At 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, the sound of gunshots rang through Aspen Heights. Emergency responders from the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office as well as medical personnel were dispatched to the apartment complex on Blackjack Road and found a man who was shot at the scene.
According to a press release written by Lieutenant Jon Davis, an officer in the investigations unit of the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department, the wounded man was flown to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, Mississippi.
In the release, Davis stated the situation is still developing and asked for those with any information to call the sheriff’s office.
Jeremy Harris, a junior wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture major from Monee, Illinois, and resident of Aspen Heights, recounted the hectic nature of the event.
“My house is right on the road, so I could see the cop cars coming down the road. After I heard them all pull into the complex, I walked outside again to see what was going on,” Harris said. “They were all pulling up to the house where it happened. There were at least three different cop cars as well as an ambulance, so it was chaotic.”
According to Harris, the police immediately began marking off the house and pulled the victim out of the house and into the ambulance.
Harris spoke about the police questioning the growing crowd of neighbors outside of the house.
“The police were in the house as well as outside asking for witnesses. There was a pretty large group of all the neighbors outside, and they were talking with the cops explaining what they heard and seen,” Harris said. “A couple of my friends heard gunshots, and I heard bits and pieces of the story from all the people around.”
According to Harris, one of the tenants of the house was questioned at the scene.
“There was actually a girl in the house who didn’t really know her roommate. She was in her bedroom when it happened, and she jumped out of her bedroom window when she heard the shots and was able to explain to the cops what happened when they arrived,” Harris said.
Harris said Aspen Heights addressed the situation multiple times as the story developed.
“When all the cops were there in full force, Aspen sent out an email that there were shots fired and that the situation was still being investigated. They sent out another email confirming that there were shots fired, and they told us to try and avoid that area for the day,” Harris said. “They sent out a third email with all the details and explained that somebody was shot as a final cover-all email.”
The Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office encourages anyone with information about the incident to contact them at (662)323-2421 or (662)324-8484.