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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.

Nancy Loome, executive director of The Parents’ Campaign public education advocacy group counters many points proponents are making in their push for more school choice in Mississippi. Loome says siphoning public money for private schools would provide no benefit to Mississippi students or taxpayers and that state leaders should instead focus on sustaining and expanding education gains made in recent years. She said opposition to school choice from parents on both sides of the political aisle in Mississippi is growing.

Sponsored By JPMorganChase

As we near the holiday season, you may be looking to treat yourself to those set of wheels you’ve been eyeing, or perhaps it’s time to purchase your loved one their dream car. In today’s financial climate, managing your vehicle costs efficiently is key, as it could help you save money and limit potential headaches down the road. Here are some helpful tips to finally make that purchase for your (or a loved one’s) dream vehicle this holiday season:

1. Set your holiday budget, and stick to it. There are a variety of different expenses that come with getting a car – the purchase cost, insurance, maintenance and fuel being a few of them. Knowing how much you can afford, especially if you plan to pay for it over time, is key to avoiding a car bill that stretches your finances. Look for access to different budgeting tools and tips that can help you save for your purchase.
2. Look for the best holiday deals. Like many other items, vehicles have a price cycle; the end of the year tends to be when you can find a better deal, as dealers may need to meet quotas or clear out inventory. Generally, make sure you are considering multiple vehicles and shopping around at several dealerships to get the best price. 
3. Test drive the vehicle to make sure it fits your needs. This is your time to see how the vehicle looks and feels, try out the interior systems and figure out if the vehicle fits your needs. Schedule test drive appointments to ensure the car you want is still available, ideally a few in the same day or week to keep your impressions fresh in your mind. It’s also helpful to simulate your daily driving conditions as much as possible, such as bringing any car seats or equipment you may have in your car daily. After your test drive, you can ask about the car’s warranty and fuel and maintenance requirements, as well as the possibility of getting an extended test drive or bringing the car to your own mechanic for a second opinion.
4. Determine whether you are financing or leasing. There are benefits of both a lease and a loan. With a loan, there is no milage limit and you are free to customize and change the car as you see fit. After completing your finance payments, you own it. Leases typically have lower upfront costs than loan payments, and at the end of the term you can return, purchase or trade the vehicle in. But keep in mind that most leases have a mileage limit, so it might not be the best option if you travel often.  
5. How to know if an electric vehicle is right for you. With so many major manufacturers building EVs, there are more options than ever before. However, cost, maintenance, range and charging logistics are all key factors to consider. For maintenance, EVs typically require less maintenance than traditional cars. EV batteries tend to be covered by 8-10 year warranties (outlasting the amount of time most people own their cars) but EV tires degrade faster due to the weight of the battery.  And just as gas prices vary, so do electricity costs – based on your location, your driving style and the size of your battery.

The median range of an EV with a fully charged battery is roughly 250 miles, but that number depends on the make and model as well as other factors like weather, traffic conditions and driving style. And when it comes to charging infrastructure, some cities and states may have more charging stations than others. Make sure to plan your trip ahead of time and map your route.  

Be sure to do your homework first before making that big purchase. There are many tools available that can help you plan for costs in addition to the vehicle loan or lease payments, such as sales taxes, registration fees, and insurance—which can vary depending on the car make, model and even the color. For instance, using a car payment calculator can help estimate your monthly car payment for different scenarios, by inputting the ballpark amount you’d like to finance along with some other basic info.

For more auto budgeting tools and tips, visit autofinance.chase.com.

For informational/educational purposes only: Views and strategies described in this article or provided via links may not be appropriate for everyone and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any business. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. The material is not intended to provide legal, tax, or financial advice or to indicate the availability or suitability of any JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. product or service. You should carefully consider your needs and objectives before making any decisions and consult the appropriate professional(s). Outlooks and past performance are not guarantees of future results. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates are not responsible for, and do not provide or endorse third party products, services, or other content.

Deposit products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Opportunity Lender.

 © 2025 JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Only a fraction of Mississippi inmates diagnosed with hepatitis C receive treatment, which has allowed the treatable infection to develop into a life-threatening illness, interviews and documents obtained by Mississippi Today reveal. 

As many as 845 people incarcerated in Mississippi Department of Corrections facilities were confirmed to be living with hepatitis C between January and March of this year, records show. During the same period, 48 people – or less than 6% with documented diagnoses – received treatment. 

