YAZOO CITY, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police department requested state investigators take over an investigation into the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy, state officials said.
The Monday announcement came on the same day that the department’s chief of police resigned due to a separate disagreement with the mayor of Yazoo City, Mississippi.
“The Yazoo City Police Department requested the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to take the stance of lead agency in this investigation,” Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, said in an email.
Yazoo County Coroner Ricky Shivers told WAPT-TV that 16-year-old Montez Mitchell, a sophomore at Yazoo City High School, was shot multiple times just before midnight on Saturday. He died from his injuries and was found in the yard of a home.
It is unclear whether the shooting factored into Yazoo City Police Chief Kenneth Hampton’s decision to resign. In his resignation letter, obtained by WLBT-TV, Hampton wrote that his departure stemmed from “irreconcilable differences and other matters of concern” between himself and Yazoo City Mayor David Starling.
Hampton told the news station he and Starling disagreed about how to discipline an officer who Hampton allegedly saw making gang signs in a photo posted on social media three weeks ago.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation did not offer any additional details about why the Yazoo City Police Department asked the agency to step in. The agency investigates shootings involving law enforcement officers, but Martin said there was no police shooting in this case. Authorities have not released any further information about the investigation into Mitchell’s death.
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P-MS–Mississippi-Teen-Shooting-Probe
May 22, 2023 4:45 PM – 272 words
