OurTupelo

The death toll is now 10 in the spate of shootings at high school and college homecoming events Friday and Saturday, where more than a dozen other people were wounded.

The latest victim is Cayus Stevens, who died as a result of wounds he suffered in Heidelberg, the third fatality from that shooting. Friends and community members on social media identified him as a graduate from the Heidelberg High School Class of 2018. 

A Friday shooting in the Delta city of Leland claimed the lives of six people in what is the deadliest mass shooting in the country this year. Shootings were also reported after a South Delta High School football game in Anguilla in Sharkey County on Friday and at two university homecomings on Saturday, resulting in one death at Alcorn State University. 

“This kind of senseless violence has no place in Heidelberg or anywhere in Mississippi,” Heidelberg Police Chief Cornell White said in a statement.

The other victims killed in the Heidelberg shooting were another graduate, Mikea McCray, 28, of Laurel, and Chris Newell, 35, of Laurel.

White extended his condolences to the families of the victims and asked the public to keep them in their thoughts and prayers. He also thanked a coordinated response and assistance from local and state law enforcement. 

Four have been arrested and charged in the Heidelberg shooting.

Tylar Goodloe, 18, is charged with two counts of capital murder and possession of a weapon on educational property. A judge set his bond at $2 million cash.  

The others arrested are Damarin Starks, 19, charged with accessory after the fact and tampering with physical evidence; Jadarius Quartez Page, 19, charged with accessory after the fact; and Jabari Deshaun Collins, 19, charged with possession of a deadly weapon on educational property.

White said the investigation continues and the police department will do everything in its power to receive justice for the victims and their families. 

This week, the FBI Jackson office announced five people are in custody and charged in the Leland shooting: Morgan Lattimore, 25, capital murder; Teviyon L. Powell, 29, capital murder; William Bryant, 29, capital murder; Terrogernal S. Martin, 33, capital murder; and Latoya A. Powell, 44, attempted murder. 

It was not immediately clear if those arrested have attorneys. An FBI spokesperson said additional arrests are pending. 

The suspects arrested Monday had first appearance hearings in Washington County, the justice court clerk’s office confirmed, but bond information was not immediately available. 

Martin’s bond was set at $1 million cash, the FBI confirmed, but a spokesperson did not immediately confirm in which court they appeared. 

The Washington County coroner identified the Leland victims as Oreshama Johnson, 41; Calvin Plant, 19; Shelbyona Powell, 25; Kaslyn Johnson, 18; Amos Brantley Jr., 18; and JaMichael Jones, 34.

Less than an hour away, another shooting happened Friday night outside a football game in Anguilla. In a statement, Sharkey County Sheriff Herbert Ceaser said one person was shot and taken to a local hospital. 

Ceaser said two people have been arrested in the shooting but did not identify them. The sheriff said violence will not be tolerated. 

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family during this incredibly difficult time,” Ceasar said in the statement. “We ask the community to come together in support and remain positive as the investigation continues.”

Brekyra Fisher, 29, of Vicksburg, died at Alcorn State. The university said Fisher was not a student.

A child who was shot in the abdomen in a tailgating area near Jackson State’s stadium was taken to the hospital. Suspects have not been announced for either shooting.

Mississippi has bemoaned its lack of technology startups and venture capital since the first dot-com boom in the mid 1990s. 

Innovate Mississippi believes it might have a solution. It is providing funding and training to seven Mississippi tech startups through a 12-week program.

Alex Bucklew and Johnathan McAdory had an idea for a product that would find the best price for prescription drugs by aggregating discounts from a variety of sources. Their company, SimpleScript, is their first try at starting a business. For Bucklew and McAdory, Innovate Mississippi’s accelerator has taught them how to grow their business. 

 ”Especially something that’s scalable to the level (SimpleScript) is, it can be difficult to figure out what to do next. We needed some counsel on how to get from point A to point B.” said Bucklew. “From working with CoBuilders we will be ready to get funding.”

Mississippi has a nascent tech scene and state leaders have struggled with how to grow it. Innovate Mississippi is a nonprofit organization trying to connect entrepreneurs with investors and other resources across the state.

“With  3 million people in Mississippi, we’ve gotta do a lot of work just to find the business that needs the mentor three hours away, that needs the accounting person,” said Tony Jeff, the CEO and president of Innovate. “We connect those dots.”

Jeff says that without this connection, founders would turn to other states for funding and resources. 

CoBuilders, Innovate’s 12-week startup accelerator, mentors and trains Mississippi entrepreneurs on how to get their company and product ready to show to investors. Innovate, which is funded through a mix of public and private money, also invests $25,000 into each company.

This year’s cohort of seven companies has been refining its products to pitch to investors on Nov. 11. On pitch day, they’ll be looking to raise upwards of $100,000 each. Unlike other small businesses, startups are focused on rapid growth and capturing a large share of a market. 

To support this they usually rely on raising money from outside investors. In the early stages of a startup, companies often look to “angel investors,” wealthy individuals or groups that invest a small amount in a company. 

