A Sunflower County, Miss., woman could lose custody rights to her children nearly a year after an Indianola police officer shot her then-11-year-old son, Aderrien Murry, in the chest at the family’s home in May 2023. In court filings, Sunflower County Prosecuting Attorney Gwendolyn Jimison cited the shooting while accusing Nakala Murry of neglecting her three children.
“To have to even think of losing her kids at this point over something that is not her fault is just unbelievable. It’s outlandish,” Nakala Murry’s attorney Carlos Moore told the Mississippi Free Press on Thursday.
Jimison filed papers in the Sunflower County Youth Court against Nakala Murry that alleged an unnamed witness saw Murry’s ex-boyfriend, John Nolden, frequently assaulting her in front of the kids. The petition says the witness said the shooting of 11-year-old Aderrien Murry was a “result of the mother and boyfriend domestic violence that have been happening for years (sic).”
Last year, Moore told the Mississippi Free Press that Aderrien Murry called 911 late on the evening of May 20, 2023, after he heard Nakala Murry crying and asking him to call for help after Nolden, who she was no longer with at the time, showed up at the house. When Capers arrived at the home, Moore said the police officer commanded everyone to put their hands up, and Aderrien Murry walked out with his hands up. The lawyer said Capers then shot the 11-year-old in the chest. He survived after a hospital stay.
“Being obedient, Aderrien Murry heard the command and came out with his hands up,” Moore said last year. “And seconds later after leaving his room and turning a corner into the living room, he was shot in the chest by Greg Capers.”
The attorney said on Thursday that the effort to terminate Nakala Murry’s custody rights is unfair because the officer is who shot her son—not Nolden.
“Nobody had been shot before the cop came,” Moore said. Capers apologized last year in a statement through his lawyer, saying he “did not mean to shoot the child.”
“The problem is the ex-boyfriend’s not the one who shot the boy; it’s the cop,” Moore said on Thursday.
Last year, Nakala Murry filed a $5 million lawsuit against the City of Indianola, Indianola Police Chief Ronald Sampson and Officer Greg Capers.
The Indianola Board of Aldermen voted to suspend Capers without pay in June 2023, but he remains an employee of the Indianola Police Department after a grand jury declined to indict him over the shooting on Dec. 14, 2023.
Murry must report to the Sunflower County Youth Court on April 17 to defend her right to continue to have custody of her three children. Nolden fathered one of Aderrien Murry’s siblings and will also have to appear in court to defend his custody rights.
The Mississippi Free Press contacted Jimison for an interview but did not receive a response by press time.
