camera footage obtained by CNN, the officers say they were called to the scene by hotel security after Murriel had been repeatedly asked to leave for allegedly harassing people in the parking lot. The footage shows during their interaction with him, the officers tased the 41-year-old man several times as he writhed and screamed in pain.

No emergency personnel could be seen tending to Murriel in either of the roughly one-hour videos shared with CNN by Daryl Washington, an attorney representing Murriel’s estate.

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Two of the former officers, Kenya McCarty and Avery Willis, have been charged with second degree murder, according to the indictments filed on May 19. The third, James Land, has been charged with manslaughter.

In addition to the criminal charges, the officers are also being sued by Murriel’s estate. Washington filed a civil lawsuit against the officers alleging Murriel lost consciousness after several rounds of being tased and was then left unattended in the back of a police vehicle for about an hour before emergency medical personnel arrived, the lawsuit states.

“At no time did (the officers) check on Murriel to determine if Murriel was okay, although they had observed that he was unresponsive, unable to walk on his own, and in need of medical attention,” the suit says.

Murriel was taken to a hospital where he died, the suit said. His cause of death, according to the suit, was cardiac arrest. CNN has reached out to the Hinds County Coroner about the cause and manner of Murriel’s death but did not immediately hear back.

McCarty’s attorney, Francis Springer, told CNN his client “sincerely laments Mr. Murriel’s death and has the most sincere condolences for his family and friends,” but that she “doesn’t believe she is guilty of the crime for which she is indicted or of any other crime.”

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McCarty – who is out of jail on a $150,000 bond – will enter a not guilty plea, Springer said.

Willis turned himself in Friday morning and is awaiting arraignment, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones told CNN. CNN has been unable to determine if Willis has legal representation.

Land has been released on a $75,000 bond, according to Jones. CNN reached out to an attorney listed for Land but did not immediately hear back.

Public records requests made by CNN for police reports detailing the incident have not been fulfilled.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called what he had seen “excessive, disheartening and tragic” at a Wednesday news conference.

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“(This) is not representative of the vision of public safety that not only this administration wants to put forward, but that we believe the men and women within the Jackson Police Department want to put forward,” Lumumba said.

Jackson Interim Police Chief Joseph Wade said at the news conference that when his police department fails, “we create community distrust.”

“We at [the Jackson Police Department] will continue to be transparent and we will continue to have accountability measures in place, not only from the bottom up, but from the top down, as we move forward.”

McCarty and Willis were the first to respond to the call, the videos show. According to the officers’ conversation in the footage, they escorted Murriel away from the hotel. McCarty could be heard saying that Murriel returned to the hotel before the officers left.

Within moments of his body camera footage beginning, Willis is seen tackling Murriel from behind, knocking him to the ground. McCarty walks up to Murriel and both officers repeatedly tell him to put his hands behind his back.

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Twenty seconds after Murriel hits the ground, McCarty tases him for the first time, the footage shows.

Murriel does not appear to readily comply with the officers’ commands in the first minutes of the confrontation, despite the officers’ repeated instructions.

In his civil suit, however, Washington says that Murriel was not resisting and never made any attempts to harm the officers or anyone else. Washington says in the lawsuit that Murriel can be heard “begging the officers to ‘please stop!’”

The officers tase Murriel several more times, including once after he is in the police vehicle, the footage shows.

The civil suit also criticizes the officers’ apparent insensitivity toward Murriel.

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“(They) joked about how they treated Murriel and the condition he was in. It was apparent that Murriel was clearly in medical distress and in need of immediate medical assistance, but (they) failed to provide any,” the lawsuit states.

In the body camera footage, Willis is heard saying, “That was funny.”

“In the beginning it was funny,” responded Land, “(but) after a while it got annoying.”



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Mississippi

As Mississippi levels rise, so do concerns by river users

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As Mississippi levels rise, so do concerns by river users


It was another soggy Saturday in the metro, with teeming rains adding to river levels in the area.

“I have never seen rain and wind like this,” declared Greg Simbeck, who was strolling along Upper Landing Park in St. Paul on Saturday.   

Not far away, Watergate Marina was living up to its name, with the Mississippi creeping up boat landings, even as a few hardy souls were out fishing.