Jeff said it’s not enough for founders to have a polished pitch, they need to have researched their competitors and received feedback from users.

Leta Palmiter’s company, Vertical Take-Off Reading, is currently in its third pilot round and has over 130 students using it.

The software she created with co-founder Ben Stasa, measures students’ oral reading skills. As a speech therapist and executive director of a nonprofit that serves dyslexic students, Palmiter saw students needed one-on-one help with reading that teachers just didn’t have the time for. She looked for a tool to help her measure her students’ ability to read out loud but couldn’t find anything. So she decided to do it herself.

Vertical’s program can be used in a classroom or at home on any device with a microphone. A child reads out loud while the app records it then creates a report for the teacher to measure the student’s progress.

Reading out loud helps with comprehension and is especially important for students with dyslexia. Palmiter says that Vertical is designed to complement teaching, not replace it.

“ We know that it’s doing a great job measuring that accuracy at that sound level and that kind of data will drive instruction,” said Palmiter.

She met Stasa, a doctoral student in computer science at the University of Southern Mississippi, who was tackling the same problem. Palmiter said that working together helped bring the product to market. 

Mississippi’s colleges are playing an active role in growing the startup pipeline, funding research and fostering new ideas. Innovate works with universities to host pitch competitions and connect to founders.

“ There’s a lot of resources that the schools and universities help support tech entrepreneurs,” said Ricky Romanek founder of ClaimTra,  a healthcare analytics tool for hospitals and clinics to recover insurance claims.

Jeff says that students regularly tell him that they plan on leaving Mississippi because it lacks good job opportunities for them. While it’s a small slice of the economy, Jeff thinks the tech sector could play a role in addressing Mississippi’s brain drain problem.

“ There are a slice of Mississippians that these are the best and most exciting ways for them to stay here, be gainfully employed, and even move people here,” said Jeff. 

It can be difficult finding the right companies for the accelerator. They need to be innovative companies, often in the tech sector, that are early in development and have high growth potential.

“It is very obvious we have more money chasing deals than we have deals. So we’ve got to get everything we can to make every startup qualified for that money,” said Jeff. That’s where Innovate comes in, nurturing home-grown companies and attracting new companies to Mississippi.

Romanek has brought Innovate “ a couple other crazy ideas” before and is excited to contribute to Mississippi’s tech industry.

Romanek said: “ I think there’s a huge startup potential in Mississippi that’s untapped. There’s a lot of great ideas. I don’t think they’re aware of all the resources that are available.”

Joseph “Joe” Dera managed publicity for Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, David Bowie, Elton John, B.B. King, The Who and ZZ Top and other stars, and his love of music and show business took him around the world.

The love of the blues, historic homes and his wife, Madison native Suzanne Case, brought him to Mississippi, where he moved full-time after he retired in 2016. The veteran publicist Dera died Friday in Bentonia. He was 74.

“A list of everyone he worked with would probably be 20 pages long,” said Chris Roslan, a former business partner of Dera’s.

Dera “always had a real fascination with old houses,” including one from the 1700s that he had in New York and the home where he an Case were living in Bentonia, Roslan said.

“He also loved blues music, so I think that also drew him to that area,” Roslan said.

In his five-decade career Dera represented marquee stars and entertainment brands.

Dera eventually started his own company, Dera & Associates, and his clients also included Billy Joel, Queen, Robert Palmer, UB40, Clint Black, Duran Duran, Foreigner, Ray Davis, Pink Floyd, The Band, Alabama, Les Paul and Rick Springfield. He did public relations work for big events, including Live Aid and Woodstock ’99.

Dera served as former Beatle Paul McCartney’s spokesman for over 20 years. He also represented the National Geographic Society, Dick Clark Productions, the American Music Awards, the History Channel and Gibson Guitars, among many others.

Dera was born in the Netherlands, son of a Dutch coal miner who moved the family to New Jersey.

His first foray into music was interviewing Robert Palmer for his community college newspaper. Dera would later become Palmer’s press agent and Palmer helped Dera start his own firm years later.

After retiring, Dera and Case moved to the historic Bradshaw House in Yazoo County, where he provided free PR counsel to local businesses. He and Case were active in rescuing and caring for abandoned dogs.

In a 2017 interview with the Clarion Ledger, Dera said he had many fond memories from his career, albeit in a dog-eat-dog industry often full of outsized egos.

“Even those with tough reputations are real sweethearts,” Dera said. And he said living in Mississippi had been “fun.”

“I don’t miss the snow,” Dera said then. “It’s all summer weather here.”

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

The Trump administration’s obsession with sending National Guard troops hither and yon brings back memories of the time I spent as a member of a mobilized Guard unit. 

It was 63 years ago on Sept. 30, and yes, it did coincide with the admission of James Meredith as the first Black student at the University of Mississippi. I was a senior journalism student at Ole Miss and a part-time reporter for The Oxford Eagle. I also had another part-time job as a member of the Mississippi National Guard, one I had held since high school. 

