A suspect has been arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with the homicide of a first-semester transfer student who was shot multiple times on Mississippi State University’s campus.
Mason Perry Jones, 21, of Jackson, was arrested in DeSoto County on Monday and is one of the three suspects in Saturday’s shooting, MSU Police Chief Georgia Lindley said in a news release.
Detective Brad Massey of the MSU Police Department said Jones was booked in the Oktibbeha County Jail around 7 p.m. Monday.
Maridith Geuder, director of university relations, said the offense underlying the capital murder charge is sell of a controlled substance.
Jones was arrested Sunday night by the U.S. Marshal’s Office in Memphis on a February warrant from the Jackson Police Department for armed robbery. Jones was on a northbound bus from Jackson, headed toward an unknown destination, supervisory inspector of the U.S. Marshal Service Richard Griffin said.
He said they gained knowledge the bus would be in Memphis around 7 on Sunday night. Jones was taken into custody at a bus stop in Memphis.
John Sanderson, 21, of Madison, was fatally shot multiple times Saturday night on the first floor of Evans Hall and was found outside a residence hall room.
Bill Kibler, vice president of student affairs, said Sanderson was transported to OCH Regional Medical Center where the doctors worked with him for around 40 minutes before he was pronounced dead at 11:03 p.m.
 
Oktibbeha County coroner Michael Hunt has ruled the death a homicide. Preliminary results were expected around 4 p.m. on Monday but had not yet been received by Hunt at that time.
Lindley said the investigation is ongoing. A gun has also been found on campus.
Kibler said Sanderson, an undeclared major, was a resident of Rice Hall. Kibler said he believes both Sanderson and the suspects were in Evans Hall because they were invited.
There was no breech of security, he said.
“The relationships of the individuals involved in the case will become clear as the investigation goes on,” he said.
The suspects were originally identified as three black males who fled Evans Hall in a late model blue Crown Victoria. Geuder said Sunday the suspects were not believed to be students.
Kibler said there were witnesses to the event who helped investigators determine the incident was isolated.
“The perpetrators fled not only the scene, but campus, and probably the city of Starkville immediately,” he said.
The MSU Police Department was notified of an incident at Evans Hall at 9:54 p.m. The police arrived within one minute of receiving the emergency call. Sanderson was found with serious injuries, but it could not be determined immediately whether he had been stabbed or shot.
The investigation began immediately after the welfare of the victim was taken care of, Kibler said. Campus was placed on alert and patrols on campus – including foot patrols in residence halls – increased significantly.
Two of the suspects are still at large, but the campus is no longer under an emergency alert.
Kibler said officials chose to release the first Maroon Alert text message in order to alert the campus of a crime for safety reasons, despite not knowing if it was a shooting or a stabbing.
“We err on the side of safety always,” he said. “We knew those who had performed this act had not yet been identified, so we needed to send that information out to the campus.”
Twenty-four students in Evans Hall were asked to relocate to enhance and protect the integrity of the investigation.
The motivation, along with surveillance video tapes from Evans Hall, are part of the investigation and have not been released to the public.
In a press conference Sunday, MSU President Mark Keenum said the campus is known as a safe place and said he wants to assure students, parents, faculty and staff it continues to be safe.
“This is the first time in our school’s history that such a tragic incident has occurred involving a student being shot on our campus,” he said.
He said the campus goes to great lengths to promote safety.
“Our Bulldog family is saddened by this event and the loss of one of our students. Our hearts go out to John Sanderson’s family and friends and they will continue to be in our prayers,” he said. “Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our campus and all who inhabit it.”
Kibler said residence halls have three levels of card-access security during the night. One needs a student ID card to access the building, a wing, then a room. Visitors can be escorted into residence halls by students who live there. Surveillance video cameras are mounted at entrances.
Kibler said there are no housing maintenance records that show a failure of card key access security in Evans.
Kibler said there have been no reports that any of the Maroon Alerts failed.
“We monitor that system carefully. We have the exact times when the button was pushed to send those. We send out tens of thousands, so there may have been a several minute gap. There were no reports of a systematic failure,” he said.
Kibler said the help the MSU Police Department has received from other law enforcement agencies has been exceptional and should be commended.
“Any assistance they have requested has been provided immediately,” he said.
Keenum said in a news release that the MSU police and the university’s Crisis Action Team have worked hard.
“We are extremely proud of the diligence shown by our police officers who have demonstrated the highest level of professionalism during the investigation of the tragic death,” he said. “(The Crisis Action Team) also worked throughout the weekend to ensure that our campus was informed and updated as events unfolded.”