But in private, officials have at times cited a much higher caseload – 5,000 cases out of about 19,000 people incarcerated by the state. This suggests that public records may reveal only a small portion of a widespread hepatitis C problem in Mississippi’s prisons, a state lawmaker with direct oversight over the corrections department told Mississippi Today. 

As people in the care of the state suffer and the treatable illness continues to fester, she said, officials aren’t using resources available to them to lower the costs of medications. 

This year’s treatment numbers represent an improvement over last year, when 19 people in state prisons – or 2% with diagnoses – received medication for hepatitis C. In 2020, only three people received treatment. 

READ THE SERIES: Behind Bars, Beyond Care: A Mississippi Today investigation into suffering, secrecy and the business of prison health care

Department of Corrections spokesperson Kate Head did not answer questions from Mississippi Today about why at least hundreds of people in its custody with the contagious illness are not receiving treatment. But she said the agency’s medical contractor “is responsible for providing appropriate medical treatment to inmates with all medical conditions, including Hep C.” 

VitalCore Health Strategies, a company that holds a three-year, $357-million contract to provide medical care to Mississippi prisoners, declined to comment. The company was previously awarded over $315 million in emergency, no-bid state contracts from 2020 to 2024.

Data obtained by Mississippi Today show a clear disparity between the number of people who test positive for the virus and the number of people who receive treatment. 

Behind closed doors, state officials and VitalCore executives have been briefed on a much larger volume of cases, House Corrections Chairwoman Rep. Becky Currie told Mississippi Today. 

Mississippi has one of the highest incarceration rates per capita in the world. Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, has oversight of Mississippi’s prison system and those who manage it. During a private meeting at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County with some of these leaders, Currie said Dr. Raman Singh, VitalCore’s chief medical officer, told her and State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney that about 5,000 MDOC prisoners and some prison workers had contracted hepatitis C. 

Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain shared the same number with her in a separate meeting, Currie said. 

Singh did not respond to requests for comment.

MDOC and VitalCore did not respond to questions about whether such conversations occurred. Department of Health spokesperson Greg Flynn said Dr. Edney did not believe it would be appropriate to comment on a private conversation, but he said it “absolutely could be the case” that as many as 5,000 people incarcerated in Mississippi suffer from hepatitis C. 

Mississippi Today identified inconsistencies in testing and diagnosis numbers, such as low numbers of tests that resulted in large increases in new diagnoses, obtained through public-records requests. “Data collection and streamlining of the reception and diagnostic unit” contributed to the discrepancies, Head said. 

During a series of tours of Mississippi prisons last year, Currie, who is a registered nurse, said she witnessed prisoners suffering from a wide range of health ailments, including hepatitis C, without treatment. The suffering is preventable, and raises questions about how hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent, she said.

Currie called the denial of hepatitis C medication in Mississippi prisons a “public health crisis” that she couldn’t look away from as a nurse and a Christian. 

“This is morally wrong,” she said. 

A cure to count on

Hepatitis C can be treated with a type of highly effective antiviral medication that cures more than 95% of patients in a matter of weeks. Nonetheless, there are over 10,000 hepatitis C-related deaths in the U.S. each year.

Left untreated, the contagious blood-borne virus can cause serious health problems, including liver disease, liver failure and cancer. It is the leading cause of liver transplants in the U.S. 

Hepatitis C proliferates in state prisons across the country, where its prevalence is nine times greater than the general population. 

Risk factors for hepatitis C, such as injecting drugs, overlap with those for incarceration, said Dr. Anne Spaulding, an associate professor of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health who studies hepatitis C in prisons. She formerly served as medical director for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. 

Spaulding said prisons should make the medication available to every person who wants treatment.

“There should be no reason why a prison can’t treat most of their patients,” Spaulding said.

The first treatment for hepatitis C arrived in the 1980s. But the medication had low success rates and debilitating side effects, including flu-like symptoms, fatigue, depression and suicidal ideation. 

A major scientific advance in the early 2010s – direct-acting antiviral drugs – transformed treatment regimens, offering high cure rates, shorter treatment durations and fewer side effects. 

“The cure is something that you can really count on,” Spaulding said. “So it’s gone from a difficult-to-treat infection to an infection that is much, much simpler and effective (to treat).”