All three came together in the last week of September 1962. I covered Lt. Gov. Paul Johnson, who was in Oxford to deny Meredith’s enrollment because Gov. Ross Barnett’s flight was fogged in at Jackson and could not be there himself to turn Meredith away. Things got even more interesting that weekend.

On Saturday, Sept. 29, Gov. Barnett called up the National Guard to go to Oxford to stop the U.S. Justice Department from enrolling Meredith on Oct. 1. A contingent of federal officials, including U.S. marshals and Department of Justice officials, had flown in from Memphis with Meredith and placed him in a highly guarded dormitory. 

My unit, B Troop of the 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment was based in Pontotoc, 30 miles from the university. After a night and the next day rounding up troops, we were ready to go. We soon heard, however, that we had a new boss. President John F. Kennedy had federalized the Mississippi National Guard, taking away Barnett’s biggest club. 

We heard that a crowd was gathering on campus. There had been an Ole Miss football game in Jackson the night before, where Barnett had vowed to keep Meredith out of Ole Miss. Students returning to campus found a phalanx of U.S. marshals and other assorted federal officers surrounding the Lyceum, the administration building. Students and outsiders, egged on by former Gen. Edwin Walker, soon were throwing bottles, rocks and Molotov cocktails at state Highway Patrol officers, U.S. marshals, other law enforcement officers and the contingent of the news media that had gathered.

The federal security was not large, and defenses became even weaker when the state Highway Patrol pulled away from the lines and refused to help the Feds.

It was soon obvious that things were out of hand. National Guard Troop E of the 108^th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Oxford was the first unit onto the campus. Capt. Murry Falkner, nephew of novelist William Faulkner, was the commander. Falkner was hit by a chunk of concrete, sustaining a broken arm, but led his troops into the fray. Troop E only had 67 soldiers. Soon, the Water Valley National Guard was brought in. 

Pontotoc’s Troop B was next, and we loaded into our jeeps and troop trucks and headed west on U.S. Highway 6 to Oxford. On the 40-minute drive we were constantly being passed by cars heading to the same place as we were, but not for the same reason. Most did not know that Kennedy had taken the Guard away from Barnett and were shouting “let’s go get him,” (not the exact quotes). 

By the time we got on University Drive heading onto the campus, it was obvious things were going to be rough. As we went into the circle around the Grove, where the rioters were massed, we saw cars burned. One belonged to my professor Samuel Talbert, chair of the Journalism Department. We did not have time to think about what we were seeing.

Suddenly, someone threw a Molotov cocktail firebomb from the Grove, striking the tailgate of our troop truck and fortunately falling back on the street and not torching us. Rocks and bottles pelted the side of our truck. Every obscenity known to man and newly concocted ones were yelled at us. 

We finally got in front of the Lyceum, jumped from our vehicles and began taking positions. We shined the lights of the vehicles into the Grove where the rioters were congregated, hoping that would help us spot trouble better.

We found out the next morning that might not have been our best move. One of our officers, Lt. John Fox, and I stood behind a jeep for a while observing the turmoil. The next morning Lt. Fox told me to look at the front of the jeep. I did and saw bullet holes in the windshield, around the headlights and on other parts of the jeep.

The rioters were not happy with the headlights and were trying to shoot them out. Fortunately, they did not hit us as we took shelter behind the vehicles.

The situation got worse after midnight when the word passed down the line that the U.S. marshals were running out of tear gas. That rather obnoxious gas was what was keeping the mob at bay. As the marshals fired their canisters fewer apart, the rioters moved close and closer to our lines in front of the Lyceum.

Things were becoming dangerously catastrophic. We had weapons and ammunition but not enough for the situation. We were attentive when we heard a “tromp, tromp, tromp” coming down toward the football stadium. Soon a line of soldiers from 503^rd Military Police Battalion Airborne at Fort Bragg, wearing riot gear and carrying rifles with bayonets, marched up the street and took up positions. Kennedy had sent in the trained regular Army riot dispersers. 

I will never forget the gravelly-voiced sergeant who ordered his troops to “Right face,” so they would be facing the Grove. Then he said, “Fix bayonets!” Then he said, “Lock and load, one round.” The metallic ring of the bayonets and the click of the rifles being loaded obviously made an impact. Rioters were already running away before the sergeant ordered his troops into riot formation and they fanned out across the Grove. 

The real danger was over but there were skirmishes the next morning with Guardsmen and the MPs chasing scattered bands of dispersed rioters and troublemakers around the university campus and the city of Oxford. 

Two people were killed in the riot, many injured and there was looting, destruction of property and hijacking of cars. Besides the students who took part in the rioting, there were outsiders who came in from around the state and from surrounding states to preserve their sacred institution of segregation.

One Mississippi television station even encouraged people to go to Oxford to stop Meredith from enrolling. Gov. Barnett did not discourage anyone from going. 

Why rehash “The Oxford Incident” as the Feds called it, or “Operation Rocky Road” as the Mississippi National Guard termed it? 

