A small town in Mississippi is mourning after a police officer was killed, and two others were wounded in a shooting. 

According to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the shooting happened when officers with the Summit Police Department were performing their duties at a traffic checkpoint. 

During the interaction, a car approached, and a passenger fired a gun at the officers, hitting and killing one of them and injuring two others.

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves identified the fallen officer as Summit Police Department Patrolman Troy Floyd.

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Reeves said that Floyd “was killed today by a criminal, while heroically performing his duties as a law enforcement officer.”

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McComb Police Department Officers Tyler Harvey and Joey Roberts were shot and sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the shooting, Reeves said.

The suspected gunman has been killed, authorities said. 

The two other officers received non-life-threatening injuries and the suspect was killed. (Summit Police Department)

Reeves offered his condolences to Officer Floyd’s family and friends, saying that law enforcement “represent the very best of Mississippi.”

“Please join Elee and me in praying for Patrolman Floyd, for his family, his brothers and sisters in blue, and for the Summit Police Department,” he wrote in a X post. “Please also pray for a quick recovery for Officers Harvey and Roberts.  Our men and women of law enforcement represent the very best of Mississippi.”

“All of Mississippi stands with them as we honor and mourn this hero who has been taken from us too soon,” he said.

The shooting is under investigation by agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI).

Summit has a population of approximately 1,460 people and is about 75 miles south of the state’s capital, Jackson.

American families have faced painful financial difficulties the last few years, and a continuous concern of many families is a struggle to access high-quality, affordable child care.

We represent Virginia and Alabama in the U.S. Senate, and parents across both our states have repeatedly expressed frustration with the impediments to finding the care they need for their kids. 

More than half of all American families live in child care deserts. Many parents are forced to place their names on long wait lists. If they are lucky enough to get off a list, they face the daunting challenge of figuring out how they’ll actually pay for care.

The national average price of child care was $11,582 in 2023. In Virginia, families pay some of the highest costs of child care in the country, with the average annual price of center-based infant care exceeding $15,000 in 2022. In both of our states – Virginia and Alabama – child care costs for two young children are more than what the average family spends on housing. This is, unfortunately, the norm across the country.

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Exacerbating accessibility and affordability hurdles for families is the fact that 100,000 child care workers left the profession during the pandemic, with the child care sector shrinking 9.7% between February 2020 and September 2022. Even with the high cost of child care, the median wage for a child care worker is just under $15 per hour.

In a hot job market, many child care staff understandably leave jobs they love for higher pay outside the child care sector because they cannot otherwise pay their bills. The struggle to maintain staff in the child care sector has led to fewer options for parents.

The impact of the child care crisis does not end with families. It affects our country’s economic growth. A 2023 report found that the U.S. child care crisis has an economic toll of $122 billion in lost earnings, productivity and revenue every year. Tens of thousands of people miss work every month due to child care issues. 

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A 2023 study estimated the annual economic impact of the infant-toddler child care crisis on Virginia was over $3.1 billion in lost earnings, productivity and revenue. A 2021 study found that 64% of Alabama parents with a young child worked fewer hours due to a lack of adequate child care, and approximately one in five parents missed work that year due to child care challenges – the highest rate in the nation.

While Congress has passed legislation to help alleviate the child care crisis coming out of the pandemic, we still have work to do in order to create a long-term solution to help American families. That’s why we are joining together to introduce a bold bipartisan proposal to help working families access and afford high-quality child care and boost supply.

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Our proposal is twofold. The Child Care Workforce Act works to build supply. Our bill incentivizes child care workers and providers to stay in the industry by creating a competitive grant program for states, localities and tribes interested in adopting or expanding pay programs for child care workers. This additional pay will provide a boost for workers who want to stay in the industry but are currently priced out. 

For parents and families, we are creating several pathways to reduce cost. Through the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act we are increasing the size of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, expanding access to more low- and middle-income families, allowing families to deduct 50% more in expenses via the Dependent Care Assistance Program, and increasing the maximum Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit to incentivize businesses to provide child care to employees – while retooling the credit to allow Main Street small businesses to participate. 

Together, these measures would lower the cost of child care for families, expand the choices parents have, encourage businesses to support child care supply, and get more resources to child care providers and to the child care workforce. 

While we continue to debate the future of federal child care policy, it is critical we find a path forward on actionable common ground solutions to make sure kids have safe, enriching places to learn and grow, child care workers are supported, and parents can participate in the workforce. 

Doing nothing is not an option. It’s time for bold, bipartisan action now.

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Republican Katie Britt represents Alabama in the U.S. Senate.

A North Carolina man charged with murdering his wife with eyedrops in 2018 is now accused of attempting to poison his daughter using the same method, according to the Gaston Gazette.

Prosecutors said Joshua Hunsucker, 39, administered the substance to his then-10 year-old in February 2023 – five years after allegedly killing Stacy Hunsucker, 32.

The poisoning – which landed the child in the hospital – was intended to implicate his wife’s parents, John and Susie Robinson, in Stacy’s death, the local outlet reported.

Prosecutors said Hunsucker had killed his wife with eyedrops – which contain the chemical tetrahydrozoline – and lied about her cause of death to land a $250,000 life insurance policy.

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Hunsucker immediately had her buried to cover up the actual cause of death – but a vial of her blood had been kept, because she was an organ donor, prosecutors allege.

After suspicions began to swirl around her husband, investigators tested the blood and revealed the poisoning.

Prosecutors said Hunsucker put eyedrops in her drinks over an extended period, eventually leading to her death. 

A witness told police that he told them he would use eyedrops if he was to ever kill someone.

Hunsucker was arrested in December 2019 and was released on $1.5 million bond while awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges.

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Joshua Hunsucker is accused of killing his wife, Stacy Hunsucker, to collect a $250,000 insurance policy.

But he was hauled back into court this week to answer to the new allegations against him, and prosecutors demanded the revocation of his bail package, which a judge granted.

Hunsucker is also facing several new witness intimidation raps for harassing the Robinsons at their home.

He has repeatedly attempted to pin his wife’s death on her parents, who are witnesses in the case against him.

Hunsucker falsely claimed that John Robinson had assaulted and kidnapped him, telling police that he had pistol-whipped and zip-tied him before injecting him with a poisonous substance.

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Joshua Hunsucker is accused of killing his wife, Stacy Hunsucker, with eyedrops and poisoning their daughter with the same concoction. (Facebook)

New filings also accuse him of recording the Robinsons, sending packages to their house, demanding that they stop pursuing the murder case against him and intimidating them by driving by their residence, the local outlet reported.

“The state believes that the defendant’s dangerous actions will continue to escalate,” prosecutors wrote, according to the newspaper.

“The state has great concern for the safety of (Hunsucker’s children) and Mr. and Mrs. Robinson.”

Hunsucker remains behind bars.