But the breakthrough in treatment has meant little for most Mississippi prisoners with hepatitis C, who have been fighting for years to receive the medication in prison. 

“It is a problem that has been left so long without any answers,” Currie said. 

In 2017, Chad Spiers, then incarcerated at South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the medical contractor at the time for denying him medication after he tested positive for hepatitis C. 

Magistrate Judge Robert H. Walker dismissed Spiers’ complaint, ruling that his care was constitutional because, though he did not receive medication, he was monitored for progression of the illness. 

“The Constitution guarantee (sic) prisoners ‘only adequate, not optimal medical care,’” reads the ruling. 

The Department of Corrections’ hepatitis management policy obtained by Mississippi Today says it will provide treatment for people with hepatitis C diagnoses “when indicated.” Spokesperson Head did not respond to questions about which cases warrant treatment. 

But a person with direct knowledge of medical care inside Mississippi’s prisons, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about how inmates are treated, said prisons are financially incentivized to wait to treat inmates until they get sick enough for prison officials to justify purchasing the expensive medication. 

“(Prison staff) were told he’s not sick enough yet,” the person said. 

The medication can cost the Mississippi system almost $30,000 for a six-week course, the person said. 

However, many state prison systems have negotiated cheaper prices for the medication and are able to treat more patients.

Delaying treatment runs counter to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which say clinicians should treat people and not wait for the illness to resolve spontaneously.

The CDC’s guidance should be applied to people who are incarcerated, said Dr. Kate LeMasters, as assistant professor at the University of Colorado who studies the public health implications of the prison system.

Most people with hepatitis C do not have symptoms, and about 25% will spontaneously clear the infection without treatment. The disease is slow moving and can take years for symptoms to show. But left untreated, it can wreak havoc on a person’s immune system, turning their skin yellow from jaundice and causing joint pain that leaves them immobile. Its longer-term health consequences, such as liver failure and cancer, are life-threatening.

“What we do now is that we let them get sick and die, or we let them get so sick that they get a liver disease, cirrhosis or cancer, and they die,” Currie said. 

Disincentives and unused discounts

Even as the price of costly medication has fallen and treatment has become more effective, some state prison systems argue that treating hepatitis C is prohibitively expensive. 

Several states have negotiated innovative payment models to treat people and prevent the spread of the disease inside and outside of prison walls. 

Some use what is called the “Netflix” model – a subscription-based program that gives a state unlimited treatment doses during a fixed period. Other states have negotiated lower costs with pharmaceutical companies or obtained the medication through health care organizations enrolled in the federal 340B program, which requires pharmaceutical companies to sell outpatient drugs at discounted prices. The program can offer discounts on drugs in the range of 20% to 50%. 

In its February 2024 contract proposal, VitalCore wrote it was “confident” it would be able to access discounted prices for hepatitis C medications using the 340B program. 

“We have had tremendous success in accessing 340B purchasing and pricing in other similar contracts for the purpose of purchasing more expensive medications such as those for the treatment of HIV and Hepatitis C,” the proposal reads.

In the 2025 legislative session, a bill proposed by Currie would have required the Mississippi Departments of Health and Corrections to establish a hepatitis C program for inmates and work to obtain the medication at a discounted price through the 340B program. 

The legislation passed the House with a large bipartisan majority, but didn’t survive negotiations with the Senate, in part because of a disagreement over the bill’s proposed audit of prison health care. 

MDOC and VitalCore did not respond to questions about whether they receive 340B pricing for hepatitis C drugs. University of Mississippi Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital system, did not respond to a request for comment about whether the hospital partners with VitalCore to obtain discounted hepatitis C medication. 

The Department of Health provided MDOC information about how to access 340B pricing several months ago, but the agency has not yet taken steps to obtain the reduced prices, Health Department spokesperson Flynn told Mississippi Today. 

“The Department of Health has given information about how to go about getting 340B pricing and joining the program to the Department of Corrections,” Flynn said. “But to our knowledge, they are not utilizing the 340B, at least not that we know of right now.” 

This means the Corrections Department isn’t making use of the tools it has to purchase hepatitis C medications at a cheaper price, Currie said. 

“They’ve been able to get it all along,” she said.

A fate no one deserves

One study suggests it is most cost-effective to test and treat hepatitis C widely and provide linkage to care when people are released from prison because it prevents expensive complications and limits the spread of the infection. 