It might be worth considering the circumstances as President Donald Trump seems intent on using the National Guard for his endeavors. Let us consider the situations in Los Angeles and Washington. No signs of rioting, people being killed by rioters, no looting, no extensive burning or property destruction. I did not see two Guard members standing behind a jeep for safety and finding bullet holes in it the next day.

In D.C., I saw Guard troops standing around national monuments, chatting with tourists and having their pictures taken with them. I saw Guard personnel stationed in front of federal buildings in Los Angeles with little activity around.

After college, as a reporter for United Press International, I covered a few other disturbances that involved the use of National Guard troops. There was always credible evidence for their use. 

There seem to be more plans for such far-fetched actions. Trump is trying now to send the Guard to other cities, like Chicago and Portland. He seems to have a gleam in his eye for New York City.

We have heard claims that there is serious trouble in all those cities, but the Trump minions have not brought any evidence to contradict relative scenes of peace. 

Force was needed at Ole Miss. There was rioting, looting, killing, property destruction and defiance of federal court orders. Force used to quell dangerous and catastrophic situations can be necessary.

Force used for personal whim and for personal political advantage without cause are a travesty against our democracy and Constitution. The Trump administration opts for the latter.

Bio: Terry Wooten is a native of Pontotoc who studied journalism at the University of Mississippi. He worked as a reporter for the then-Tupelo Daily Journal and United Press International in Jackson and Charlotte, N.C. At UPI, he covered the race story in Mississippi and North Carolina. He was also a foreign correspondent and news executive in London and Europe for Futures World News for seven years and was managing editor/commodities for Dow Jones Newswires in New York.

Deep South Today, the nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today, Verite News in New Orleans, Louisiana, and The Current in Lafayette, Louisiana, announced Tuesday that it will create a new regional investigative reporting center in collaboration with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

The Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center will launch in early 2026 with a lead investigative editor, dedicated full-time investigative and data reporters, and New York Times Local Investigations Fellows at Mississippi Today and Verite News. It will also include support from Big Local News, a program at Stanford University that empowers journalists with data, tools and collaborations. As the Deep South Today network of newsrooms continues to grow, the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center will add capacity in its new newsrooms with dedicated reporters and fellows.

“The Deep South Today newsrooms are already publishing impactful and award-winning investigative reporting, and our new Investigative Reporting Center in collaboration with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship will dramatically expand the breadth and depth of that work,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “We developed Deep South Today to provide the infrastructure to sustain and grow local journalism in a region that is under-resourced and underserved, and this critically important initiative will advance our mission.”

The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship is committing substantial resources in addition to the fellowship positions. Deputy Editor Chris Davis will manage the Deep South Today investigative team and the work will be co-published by Deep South Today newsrooms and The Times, and made available to local news organizations for co-publication. The Times will also lend staff time to help Deep South Today recruit, hire and train the editors and reporters who will be a part of their new investigative reporting center, as well as edit the stories being produced. Support from the Times will help fast-track Deep South Today’s ambitious goals to produce local beat coverage and investigative stories of importance to communities across the region. Additionally, the Local Investigations Fellowship will continue working with other newsrooms across the U.S. to produce original accountability journalism.

“Deep South Today has big ambitions for robust coverage of the South and building an investigative team is vital to that mission,” said Dean Baquet, former Executive Editor of The Times who now leads the Local Investigations Fellowship program. “We’ve already worked with Mississippi Today to much success and we look forward to doing more.”

Across the Deep South, the capacity of local and state newsrooms to produce resource-intensive, in-depth investigative reporting that exposes injustice and holds the powerful accountable is scarce. Local journalism is under attack on numerous fronts, and this initiative is being launched at a critical time when access to public information in the public interest is increasingly being restricted and accountability reporting is more challenging than ever to produce.

“This collaboration will redefine what’s possible for local journalism,” said Adam Ganucheau, Deep South Today’s Executive Editor and Chief Content Officer and a native Mississippian. “By combining the familiarity and trust of Deep South Today’s newsrooms with the resources and expertise of The New York Times, we’re building something truly unprecedented — a regional force for accountability and change. Together, we’re proving that the future of investigative reporting starts here, in communities that need it most.”

By working with The Times to launch and build out a new investigative reporting center, Deep South Today will position an upstart investigative team alongside some of the most prominent editors in the journalism industry. This initiative builds on the success that Mississippi Today already established with The Times and Big Local News: A joint investigation by those organizations about corruption and abuse by Mississippi sheriffs was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting and led to expanded federal investigations and legislative reforms in the state. Mississippi Today also separately won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2023 for its investigative series “The Backchannel” and The Local Investigations Fellowship won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2025 in collaboration with the Baltimore Banner and Big Local News for an investigation into the deadly opioid crisis.

“This collaboration is about more than just investigative journalism — it’s about building power through reporting in communities that have long been overlooked and where local newspapers are struggling to survive” said Terry Baquet, Verite News Editor-in-Chief and a Louisiana native. “We’re not just working together on stories; with The New York Times, we’re building a new model for how serious journalism can thrive in the South. It’s deeply personal to me, and I believe it is the future of local journalism.”

