Mississippi Capitol Police have shot four people since August with little public explanation — a toll that has some residents, community leaders and local politicians worried as the state continues to grapple with the once-obscure Seeks to expand the power of agency.
The victims included a 25-year-old father of two who was shot in the head during what police described as a response to a traffic violation, and a 49-year-old woman who is recovering from a hand injury. Has been The officer’s bullet ricocheted off the walls of his apartment as he lay in his bed.
It is not clear what was the reason for these firings and whether they were justified. The Mississippi Capitol Police does not equip officers with body cameras and has provided few details to the public or families of those injured or killed. The agency has an unusual level of authority for the state capitol police force after Mississippi empowered its officers to aggressively patrol the streets of Jackson to curb a record increase in murders. The police force operates outside the control of the city, making much of its work opaque.
“Something’s not right. I know that,” said Arcela Lewis, 44, whose son Jaylen Lewis was killed by Mississippi Capitol Police officers in September. “Nobody told me anything.”
Now, state officials want to give Capitol Police even more areas to patrol, billing the move as a way to help Jackson deal with its violent crime problem.
Two competing proposals under consideration by the Republican-led, majority-white state legislature would expand Capitol Police jurisdiction in the majority-black city. One of the proposals, which passed the House this month, would have sent criminal cases of people arrested by Capitol Police outside the city’s control to a new state-run court, a move that angered Jackson’s legislators and The mayor created a ruckus. A Senate committee struck down that provision on Thursday, but Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, still objects to giving more territory to the Capitol Police, calling it a “clear attack on black leadership” in an interview Friday.
The demonstrations, which emerged against the backdrop of a state-city feud over control of Jackson’s crumbling water system, have left residents and elected officials in a bind in the Democrat-led city. Many are fed up with the lack of a city police department, which has its own history of excessive force. But if the city gets the help that nearly everyone agrees it badly needs, it will likely have to hand over additional roads to an agency that answers to the state rather than local officials — and risk further erosion of public trust. takes risks.
Daniel Holmes, an organizer for the Poor People’s Campaign, said, “We don’t need rogue, renegade police patrolling the streets of Jackson.” gathered in protest against the law.
State Sen. John Horne, a black Democrat who represents parts of the city, wants to see more independent oversight of Capitol Police shootings — which are currently handled by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, a sister agency — but he The town supports keeping the police force.
“We’re not going to prosper in Jackson if there isn’t the rule of law,” he said. “We’re losing business. We’re losing families. Anyone who can get kicked out of Jackson right now is getting kicked out substantially. I believe we have to do something different than what we’re doing. Capitol Police It is not the only solution, but it is a part of the solution.
The chief of Capitol Police, Bo Luckey, did not agree to an interview, citing his boss Sean Tindall, commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Tindall declined to discuss specifics of the recent firing, citing the pending investigation, but said no officers have been fired or disciplined. He said the shootings were the result of two factors: a more proactive approach by Capitol Police officers on the streets of Jackson, and “criminal elements” that have become more aggressive in recent years. He said the agency’s goal is to keep people safe in Jackson, and after community meetings his residents approached him and thanked him for increasing patrols.
Tindall said the number of shootings worried him. “Anytime there’s an exchange of gunfire, especially when you lose your life, it’s sad. The whole situation is sad. And we take all these incidents very seriously,” he said.
Latasha Smith wants the officers to leave.
“I pray that the Capitol Police do not get expanded jurisdiction,” said Smith, 49. “If they do, I’m going too far.”
Smith says Capitol Police officers shot her shortly after midnight on December 11 while she was in bed. The bullet that hit him barely missed the hand of his 13-year-old daughter, he said. She recalled running from her building, screaming and bleeding, and was confronted by several Capitol Police officers, at least one with a rifle. She said neighbors have since told her they saw officers open fire, leaving at least one other apartment with gunshots.
Investigators from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation questioned him at the hospital and at his apartment. But Smith said he had not received a detailed description of what happened, much less an apology. State officials have said only that the shooting occurred during a pursuit that began with officers’ attempts to pull over a suspected stolen car. A news release from the Bureau of Investigation said that “shots were fired” and that the officer involved was not injured. But the release and an edited summary report obtained through a public records request did not describe Smith’s injuries.