“It’s going to cost the taxpayers more because we don’t initially treat it,” Currie said. 

Currie told Mississippi Today she has personally asked the corrections department to treat several people she met while touring the prison system last year. One was “literally about on his deathbed” before receiving treatment, but has shown significant improvement since receiving medication, she said. 

Despite evidence that suggests broad testing and treatment save money in the long run, Mississippi does not test widely for hepatitis C. Testing is performed “when deemed clinically indicated by the healthcare providers,” who take into consideration risk factors and the probability a patient has hepatitis C, Head said. 

Incarceration itself is a risk factor for hepatitis C, given its high prevalence in prisons, LeMasters said. 

“Everyone should be screened when entering prison because people who have a history of incarceration are considered at risk,” she said. 

Opt-out testing, where patients are tested unless they specifically decline it, is the most effective way to identify hepatitis C, Spaulding said. 

Incarcerated people are one of the few groups in the U.S. with a constitutional right to health care. MDOC has told Mississippi Today that it provides health care to prisoners that meets constitutional standards. 

But a former top corrections official, after reading Mississippi Today’s coverage of prison health care issues, turned over internal communications to the news outlet that revealed top prison officials bemoaning the poor medical care provided to prisoners. 

Inside prison facilities, hepatitis C patients are denied lifesaving medication – a fate no one, not even people convicted of crimes, deserves, Currie said. 

“Our whole ‘because you’re in jail, we don’t care if you die’ program really doesn’t work for me,” she said.

Based on the ongoing rhetoric surrounding the federal government shutdown, perhaps it is time to ask the question.

The question is, do we – the United States of America –  really want undocumented immigrants receiving medical treatment in our hospital emergency rooms?

If a non-citizen falls off a roof of a house while doing carpentry work, do we want to transport him to the hospital or just leave him in the yard to fend for himself – broken legs and all? If a non-citizen child is sick, should she be provided emergency care?

Under current law signed in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, the answer is yes to providing emergency care.

Hospitals, if they receive federal funds, are obligated to provide “stabilizing care” in their emergency rooms to all who show up, including undocumented immigrants.

The issue is worth discussing now because Republicans, led by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, are complaining that Democrats are shutting down the federal government demanding federal funds to provide health care to undocumented immigrants.

U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell of Mississippi’s 4th District wrote on social media, “Senate Democrats failed America. They shut down the government because we refused to give free healthcare to people who broke our laws to get here.”

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi reposted the Senate Republicans proclaiming, “Senate Democrats are putting illegal aliens ahead of our troops and American families in need.”

In reality, the issue that led Democrats to oppose the continuing resolution to fund the federal government and thus leading to the shutdown has little to do with illegal immigrants. Instead, Democrats are trying to extend federal subsidies that make insurance policies purchased through the federal Affordable Care Act exchanges dramatically cheaper than they would otherwise be.

If the subsidies are not extended before the end of the year, the cost of insurance will go up on average $480 annually for the estimated 285,000 Mississippians on the exchange, according to KFF, a national nonprofit health care research organization. The premiums will go up much more for some Mississippians.

Some Republicans counter that they will discuss the subsidies once the government is funded. But the main talking point for many Republican lawmakers is that the Democrats want free health care for non-citizens. 

Under federal law, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive coverage through federal health care plans, such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Republicans had a chance to take up that issue when they passed what they called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” earlier this year at the urging of President Donald Trump. They did not.

Granted some states – yes, California _ do use their own state funds to provide health care for undocumented immigrants. Congressional Republicans considered trying to penalize those states for using their own money to provide health insurance for undocumented people, but opted not to in the big bill that President Trump signed into law in July.

While undocumented immigrants do not get health care through any federal program, hospitals do receive compensation for treating in their emergency rooms people, including non-citizens, without insurance and with limited ability to pay.

Trump’s big bill reduced the amount of compensation hospital emergency rooms receive for treating undocumented immigrants. That reduction hurts the hospitals, not the undocumented immigrants who the hospitals still must treat if they show up in emergency rooms.

Hospitals are partially reimbursed for the uncompensated care they give to help ensure their financial sustainability and help hold down the cost of health care for Americans. Without the federal assistance, hospitals could be forced to close or reduce services or increase costs for those with the ability to pay through private insurance or through other means.

