Authorities used justified force in 5 shootings, Mississippi attorney general says

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Law enforcement officers were justified in using force in five shootings in Mississippi from 2021 to 2023, including a shootout that involved an escaped inmate, state Attorney General Lynn Fitch said Monday.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation examined each of the shootings, and the attorney general’s office reviewed the findings.

Leake County Sheriff Randy Atkinson, three of his deputies, four agents of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and one National Park Service ranger were involved in the confrontation with escaped inmate Dylan Arrington on April 26, 2023.

Arrington, 22, had broken out of the Hinds County jail and barricaded himself in a home in the Conway community near Carthage, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of the jail. Arrington set the home on fire after exchanging gunfire with officers, Atkinson said. Arrington’s body was found in the charred home.

Fitch said the other shootings happened Nov. 17, 2021, in Waynesboro, involving two Waynesboro Police Department officers; April 17, 2022, in Horn Lake, involving an agent of the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department; March 22, 2023, in Southaven, involving one detective of the Southaven Police Department; and May 23, 2023, in Columbia, involving two deputies of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department.