Smith says Capitol Police officers shot her shortly after midnight on December 11 while she was in bed. The bullet that hit him barely missed the hand of his 13-year-old daughter, he said. She recalled running from her building, screaming and bleeding, and was confronted by several Capitol Police officers, at least one with a rifle. She said neighbors have since told her they saw officers open fire, leaving at least one other apartment with gunshots.
Investigators from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation questioned him at the hospital and at his apartment. But Smith said he had not received a detailed description of what happened, much less an apology. State officials have said only that the shooting occurred during a pursuit that began with officers’ attempts to pull over a suspected stolen car. A news release from the Bureau of Investigation said that “shots were fired” and that the officer involved was not injured. But the release and an edited summary report obtained through a public records request did not describe Smith’s injuries.
Smith has hired an attorney and intends to sue the Capitol Police and the Department of Public Safety. In a notice of claim letter sent to agencies in January, Smith’s attorney Dennis Sweet said the shooting was “clearly reckless, unnecessary and illegal” and that the officers “acted with the degree of training, knowledge and experience of other people.” failed.” appropriately trained and/or qualified law enforcement officers.”
In response to a question about Smith’s case, Tindall said, “I think it is very unfortunate and it is being looked into.” He declined to comment on the notice of claim.
Smith said she still has a bullet in her arm and recently returned to work at a grocery store.
“What was the purpose of you wielding that gun? That is what I want to know,” he said. “I am a human being just like you. You had no right to shoot me. In an apartment complex where all these people live What was the protocol for throwing away your weapon?”
The growing power of the Capitol Police
Capitol Police patrol an 8.7-square-mile area of Jackson known as the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which includes city government buildings but also extends to Jackson State University, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and parts of Fondren Hui, which is a trendy enclave. Popular restaurant scene.
The agency took on this expanded territory in 2021, a year that saw a record 153 murders in Jackson, a city of 150,000 people. Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, and the state legislature moved the Capitol Police under the Department of Public Safety and gave it money to hire more officers.
At the time, Jackson’s mayor, Lumumba, said that while he welcomed the state’s “commitment to greater cooperation and support”, Jackson needed more help combating the causes of the crime spike. He criticized the Capitol Police in recent public comments, and on Friday he reiterated that while policing is not the only solution to crime, investing in social services is also important.
In the summer of 2022, Luckey arrived and recruited more new officers and transferred more existing officers to Jackson Streets. A street crime unit, known as the Flex Unit, began conducting traffic stops and other proactive operations in search of stolen cars, drugs and guns.
It is unclear how the increase of the Capitol Police has affected crime in Jackson. According to WLBT-TV, an NBC affiliate in Jackson, the number of murders dropped to 133 in 2022, but the city still had the nation’s highest homicide rate. The Jackson Police Department does not publish current statistics on murder and other crimes, and does not respond to requests for data. Tindall said the Department of Public Safety does not have crime data within the Capitol Police’s patrol area.
Two years ago, the Capitol Police had about 70 officers; It now has about 120, and plans to hire 30 more. The Jackson Police Department has about 265 officers, about 90 fewer than it says it needs.
As the mission and power of the Capitol Police force has grown, it has been slow to adopt standard transparency and accountability measures for US law enforcement departments. The Capitol Police does not post any policies or procedures online that direct officers regarding the use of force, car chases, or foot chases. NBC News filed a public records request for the agency’s policies and was told the document could not be released until it had been reviewed and edited by lawyers. This process was not completed till Friday.
Kenneth Stokes, a Jackson city councilman whose district includes part of the Capitol Police’s patrol area, said he supports the Capitol Police’s efforts to prevent crime, but the agency must act responsibly.
“They should have somebody cameras and make sure there are some checks and balances if something goes wrong,” Stokes said.
Public Safety Commissioner Tyndale said Capitol Police officers receive standard training for all Mississippi law enforcement and are expected to do what they can to avoid shootings while protecting the public and themselves. He said the agency does not have the money to buy body cameras but has made a budget request to buy them.
