Seven-year-old boy critically injured in drive-by shooting

Published 10:59 pm Wednesday, June 12, 2019

A child was critically wounded in a drive-by shooting Wednesday night and airlifted to a Jackson hospital as authorities are trying to piece together what happened.

Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins said investigators plan to work through the night to track down information, but are getting very little help from people in the neighborhood.

A 7-year-old boy was struck by at least one bullet fired from an assault-style weapon around 6 p.m. by someone who fired from a moving vehicle. The child was inside the house with a relative who lives at 2457 Grant Road, but Collins did not know if the boy lived there, too.

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Police received a call of shots fired, but when they arrived at the scene shortly after they discovered the victim had been taken by personal vehicle to King’s Daughters Medical Center. He was later airlifted to University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“It was an apparent drive-by where an assault-style weapon was used. They fired multiple shots into the house,” Collins said. “We’re working out here trying to find out what happened to this kid, and there is very little cooperation.”

Collins hopes to use his personal connections with residents in that area of town northeast of Brookhaven Country Club to get information.

“Brignall is where I was raised up at,” he said. “We’ll be out the rest of the night trying to run down some leads and trying to see what we can get on our own because at this time we’ve had very little cooperation from witnesses. The information I am getting, I’m really having to work for it because we have a lot of uncooperative people up here.”

Collins said the child was in critical condition at UMMC and he wants to know who is responsible for putting him there.

“A 7-year-old child is innocent,” he said. “Whatever the problems that the adults had it should not have spilled over dealing with the home and the kids.”

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Brookhaven Police Department at 601-833-2424 or CrimeStoppers at 601-823-0150. Tips leading to an arrest may be eligible for a cash reward up to $1,000.