A violent weekend in Mississippi’s capital city resulted in 10 shooting victims, with four passing away.
The first of three shootings occurred on Saturday at the Texaco Gas Station on Medgar Evers Blvd. and left 23-year-old Jacobi Austin dead, according to Detective Tommie Brown.
The next day, two people were shot and killed at the Shell gas station on McDowell Rd., with four more injured by gunfire. Those who died in the shooting are identified as Derrick Coleman and Jasvir Singh, the owner of the gas station. The other victims, whose identities have not been released by law enforcement, are being treated at a local medical facility.
Just two hours later, three more people were shot on St. Charles Street, with 31-year-old Erik Barnes later succumbing to life-threatening injuries at a local hospital. The other unidentified victims’ conditions are unknown.
“It was a very sad, concerning, and disheartening weekend here in the city of Jackson,” Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said, recognizing the troubling trend. “Whenever you receive a phone call about someone losing their life, it affects everybody. It’s very concerning. It was very heartbreaking to see.”
Wade went on to say that his police department is exhausting all available resources to bring closure in the cases. With a jump in violence at local gas stations, he says his force will continue to zero in on curbing crime at the pumps.
“We’re taking a strategic approach to deal with those gas stations and why they’re these constant targets of violence,” the chief said. “We’ve got to find out what is the root cause of these issues.”
Wade noted that his robbery-homicide unit is doing “an absolutely amazing job”, pointing to the now-74% solvability rate for homicide cases that exceeds the national average by about 22%. The rate marks the percentage of homicide cases that end in the arrest and conviction of suspects.
“They’re after these cases. We had a case that happened in January that we solved in June,” Chief Wade said. “So, they’re not giving up and they’re not stopping.”
All three of the aforementioned shooting cases are under investigation, with the four recent deaths bringing the total homicide rate to 70 for Mississippi’s largest city in 2024.
After an overall decrease in violent crimes in 2023, which follows a national trend, Wade and other Jackson officials hope that the recent uptick is not indicative of another surge.
“We are not going to ever wave the white flag. We’re never going to give in,” Wade told the media on Wednesday. “We’re going to stay laser-focused and bring these people before the courts and hold them accountable for their actions here in the city of Jackson.”