Four shots, little information
On the night of September 25, Alex Lewis received a call from a friend that his older brother’s truck had been shot.
He and his sister arrived at the North Jackson intersection and learned that Jaylen Lewis had been taken away in an ambulance.
He asked the officers what happened but did not receive an answer – instead, Alexus said that an officer of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation briefly handcuffed him after he began filming and refused to move.
After this the sisters ran to the hospital, where their brother was on ventilator. He died the next day, leaving behind a 4-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.
Nearly five months later, Lewis’s family knows only a few facts that state officials have released: the shooting involved Capitol Police and was a “police response to a traffic violation,” according to a Bureau of Investigation report. A death certificate confirmed that Lewis was shot in the head by a police officer.
A 21-year-old woman was also mentioned in the Bureau of Investigation report, whose name was redacted; Lewis’s family believes she was his friend and was sitting in the passenger seat. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Two weeks after the shooting, Lewis’s family got their car back. His mother, Arcela Lewis, said there were three bullets in the windshield and two on the driver’s side.
Arcela said she called the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to ask for the police report, but received nothing. Arcella said the Hinds County coroner declined to provide a copy of the autopsy, citing the pending investigation. (The coroner did not respond to requests for comment.)
The family is disheartened. “It’s like they just don’t care,” said Arcela, who lives in Atlanta.
At the encouragement of an activist, she filed a complaint on February 3 with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Public Integrity Division, saying she had received no explanation for her son’s death. She is waiting for response. A spokeswoman said the office has not yet received the investigative file from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Tindale said state policy has long prohibited the Bureau of Investigation from releasing reports, video footage or other information. When he became commissioner, he said he changed the policy to allow the release of information after the investigation and any court proceedings have been completed.
“We try to reach out to the families in these cases, and let them know what the process is and what they’re going through as far as MBI is concerned,” Tindall said.
But he acknowledged that his agency could do better in communicating with the public and soliciting feedback, and said he has asked Luckey to start a community resources division, though he did not give a timeline.
“I want to be transparent about those problems so we can fix them,” Tyndall said.
A month before Lewis’s death, Capitol Police were involved in another shooting related to a traffic stop. The Bureau of Investigation’s brief report says little about the August 14 shooting itself, saying that it occurred “following a police response to a traffic stop” and involved 30-year-old Sinatra Jordan and a 38-year-old woman, whose name was redacted. Has been done . He didn’t tell who shot him.
An arrest warrant and affidavit reveal that police say Jordan failed to stop at a red light, and when officers tried to pull him over, he sped and crashed, firing a weapon at an officer. and fled on foot. He is facing charges in prison for possession of marijuana, fleeing from officers and aggravated assault on an officer.
Jordan and the woman in the car with him could not be reached for comment. It is unclear from court documents whether Jordan has entered a plea, and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
The circumstances of a fourth shooting at Capitol Police on September 12 remain unclear. The Bureau of Investigation report says only that it involved an off-duty officer responding to a “residential disturbance” in Jackson. It names the 29-year-old Jackson man, Umneen Thomas, but does not describe his injuries. Court documents said he was charged with sexual assault and aggravated assault; WLBT-TV reported that he was accused of sexually assaulting two women he met online. His lawyer declined to comment.
Fight for accountability
In the coming weeks, the state legislature will decide whether to further empower the Capitol Police in Jackson. The bills under consideration have faced city-wide protests, with activists, politicians, and clergy vowing to fight the measures.
Jarvis Dort, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, said he is concerned about expanding what he sees as the Capitol Police’s aggressive approach and lack of accountability.
“This whole idea of active policing — it’s scary to me because it tells me you’re just going out and harassing people to push them off the streets,” he said.
The House bill, which a Senate committee revised Thursday, must pass the full Senate by March 8 to survive this session.
State Representative Trey Lamar, the House bill’s Republican author, said Jackson had support across racial lines to further empower the Capitol Police. The bill has “absolutely zero racial intent whatsoever. Absolutely not,” said Lamar, who is white.
He said that while he understands that the investigation into the shooting must be completed before the state can release the information, he hopes that will happen soon in the case of Jaylen Lewis.
“The family certainly deserves to know,” he said, adding that so does the public.