Integrating data journalism into the investigative teams and providing mentoring and training in computational methods with the support of Big Local News will level up the capacities of the Deep South Today newsrooms to uncover hidden patterns, provide sophisticated investigative coverage, and lower the cost of accountability reporting through better use of tools and algorithms.

“These resources mean Big Local News will be able to provide data journalism support to the Deep South reporters and editors that will further equip them to find and report out critical investigative stories,” said Cheryl Phillips, Founder and Co-Director of Big Local News. “I hope this work in the Deep South can serve as a model for how to scale local news.”

This initiative was made possible through a grant from Arnold Ventures, and Deep South Today and The Times view it as an opportunity to create a new sustainable, replicable model for building strong regional investigative teams that can produce high-impact local, state and regional stories in underserved communities.

All of the new positions for the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center will soon be posted on the Deep South Today website at: https://deepsouthtoday.org/careers

ABOUT DEEP SOUTH TODAY

Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today, Verite News and The Current.

Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now the largest newsroom in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. The Current is a nonprofit news organization founded in 2018 serving Lafayette and southern Louisiana.

With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.

ABOUT THE NEW YORK TIMES

The New York Times Company is a trusted source of quality, independent journalism whose mission is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. With more than 11 million subscribers across a diverse array of print and digital products — from news to cooking to games to sports — The Times is a diversified media company with curious readers, listeners and viewers around the globe.

ABOUT BIG LOCAL NEWS

Launched in 2020 as a program of Stanford University’s Journalism and Democracy Initiative, Big Local News helps reporters better use data in service of accountability journalism. Big Local News shares data and reporting recipes for journalists to localize stories at biglocalnews.org. It also provides news detection tools that monitor a wide variety of data and information streams. The goal: make it easier for journalists to find the stories that matter at the local level.

Big Local News regularly supports and mentors journalists in computational methods, including the New York Times Investigative Reporting Fellows, and was integrally involved with a collaborative project with The Times and The Baltimore Banner, which received the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting earlier this year.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections will review more than two dozen unprosecuted homicides inside its prisons, as well as deaths where causes were ruled as “undetermined,” following an investigation by several news sites, including Mississippi Today and The Marshall Project – Jackson.

“All the deaths that we’ve had since 2015, we’re going back to revisit,” Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain told the reporting team. “There is no statute of limitations, as you know, on homicide.”

Cain’s comments follow an investigation by a team of Mississippi reporters that revealed at least 43 people died by homicide inside Mississippi prisons since 2015. Total murder convictions in those cases? Eight, including two guilty pleas that came after the news stories were published.

The prison homicide investigation involved reporters and editors from The Marshall Project – Jackson, Mississippi Today, The Clarion Ledger, Hattiesburg American and The Mississippi Link. 

A prisoner advocacy group said revisiting past homicides won’t address the key reasons for the deaths in the first place — chronic understaffing of security officers.

Revisiting past homicides is “sort of closing the door after the horse has left the barn,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project. “What the commissioner also needs to do is figure out why this is happening and what to do to stop it.” 

Deaths officially categorized as homicides this year appear to have reached their highest level since 2020, when a gang war pushed that year’s total to at least nine killings.

Forty-one-year-old Aaron Harrison became the sixth person killed in a state prison this year when he died on July 3. A medical examiner later ruled that Harrison, incarcerated at East Mississippi Correctional Facility, was killed by blunt force trauma.  

A nurse practitioner at the prison noticed bruising on Harrison while treating him for a possible drug overdose before he died, according to an incident report obtained by the news reporting team. Court records show that no one has been charged in Harrison’s death, but it is not unusual for homicide investigations to take up to a year.

State Rep. Becky Currie, who chairs the House Corrections Committee, asked a legislative committee last month — as the reporting team was about to publish its investigation — to look into all prison deaths for the past five years. 

The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review analyzes state agency programs and operations and can issue recommendations.

Even with recent deaths, she’s found that little information is shared with the families, the public and lawmakers when an incarcerated person dies. 

“How can you say you’ll keep people safe if you don’t know what they’re dying of?” Currie asked.

Internal investigations

The corrections department has its own criminal investigations unit and can refer cases to county prosecutors for further action.

Cain said the agency’s Criminal Investigations Division is now examining each death that was not referred to a district attorney’s office. About 25 people work for CID, which has been rebuilt since he took over corrections in 2020, he said.

“We’ve brought a lot more professionalism,” Cain said.

Each prison has an investigator who can respond quickly, and more investigators work out of the central office than before, he said. “That way we can keep the integrity and know what’s going on.”

He compared the investigators’ work on these homicides to working on cold cases. “They’re looking for answers.”

“We’re going back to visit all that to be sure that we haven’t left any stone unturned,” Cain said. “Every crime that is committed in the prison, no matter how small,” will be referred to a county prosecutor. “If he wants to throw it in the trash and not prosecute, that’s up to him.”

