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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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— Reporter R.L. Nave is on the scene outside the Jackson Police Department downtown where officers confirmed to media that both a JPD officer and a suspect are dead inside on the third floor. A homicide detective was interviewing a murder suspect on the 3rd floor when shots were fired, police say, and both the suspect and a police officer died from gunshot wounds.

Mayor Harvey Johnson arrives at the scene downtown. April 4, 2013.

We’re getting reports that were texted from people who were inside the building that it was a homicide detective interviewing a suspect who managed to get his gun. We have a name for the officer, but will not report it until independently confirmed and until family has been notified.

An officer stands by the blocked off portion of Congress Street. Credit: Trip Burns

City spokesman Chris Mims said the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is about to take over the investigation, which is standard procedure. He also said Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. will release a statement soon.

Officers stand in the tunnel underneath the Jackson Police Department. Credit: Trip Burns

Jackson City Councilmen Chokwe Lumumba and Tony Yarber, District Attorney Robert Smith and Sheriff Tyrone Lewis stood with JPD Chief Rebecca Coleman as she announced that both the officer and the suspect were dead.

Outside the Jackson Police Department. Credit: Trip Burns

More details as they emerge.

MFP Solutions Lab logo

The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.