Unexploded military shell found by grass cutters in Mississippi neighborhood
Published 5:16 am Tuesday, August 6, 2024
A normally quiet Mississippi neighborhood was swarming with squad cars as a military bomb squad investigated a suspected unexploded military artillery shell found by grass cutters.
WLOX in Biloxi reports that a bomb squad from Hurlburt Field Air Base in Florida safely removed the shell found in a Jackson County community.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office closed the area near the Lake Forest subdivision on Seaman Road. Both directions of the road were blocked as authorities awaited military personnel from Hurlburt Field Air Base in Okaloosa County, Florida.
The shell was discovered Monday morning in a ditch by grass cutters. Jackson County deputies, upon arrival, called the Biloxi Police Department’s Bomb Squad.
Residents of the Lake Forest subdivision were taken aback by the incident unfolding in their neighborhood.
The Biloxi bomb squad arrived at 11 a.m. and, by 1 p.m., had contacted nearby military bases to bring in an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team. The nearest available team was from Hurlburt Field Air Base.
The EOD team from Florida arrived around 3 p.m., and an hour later, determined the shell was either a dummy round or inert. “They took it out and took it with them,” said Captain Rich Crager with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.