In the past decade, prosecutors indicted people in 16 of the 43 homicides, with eight guilty pleas. One case was dropped because the accused person died by suicide before his day in court. Another was dropped in light of evidence that supported the accused person’s claim of self-defense. The remaining six indictments, handed up between 2022 and June 2025, are pending trial. 

The commissioner shared similar comments during a Sept. 24 legislative budget hearing, but lawmakers did not ask him follow-up questions about the investigations. Among those in attendance were House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

When reached by the reporting team, the offices of Hosemann and White, along with the state auditor’s office, declined to comment. 

The state Senate Corrections Committee chairman, Sen. Juan Barnett, did not respond to requests for comment about the team’s findings and Cain’s remarks. 

In addition to the 43 homicides, another 21 prisoner deaths since 2015 have been ruled “undetermined” by the state medical examiner’s office. That means medical examiners were not able to come to a conclusive answer about how a person died. An undetermined death could be a homicide, suicide, accidental, or a natural death. 

For example, Richard Weems’ 2022 death was ruled undetermined, but medical examiners noted his body showed signs of blunt force trauma. An incarcerated person told the Mississippi Free Press in 2023 that he saw Weems being beaten.

Asked if MDOC planned to review deaths marked as undetermined, Cain replied, “We’re going to look at all of them.”

Cain said prison security has been improved in recent years with more video cameras, six narcotic detection dogs, a drone detecting system and enhanced video on the prisons’ fences to stop drugs from being thrown over or dropped by drones. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the abundance of illegal drugs in MDOC facilities has led to extortion and violence, the department’s 2024 investigation found. 

Staffing shortages lead to violence, advocates say

One of the key problems the news investigation identified is the chronic understaffing that leaves incarcerated people vulnerable to violence. 

Fathi called the staffing levels in Mississippi prisons “a five-alarm emergency.” 

Corrections spokesperson Kate Head said in a statement that staffing “is central to safety and security.” The department continues to address the shortages and strengthen staff accountability, she told the news team.

Since Cain took the helm in 2020, the starting salary for a correctional officer increased by about $13,000, beginning at $40,392. Still, it is hard to hire and retain staff for such dangerous jobs. 

About 30% of the funded corrections officer positions were vacant, Deputy Commissioner Nathan Blevins told lawmakers at the budget hearing in September. 

“No prison can operate safely with that kind of staffing,” Fathi said, “It’s not safe for the incarcerated people, it’s not safe for the staff… it’s not safe for anybody.” 

Homicides in the prisons often happened when corrections officers were not watching.

For instance, Ronnie Graham was killed at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County in 2021, but his battered body was not discovered by a corrections officer for at least five hours. In another case, Jonathan Havard was strangled to death earlier this year at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility. However, his body was only discovered after an unidentified parent called to tell the prison officials that he had been killed, according to prison records.

Compounding the staffing problems is the growing prison population. Since December 2021, the number of state prisoners has increased from about 16,800 to 19,300, returning to pre-pandemic levels. Cain said the increase is largely due to high rates of recidivism. 

About 47% of people released in fiscal year 2021 returned to prison within three years, according to state corrections data. 

“If we do a better job of getting them employable, then that’s the whole key to recidivism and not coming back,” Cain said in the legislative hearing. “Recidivism is killing us.”

Cain’s promise of new investigations into unsolved homicides sparked hope for a mother who lost a son. 

Janice Wilkins, the mother of Denorris Howell, who was killed in the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman in 2020, said she is grateful that her son’s case will be reviewed.

“It means a whole lot to me,” she said. “Once they review everything, they should move forward.”

Grant McLaughlin with the Clarion Ledger contributed to this report.

LELAND – Destrile Jackson recited Psalm 23 as she ran for her life while bullets whizzed around her. Then she hid under a Jeep, watching as “guys with black T-shirts” shot at the sidewalk in her hometown in the Mississippi Delta.

She was sure she was going to get hit in the explosion of gunfire Friday night in Leland at a block party following a high school homecoming football game. She did but was not seriously wounded.

“I got hit running across the street. I just kept running. I could see the bodies dropping as I looked back. … I could see the bodies. … Just three minutes of continuing fire,” Jackson, a 2016 Leland High graduate, recalled Monday.

“I could see people drop like something you see in a movie,” she said. “It was panic. Everyone was in survival mode. People running and getting trampled. Some guy was having a seizure near me. It was pure panic.”

Mississippi communities from Leland to Lorman are reeling from the chaos of gun violence that killed nine people and wounded more than a dozen during or after high school and college homecoming celebrations Friday and Saturday.

Leland became the site of the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. this year when six people were killed and 20 were wounded in gunfire that erupted late Friday during a celebration downtown that included people who had returned to the small town to see friends and family. 

“It’s sad that we’re now known for a mass shooting. It had nothing to do with the school or the students,” Leland nonprofit leader Jasmine Styles said Monday, hours before the community held a candlelight vigil to honor victims of the violence.

“The most we’re used to is kids stealing license plates off cars,” she said. “The most we saw recently was kids setting off firecrackers at the tailgate, and people thought they were gunshots.”

Styles, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor, said she drove by downtown Leland on Sunday.

