A motorist suffered injuries when a fleeing murder suspect crashed into the person’s vehicle during a police chase in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday, Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said at a press conference the same day.
The innocent motorist’s condition was unknown at this time but Wade said their injuries were “non-life threatening.”
JPD and Capitol Police officers engaged in the chase when an individual suspected of killing Melvin McNair Jr., at Parham Bridges Park on Wednesday did not adhere to their commands to stop. “He was pursued over probably a 3-4 mile stretch in North Jackson,” Wade said.
The suspect, who is now in custody, was 19-year-old Daveon Lindsey, Wade said. The chief said that because of the nature of the crimes police suspected Lindsey of committing, officers determined at the time that a vehicle pursuit was justified.
“We have an individual who was a murder suspect, a capital murder suspect, a carjacking suspect. So we did pursue in that situation,” Wade continued. “Unfortunately, he was lawless. He would not stop for law enforcement, Jackson PD or Capitol Police and he crashed into a vehicle near Adkins (Blvd) and Beasley (Blvd).”
As Lindsey fled police, he struck the other motorist’s vehicle and eventually crashed into a utility pole near the intersection of Ridgewood Road and Adkins Boulevard, where police apprehended him, Wade said.
The incident happened weeks before the Capitol Police Department is set to expand its jurisdiction in Mississippi’s capital city.
Police Chases A Long-Contested Issue In Jackson
Mississippi House Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat who represents District House 68 in Jackson, has been a longtime opponent of police chases.
Summers and several other activists joined Jackson and Clinton residents in 2016 while speaking out for safer police practices after the death of Lonnie Blue Jr. Blue was heading home from work on March 21, 2021, when a suspected shoplifter fleeing Clinton Police crashed head-on into Blue’s car in the West Jackson area, killing him.
“There are ways to catch criminals other than the loss of life,” Summers said on March 25, 2016, after Blue’s death.
In 2022, a driver fleeing a police pursuit in Pearl fled into the city of Jackson and crashed into a postal truck, killing the mail carrier. Jackson City Council members introduced a proposal at the time asking state legislators to create standards for police departments around when to pursue fleeing drivers across city lines.
“This is not the first person who has been killed over a misdemeanor,” Ward 3 City Councilman Kenneth Stokes said at the time.
On Oct. 26, 2023, after JPD unveiled new GPS tracking devices they said would make police pursuits safer, Summers told the Mississippi Free Press she was hopeful of the benefits of the new technology but cautious about celebrating the news.
“Technology can only be as effective as the policy attached to it,” Summers said on Oct. 26, 2023. She said JPD must be transparent with the public about how it works and how officers will be trained to use it.
In August 2022, a Capitol Police officer shot 39-year-old Sherita Harris in the head while attempting to stop another driver they said fled from a traffic stop and shot at them, Harris said during a press conference with her attorney on Dec. 20, 2023.
She was a passenger in the vehicle and police never charged her with a crime.
She has filed a $3-million lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Mississippi Capitol Police Department and the officers that she says were involved in the stop, saying that injuries from the shooting have left her disfigured and suffering from memory loss.
‘Nothing Is Worth Anybody’s Life’
Police pursuits can be dangerous for not only citizens, but law enforcement as well, University of Mississippi Professor of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies Dr. Wes Jennings told the Mississippi Free Press on Jan. 3.
“The idea that somebody can just take off going 100 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood, it’s absolutely not worth the risk,” he said.
Jennings said that officers should consider the time of day, the area they’re in and the severity of the crime a person is suspected of having committed, among other factors, when deciding to pursue a chase.
“If you’re with the car you already pulled over, you have their plate, you have their make and model, you have all that data already,” he said. He said police departments should enlist the use of alternatives to chases to pursue citizens they believe may have committed a crime.
“In terms of a high-risk pursuit, nothing is worth anybody’s life,” he said.
Jennings also said police departments have to be intentional about understanding the nuances of the communities they serve and believes Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade has “made good strides” recently in recruiting officers and rebuilding JPD, which had been plagued in recent years by vacancies.
The University of Mississippi’s Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform launched in 2021.
Jennings said a new program the center launched will initially focus on training higher-level law-enforcement officers such as chiefs and commanders in technology and policy, evidence-based policing and police-community partnerships.
Capitol Police Expanding Jurisdiction
The Mississippi Legislature originally tasked the Capitol Police, a state police agency, with patrolling state government buildings in Jackson, including the Mississippi Capitol Building.
Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1020 into law in April 2023, expanding the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Capitol Police Department, over Jackson’s Capitol Complex Improvement District.
The CCID initially included downtown Jackson, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University and the Fondren neighborhood.
The department’s footprint is set to expand on July 1, 2024, further north toward Northside Drive and south toward Raymond Road.
Capitol Police Chief Bo Luckey and JPD Chief Joseph Wade answered questions about the expansion during a Public Safety Committee meeting at City Hall on May 9, 2024.
“I’ve talked about collaborative, cooperative efforts since day one,” Wade said. “We’re still going to maintain a footprint within the CCID. We’re not vacating the CCID. … But it gives us an opportunity to deploy resources in some of the high crime areas in the City of Jackson.”
Wade clarified that Capitol Police only “enforce state laws, not city ordinances” so “(JPD) will have to be available to deal with those situations.”
But concerns linger among some Jackson residents about how the expansion will impact them.
A few of those residents expressed their concerns about the expansion during a town hall meeting hosted by Ward Three City Councilman Kenneth Stokes in Jackson on Mar. 28.
Stokes said Capitol Police officers need to do a better job of building relationships with residents.
And the boundaries of the CCID are set to expand again next year after Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1487 into law on May 8.
The law expands the CCID further north to Westbrook Road and includes the Kroger off of Interstate 55. That goes into effect on July 1, 2025.
