Suspect in Shooting Also Wounds 5 Officers

Five law enforcement officers were wounded during a bloody 36-hour saga that ended Sunday morning with the arrest of one man in this small Mississippi Delta town.

Mayor Herbert Thomas said none of the officers was killed, and the man suspected in all five shootings--as well as in the shooting of a man Friday--was in custody.

Friars Point Police Chief Anthony Smith had been trying to arrest Patrick Harper in connection with Friday’s incident when the chief was shot in the neck Saturday, Thomas said.

Smith remained hospitalized Sunday in satisfactory condition. The other officers were in satisfactory condition or better.

After the police chief was shot, officers from the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department were called in and tracked Harper to a nearby home in Friars Point, a town of about 1,400 people 200 miles northwest of Jackson.

As officers tried to enter the ramshackle home just after midnight, gunshots rang out, and Friars Point Officer John Martin-Harris and sheriff’s Deputy Victor Randle were shot, Thomas said.

With Martin-Harris hurt and apparently taken hostage inside the home, police units from surrounding counties, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the Mississippi Department of Corrections were called in.

“The suspect took the officer’s radio and handcuffs and his gun and he started making demands that he wanted all the police cars except for two to leave,” Thomas said.

About 3 a.m. Sunday, officers wearing bulletproof vests and armed with shields used a battering ram to break through the door, Mississippi Department of Corrections officer Kenny Scott said.

“We got the door opened, and that’s when the shots started,” he said.

Scott was hit in the thigh. Sheriff’s Deputy Neal Mitchell also was wounded.

About 5:30 a.m., Martin-Harris called from inside the home and the officers discovered that the suspect had slipped away.

Somehow, the suspect escaped with about 100 officers surrounding the home. Neighborhood lights had been shot out during the nighttime confrontation.

An hour later, about 80 officers surrounded the home of Harper’s grandmother, with the suspect inside. After two more hours of negotiations, Harper surrendered, Thomas said. Harper was being held at the Coahoma County Jail.

It wasn’t immediately clear what led to the shooting Friday night of Doyle Hunter, the Friars Point resident. He was shot in the face and shoulder and remained hospitalized Sunday.