A suspect, who was being questioned over a homicide, argued in the interview room with a veteran detective of 18 years. During the argument, the suspect overpowered the detective, took his firearm, then shot and killed him.
Another officer, approximately 20 minutes after the first shooting, shot the suspect multiple times. The suspect died inside of police headquarters in Mississippi’s capital of Jackson. Police officials of Jackson, the state’s largest city, were reeling from the police killing inside a building with such high-security.
The officer that was shot and killed was identified as Detective Eric Smith. The detective had spent a number of years investigating area homicides. Smith was married to one of the department’s sergeant.
The shooting took place just before 6:00 pm on Thursday night. At the time, Smith was questioning a suspect, Jeremy Powell, who had been arrested because of his connection in the slaying of another man. Police said the other man Christopher Alexander had been found dead on Monday.
Smith began his career at the police department in Jackson in 1995 and lived in Clinton, a suburb of Jackson. Smith and wife Nicki have two sons who are teenagers.
No details have been released about what took place inside the interview room, but one councilman from Jackson said he was told that Smith was not the only officer in the interview room at the time of the shooting.
A shooting inside a police department building is very rare and officers said it would not be long before they knew exactly what happened.
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