So, if congressional Republicans and President Trump are complaining about Democrats trying to provide health care for undocumented immigrants, perhaps the options should be discussed.

One option was the big bill’s reduction of money going to the hospitals to treat undocumented people. This option penalizes hospitals and potentially those with insurance or the ability to pay. The alternative would be to provide adequate federal funds for the care that federal law mandates the hospitals provide.

Another option is to stop requiring hospital emergency rooms to treat undocumented immigrants. That could save a lot of money.

How does the United States of America, a country where a majority of people claim some type of religious views, want to address that issue?

Perhaps it is time to cut through the rhetoric and ask that question.

High school homecoming celebrations in Mississippi ended in gunfire Friday night, with separate shootings on opposite sides of the state that killed at least eight people dead and injured many more, authorities said.

Six were killed in downtown Leland after a high school football homecoming game in the Mississippi Delta on the state’s western edge, a coroner said Saturday. Four died at the scene, one died after being taken to Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson and one died after being taken to Memphis, Tennessee.

On the east side of the state, a pregnant woman was one of two people killed, Gov. Tate Reeves said.

About 20 people hurt in Delta region shooting

In Leland, about 20 people were injured in the gunfire after people gathered in the downtown area following the game, state Sen. Derrick Simmons said. Of the 20 who were hurt, four were in critical condition and flown from a hospital in nearby Greenville to a larger medical center in Jackson, Simmons told The Associated Press. He was being updated on developments from law enforcement authorities in the Delta.

On Saturday, pieces of tattered, yellow crime scene tape were wrapped around a pole in the city’s tiny downtown area. The police tape could also be seen in front of a boarded-up storefront, tangled up at the base of a sign commemorating the late soul singer Tyrone Davis, who was born nearby.

The crime scene is not far from City Hall, where family members gathered to seek answers. Members of the media were not allowed inside.

“People were just congregating and having a good time in the downtown of Leland,” Simmons said of the town with a population of fewer than 4,000 people.

He was told that after the gunfire, the scene was “very chaotic,” as police, sheriff’s deputies and ambulances “responded from all over.”

“It’s just senseless gun violence,” Simmons said. “What we are experiencing now is just a proliferation of guns just being in circulation.”

No arrests have been announced, and Simmons said late Saturday morning that he had not heard any information about possible suspects.

One witness, Camish Hopkins, described seeing people wounded and bleeding from various parts of their bodies and four people lying dead on the ground.

“It was the most horrific scene I’d ever seen,” Hopkins told The Associated Press after the meeting at City Hall.

Police shouted at people to keep behind crime-scene tape in the chaos, Hopkins said.

“No one was trying to really help,” Hopkins said. “Leland failed Leland yesterday, but I know that we can do better because this isn’t Leland.”

Washington County Coroner LaQuesha Watkins said in a statement Saturday that four people died at the scene of the shooting and two died later, the Delta Democrat-Times reported.

A separate shooting in eastern Mississippi killed 2

Meanwhile, police in the small Mississippi town of Heidelberg in the eastern part of the state are investigating a shooting during that community’s homecoming weekend that left two people dead.

Both of them were killed on the school campus Friday night, Heidelberg Police Chief Cornell White said. He declined to say whether the victims were students or provide other information about the crimes.

“Right now we’ve still got a subject at large, but I can’t give specifics,” White said Saturday morning.

An 18-year-old man was being sought for questioning in the Heidelberg shooting, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The sheriff asked that anyone with information contact the police chief or sheriff’s office.

The shooting in Heidelberg happened on the school campus where the Heidelberg Oilers were playing their homecoming football game Friday night. The town of about 640 residents is about 85 miles southeast of Jackson.

It wasn’t clear exactly when the gunfire occurred or how close it was to the stadium. White said he was at the scene Saturday investigating, and more information might be released in coming days.

“Our state is praying for the victims and their families, as well as the entire Heidelberg and Leland communities,” Gov. Reeves said in a social media post. “Those responsible will be brought to justice.”

A third shooting under investigation, sheriff says

In Sharkey County, also in the Delta, the local sheriff was investigating yet another shooting after a high school football game, authorities said.

Two people were arrested in that shooting, which happened at a local school after its game Friday night, Sharkey County Sheriff Herbert Ceaser Sr. said in a statement.

