Police: Man suspected of killing 4 on Mississippi coast died from smoke inhalation from fire he set during standoff

Published 5:34 am Saturday, April 30, 2022

Autopsy results indicate that the man accused of killing four people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast this week died of smoke inhalation from a fire he reportedly set while hiding from the police.

Officials say that Jeremy Alesunder Reynolds, 32, was the man who killed the owner and two employees of a Mississippi Gulf Coast motel and subsequent death of a person shot during a carjacking. Reynolds was found dead after a standoff with police Wednesday, authorities said.

Gulfport Police Department’s incoming chief, Adam Cooper, said Reynolds holed up at a Gulfport convenience store after fleeing from a stolen vehicle. Gulfport is just west of Biloxi, where the shootings took place at the Broadway Inn Express motel.

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Motel owner Mohammad Moeini, 51; Laura Lehman, 61; and Chad Green, 55, were killed at the motel. Lehman and Green both lived and worked at the motel.

Police said that after the motel shootings, another man was shot during a carjacking in Gulfport, and he later died in surgery. Switzer identified him as William Waltman, 52.

Cooper said police fired teargas into the store where Reynolds was holed up. After trying to negotiate with him and getting no response, police went into the store and found him dead, Cooper said.

Officials say that Reynolds apparently tried to set a fire with some of the materials found in the office where he had barricaded himself. Officials say no gunshots were fired by Reynolds or the police during the standoff.