Police in Mississippi shoot Tennessee woman to death
Published 4:45 am Thursday, July 21, 2022
Police in north Mississippi shot and killed a Tennessee woman Wednesday after officers said she led them on a car chase and then pointed a gun at them.
WREG-TV reported that the DeSoto County coroner identified the woman killed in Horn Lake, Mississippi, as 39-year-old Molka Horton of Memphis, Tennessee. Her body was being sent to the Mississippi medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
The incident began at about 1:35 a.m. Wednesday after police tried to pull over a Jeep Cherokee but the driver kept going. Police said they tried several times to stop the vehicle and put out spike strips that flattened the tires.
When the vehicle finally stopped, police said the driver got out holding a revolver and pointed it at officers, which led to an officer firing at the driver. Horton died at the scene.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is looking into what happened, as it does with all shootings involving law enforcement officers in the state. The Horn Lake police chief said four officers were put on administrative leave.
Police did not immediately say why they tried to conduct the initial traffic stop or why the woman might have evaded officers.