“We’ve had a drought the last few years, so I accept the rain, you know?” smiled Travis Plummer, from St. Paul.

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Plummer, no fair-weather fisherman himself, said the river levels are the highest he’s seen in a long time.

“It’s pretty extreme,” he said. “Usually, it’s to the bottom of the culvert right there, went up about eight to nine feet.”

It wasn’t hard to find cars splashing through standing water on area roads. High levels shut down Water Street from the St. Paul Yacht Club to the marina. Fourth Street, near CHS Field, is also closed, from Willis Street to Commercial Street.

“To see it this high, just because of rainfall is crazy,” Simbeck said. “I can’t even remember just from the rain being like this.”

At Upper Landing Park, riverside walkways and access points simply disappeared.

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“It’s incredible,” says Vanessa Whitney, from North St. Paul. “You can clearly see that the walkway is supposed to go down here, but we’re not able to go.”

All that excess water is causing problems for Sue Rodsjo and her family’s 1966 Chris Craft boat.

“Because it’s an old boat, our boat always takes on water, so it always gets a bit of a leak through the wood boards,” Rodsjo explains.

Rodsjo said that when the river reaches a certain height, the power will be shut off at the dock her family uses. She said that power is needed to keep her bilge pump going and her boat dry, so a temporary move elsewhere on Friday was a necessity.

“We figured it would be better to get to Stillwater than find our boat at the bottom of the Mississippi,” Rodsjo said.

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After all the wet weather of the past week, is there such a thing as rain fatigue?

Plummer thinks so and he likely isn’t alone.  

“It’s somewhat scary, and somewhat intriguing to me,” he noted.  “I like the storms, but I think I’ve had enough, because it seems like it’s rained every day for the last two weeks. I’m ready for it to dry out a little bit.”



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Under The Lights QB Camp Highlights Top Mississippi Student-Athletes

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Under The Lights QB Camp Highlights Top Mississippi Student-Athletes


More than 80 high school and JUCO student-athletes from across Mississippi and the South were invited to learn, grow and network at the 3rd Under The Lights QB camp hosted by Wyatt Davis.

The players say this is a chance to get better, meet other top players and gain exposure.



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Mississippi legislature hosts Alabama for softball game at Trustmark Park

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Mississippi legislature hosts Alabama for softball game at Trustmark Park


PEARL, Miss. (WLBT) – Saturday, the Mississippi legislature welcomed the Alabama legislature to Trustmark Park for the inaugural Battle of Tombigbee softball game.

“We got a challenge at the beginning of the year to play the Alabama legislators in a softball game,” said Rep. Troy Smith, who represents Mississippi’s 84th District. “They’ve been doing this for several years; this is our first go around.”

The meeting on the diamond was initiated with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety delivering the game ball to the field via helicopter and kicked off a fun and friendly rivalry between the two states.

“It’s great for the two states to come around and play together, it’s going to be an annual thing,” Smith said.

The state representatives were happy to take a day to have fun with their statesmen and neighbors to the east.

“You can see on the bench, we’re all one team, [we have] camaraderie,” said Mississippi District 1 Representative Lester Carpenter. “We work in the House together, we play ball together, so it’s a wonderful thing.”

“We have a job, we discuss laws, we get a lot of criticism on things we do, a lot of gratitude too,” Smith said. “To come out and mix it with other people who have got the same job, use the same stories, it’s fun.”

While it’s been a minute since some of the state reps took reps on the field, they were able to get back into the swing of things.

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“It takes us a while to get used to this,” said Alabama House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen. “We’ve been stretching and trying to run, but we’ve got to knock the dust off us a little bit.”

“We’ve got one in their 20s, one in their 30s, the rest 40 and above. A lot of us ain’t been on a ballfield in 20-30 years, but it feels good,” Smith said.

The best part of the whole event: revenue generated from the game went to benefit the Mississippi Children’s Hospital.

“The kids are the real winners, right?” Stadthagen said. “Hopefully we raise a lot of money for it, and hopefully it benefits a lot of kids.”

Saturday’s game did not disappoint. The showdown at Trustmark Park went into the 10th inning, and Alabama won 7-5.

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