Two arrested for murder in shooting at Mississippi music studio

Published 11:22 am Monday, August 22, 2022

Two suspects have been arrested in connection with a Friday night homicide in Bogue Chitto.

Dantez Frith, 22, was arrested Saturday and charged with first-degree murder. Cameron Stewart, 19, was arrested Sunday and also charged with first-degree murder. Both Frith and Stewart are from Pike County.

“We want to thank Pike County Sheriff’s Office and McComb Police Department for their assistance in capturing the suspects,” Lincoln County Chief Deputy Johnny Hall said. “Also, the investigators of Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office worked tirelessly all weekend to apprehend these two suspects.”

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On Friday, Aug. 19, at approximately 5:30 p.m., LCSO dispatch received a call of a shooting at a residence on Mill Creek Road, Hall said.

Summit resident La’Curtis Hackett, 22, and two other people had been in a music studio in that residence when two assailants kicked in the door and shot Hackett several times. Hackett was transported to King’s Daughters Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Three weeks ago, a Pike County grand jury declined to indict Hackett for the 2020 shooting death of Austin Wanzo. Wanzo, 20, also of Summit, was shot in the back with a Springfield XD .45 ACP semi-automatic handgun near the intersection of Summit Street and Higgins Drive in McComb.

Hackett said he had accidentally shot Wanzo as they sat in another man’s car.

According to The Enterprise-Journal, Police Chief Garland Ward said at the time that Hackett was charged with murder because the handgun has a system of four internal safeties that would not allow it to misfire. Hackett was arraigned in June on the charge of manslaughter, which was upgraded to murder in July.

Hall said the case remains an ongoing investigation.