“It’s been taped off,” she said. “It looks like a cloud of gloom.”

The FBI Jackson office set up a digital media tips website where people with information can anonymously share cellphone video, photos or other information about the Leland shooting.

Elsewhere in Mississippi, two died in gunfire after the Heidelberg High School homecoming Friday night, including a pregnant woman. On Saturday, the Alcorn State University homecoming in Lorman ended in the shooting death of a 29-year-old Vicksburg woman and the wounding of two others.

The condition of a child shot in the abdomen in the tailgate area after the Jackson State homecoming Saturday in Jackson is unknown.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is assisting local and federal law enforcement agencies in investigating the shootings. No arrests had been made by Monday in the JSU or Alcorn State shootings.

Washington County coroner LaQuesha Watkins identified the Leland victims as Oreshama Johnson, 41; Calvin Plant, 19; Shelbyona Powell, 25; Kaslyn Johnson, 18; Amos Brantley Jr., 18; and JaMichael Jones, 34.

Brekyra Fisher, 29, of Vicksburg, died in the shooting at Alcorn State, according to Claiborne County Coroner Kieon Neal. 

Maxine Greenleaf, vice president of marketing and communications at Alcorn State, said the victim was not a student. A university statement said the campus in rural southwestern Mississippi now has “heightened security measures in place.” 

“Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to the family and loved ones of the deceased,” the university statement said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured individuals and their families as well.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Campus Police at 601-877-3000 or MBI and Crime Stoppers at 888-827-4637 or MBITIPS@dps.ms.gov.

The student government associations at Alcorn State and JSU released a joint statement that they “stand together – united as one HBCU.”

“Our shared legacy as Mississippi’s two premier HBCUs calls us to uplift one another – not only in moments of celebration, but also in times of challenge.”

The Jasper County coroner’s office identified the Heidelberg victims as Mikeia McCray, 28, of Laurel, who was pregnant, and Chris Newell, 35, also of Laurel. 

“The town has never experienced anything like this before, and my heart goes out to those devastated by this tragedy,” state Sen. Juan Barnett, former mayor of Heidelberg, said Monday. “It brings tears to my eyes right now. It really hurts.”

Heidelberg Police Chief Cornell White said Monday the department and other agencies continue to investigate. The town is about 85 miles southeast of Jackson.

Tylar Jarod Goodloe, 18, was arrested Saturday by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department in the Heidelberg shooting. He is charged with capital murder and possession of a deadly weapon on educational property. His bond is set at $2 million cash, according to the sheriff’s office. It wasn’t known Monday whether he is represented by an attorney.

Three other suspects were arrested Monday: 19-year-old Damarin Starks, charged with accessory after the fact and tampering with physical evidence; 19-year-old Jadarius Quartez Page, charged with accessory after the fact; and 19-year-old Jabari Deshaun Collins, charged with possession of a deadly weapon on educational property.

Barnett knows what it’s like to have a loved one’s life stolen. While he was fighting in Desert Storm, his father was killed in Heidelberg in 1991. 

“People sympathize,” the senator said, “but the hurt is not the same.”

The East Jasper School District released a statement Saturday saying the violence marred what should have been a joyful evening.

“These actions are not representative of the values, strength, or character of our community,” the statement said. “East Jasper and Forever Blue and Gold Homecoming are a place and time where families come together, where neighbors support one another, where alumni come from far and near with excitement and anticipation, and where our schools are centers of pride and belonging.”

Community members on social media said McCray was a Heidelberg High School graduate from the Class of 2016. 

The school district said it has fully cooperated with local and state law enforcement during the investigation, but understands there will be “questions, concerns, and fear in the aftermath of this tragedy.” 

“While this brings no comfort to the families and friends impacted, please know that the safety and well-being of our students, staff, and community still remain our highest priorities.” 

Sen. Derrick Simmons, who represents Leland, called the shootings “just senseless gun violence.”

“What we are experiencing now is just a proliferation of guns just being in circulation.” 

Styles, who operates a pre-trial diversion program in Leland, echoed those thoughts..

“To my knowledge, nothing like this has happened in my 31 years of living in Leland,” she said. “How are they getting access to weapons and alcohol? There must be adults giving it to them.”

Jackson, one of the shooting victims in Leland, said her fondest memories growing up were from homecoming.

“Homecomings are usually filled with love. We have Block Party Saturday and Family Fun Day Sunday,” she said. “It’s always something people looking forward to. We wouldn’t do that to our own. We’re just as shocked as the rest of the world. Our homecoming’s been stained like that.”

She said she is not planning to go to any more homecomings in the Delta.

Everytown for Gun Safety for Gun Safety advocates for evidence-based solutions to end gun violence.

“I shouldn’t have to text my parents to tell them I’m safe every time there’s a shooting near my school,” said Eshah Green-Ortega, a volunteer with the Jackson State chapter of Students Demand Action. “It keeps happening on our campuses, at our celebrations, and in our communities. We deserve to feel safe learning and living our lives, and our lawmakers need to do their jobs and pass the basic gun safety laws that will keep us safe.”

