Courtney Carter and Chip Ward contributed to this story.
CANTON, Miss.–It’s administrative leave for Canton Police Officer Eugene Luckett and Madison County Deputy Bubba Thomas after they shot and killed Torrez Harris Monday, just before 10 a.m. at the Peace Street Coin Laundry in Canton. The officers said Harris pointed a gun at them.
Administrative leave is standard procedure when officers are involved in a shooting.
The incident began as a domestic call, heard by Madison County deputies who were in the area and who stopped to help Canton Police.
“We received a call from an address right down the street here,” said Canton Police Chief Otha Brown, who talked with News Mississippi’s Courtney Carter outside the laundry where the shooting happened. That was about one block away from where the initial shooting happened.
“It was an altercation between father and daughter and when our officers arrived on the scene, we learned the daughter had been shot.”
The daughter, ID’d as 29-year-old Melissa Primer, was shot several times, said neighbors. She died after being taken to UMMC in Jackson.
“The father left the scene. When he came into the coin laundry, he ran everyone out.”
The chief said a Madison County deputy and a Canton officer, presumably Thomas and Luckett, went into the laundry and ordered Harris to put down his weapon.
News Mississippi has learned from sources close to the investigation that Harris may have been tazed before the officers were forced to shoot him, and that the tazer apparently had little effect.
“The suspect stated several times that he’s not going to jail. The officers ordered him several times to put down his weapon, and after that they had to discharge their firearms at him.”
Family members did not know why Harris and Primer were fighting.
The MBI, Canton Police and Madison County Sheriff’s Dept. are involved in the investigation.