The statement did not include information on possible injuries, but said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family during this incredibly difficult time.” The sheriff couldn’t immediately be reached for more information Saturday.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is helping local law enforcement authorities investigate the shootings in Heidelberg and Leland but not in Sharkey County, state Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bailey Martin told Mississippi Today.

Update 10/11/2025: This story has been updated with additional details from the shootings in three locations, including an increase in the death toll in Leland.

Mississippi’s capital came alive Saturday as the Jackson State University homecoming parade drew fans and alumni from near and far. Spectators cheered as the Sonic Boom of the South played lively tunes, the Prancing J-Setts showcased their dance moves and drum majors led the procession with high-stepping precision.

The parade brought music, movement and excitement to downtown Jackson, creating a lively mood for homecoming weekend. Among the guest performers were a marching band and dancers from Chandler Park Academy High School in Harper Wood, Michigan.

WASHINGTON — More than half the states contributing National Guard troops to President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement initiative in Washington have set target dates for their withdrawal later this fall, state officials told The Associated Press. Mississippi is among them.

The dates, in late October and November, could be extended, and it is not immediately clear when the other three states will remove their troops. But the planned withdrawals signal that the surge of troops into the nation’s capital may head toward a drawdown or a change in scope.

The plans by the contributing states come as Trump takes his push to send the military to other American cities, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon, which have each pushed back with legal action to try to stop any deployment.

The National Guard was activated in D.C. in August after Trump issued an executive order proclaiming an emergency over what the Republican president said were crime concerns. The order placed the local police department under the president’s authority for 30 days and then lapsed when Congress did not renew it.

But roughly 2,300 Guard members from eight states, as well as D.C., and hundreds of federal law enforcement officers remained in the city. According to official figures, more than 4,000 people have been arrested as part of the campaign since August.

Authorities in Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia all told The Associated Press they had a planned end date for their deployments. The other states with troops in D.C. — Alabama, Louisiana and South Dakota — did not respond to requests seeking information.

South Carolina, which initially sent 200 troops and now has about 40, said it plans to withdraw by the end of October, according to Maj. Karla Evans, South Carolina Guard spokesperson.

Ohio, Georgia, Mississippi and West Virginia said they planned to remove their troops by Nov. 30.

The five states together make up more than 80% of the 1,300 out-of-state troops deployed to D.C. The D.C. National Guard deployment is made up of around 1,000 forces and has had its orders extended at least through December.

Asked about the planned withdrawals, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump’s law enforcement campaign in the capital had led to a reduction in crime. “These are undeniable positive results that everyone can celebrate.”

Trump has heralded his crime-fighting campaign in the nation’s capital as a resounding success. And data shows crime has decreased during that time, although rates were already falling before. But the lingering presence of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., has raised questions about Trump’s endgame for the deployments.

The Guard troops have patrolled transit hubs and tourist sites and as the deployment has dragged on, have become a fixture of the city’s urban scenery at parks and in neighborhoods. Their presence, at times armed, has been enough to unnerve residents, although no violent incidents have been reported. They also have picked up trash and in the case of the D.C. Guard, run an initiative that has done everything from help package meals for.

The news of a planned drawdown could be a relief for some residents, who have seen the unprecedented military deployment as increasingly normalized.

“This is not normal,” said Joseph Johnson, a local elected official who chairs a neighborhood advisory commission. “We know this should never have happened in the first place.”

A lawsuit brought by D.C.’s attorney general is challenging the deployment, with a hearing scheduled for Oct. 24.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office declined to comment. Bowser has said on several occasions that National Guard deployed from other states “has not been an efficient use of those resources.”

Some, however, said since the deployment was unavoidable, they tried to take advantage of it, especially with the D.C. Guard members running an initiative that has included cleaning neighborhoods and removing graffiti, as well as working with local food banks to package food and helping to revitalize a recreation center.

“They have no guns. They have no rifles, and they are truly doing what we have asked them to do to come and be a part of our community clean up,” Johnson said.

His fellow neighborhood advisory commissioner, Marcus Hickman, welcomed the additional help when the D.C. Guard emailed commissioners and asked if there were any needs. It allowed community members to work side by side with the guard members. Other plans are in the works, including the D.C. Guard joining in a school reading program, he said.

“When someone offers to come and help you clean your house, there is something to be said. A cleaner community is often a safer community.”