Jerry Mitchell and Candice Wilder contributed to this report.

Updated 10/13/25: This story has been updated to add photos and to reflect additional arrests in the Heidelberg shooting.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s Presidential Medal of Freedom will go on display in the next few months at the Two Mississippi Museums.

Hamer’s family donated the medal to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which operates the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

 “Our hope is that others will see it and want to learn more about Aunt Fannie Lou, her life, her legacy and the tremendous sacrifices she made on behalf of others,” Hamer’s niece, Monica Land, said in a press release Monday.

Curators will decide where the medal is displayed, said Michael Morris, director of the two museums that are side-by-side in downtown Jackson.

“Our museums already trace much of her life’s work,” Morris said. “The medal symbolizes the impact her courageous activism has had on the lives of Black people in Mississippi and across the nation.”

Hamer was born Fannie Lou Townsend in 1917 to sharecroppers in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She joined the Civil Rights Movement in 1961 after attending a meeting with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She became a SNCC organizer in 1962.

Hamer went on to become a key figure in Mississippi’s Civil Rights Movement. 

In 1964, Hamer helped organize Freedom Summer and co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The party traveled to the 1964 Democratic National Convention and tried to be recognized as an official delegation. She also addressed the Credentials Committee, speaking out about her experiences with racism and human rights abuses in Mississippi on national television. 

Hamer was part of Mississippi’s first racially integrated delegation at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Hamer was 59 when she died of cancer in 1977. Former President Joe Biden posthumously awarded her the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January during his final weeks in office.

Deep South Today, the nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today, Verite News and The Current, has named Hollis R. Towns as its first chief operating officer.

Towns is an experienced journalist and media executive who most recently held senior leadership positions at Gannett and AL.com and Alabama Media Group. In his role as chief operating officer, Towns will be responsible for translating strategy into actionable steps, sustainably scaling the organization, driving operational integrity and strengthening the fiscal business hub. His appointment is the result of a national search conducted over the last six months by BoardWalk Consulting.

“Hollis Towns is bringing precisely the kind of skills and expertise that Deep South Today needs at a moment when we are poised for dramatic growth,” said Warwick Sabin, president and CEO of Deep South Today. “He is an accomplished journalist and a proven business strategist with a deep understanding of talent development, digital innovation and financial management. Hollis is also a Georgia native who now lives in Alabama, so he is intimately familiar with our region. I am looking forward to working closely with him to advance our work and deliver more local journalism to the communities we serve.”

Towns is a nationally recognized media strategist who has led successful teams for more than 25 years. He is credited with creating Gannett’s police coverage strategy that led to national recognition and for envisioning the Center for Community Journalism, a self-contained news structure that combined Gannett’s small to mid-sized media properties into a self-sustaining operation.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Warwick and Deep South Today as its first COO,” Towns said. “It represents a pivot and it affords me the opportunity to leverage my deep management, news and leadership experience. Deep South Today is already a well-regarded and fast-growing media operation; I’m excited about building on that.”

Throughout his career, Towns’ teams have reached the upper echelons of journalistic excellence. His teams have won a bevy of national awards, including being a Pulitzer finalist in the prestigious public service category for a series on New Jersey taxes. His investigative team was featured in the Columbia Journalism Review. Towns has judged numerous journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prizes (three times) and the Poynter Prizes (twice). In 2025, Towns led his team at AL.com to launch Beyond the Violence 2.0, a comprehensive solutions-journalism initiative that seeks to tackle Birmingham’s intractable gun violence. His team won 27 citations at the 2024 Alabama Press Association Awards, winning first place in numerous categories.

According to Manny Garcia, the former editor-in-chief of the Houston Landing, “Hollis thinks like a CEO but with the chops of an editor. He’s the total package.”

Towns grew up in middle Georgia and graduated from Fort Valley State University. He attended college on a football scholarship and was a standout linebacker in both high school and college. He interned at the Detroit Free Press and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was offered a full-time job at the AJC before graduating from college. After working at the AJC, he was managing editor of the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette before being named executive editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. His achievements in Cincinnati took him to New Jersey, where he oversaw the Asbury Park Press and Gannett’s other nine properties in the state. After several promotions, Towns was named VP of news for Gannett, overseeing more than 150 sites in more than a dozen states in the company’s East Coast operations. He most recently served as VP of news for AL.com and Alabama Media Group.

From creating APP University as Editor of the Asbury Park Press to the more recent AMG Academy, the in-house training program launched in 2024 at AL.com, Towns has consistently championed professional development. He also serves as a mentor and coach for the National Association of Black Journalists talent and development program. Towns was appointed to the Poynter Institute’s National Advisory Board, one of the nation’s premier journalism training and advocacy organizations.

Towns’ first day as chief operating officer with Deep South Today was Monday.

ABOUT DEEP SOUTH TODAY

Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today, Verite News and The Current.

Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now the largest newsroom in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. The Current is a nonprofit news organization founded in 2018 serving Lafayette and southern Louisiana.

With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.