Downtown shooting leaves community grappling with aftermath

By Bethal Miles

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    JACKSON, Mississippi (WAPT) — A mass shooting in downtown Jackson on March 22 left seven people injured and one person dead, with the investigation still ongoing and the community seeking answers and security improvements.

Laquinta Barnes, a mother affected by the tragedy, shared her emotional account of the events and their impact on her family.

“It hurts bad. You don’t expect something like this to happen to your kids,” Barnes said.

She said the memories of that day are still fresh and the emotions raw.

“The four of them surrounded us. They meant to kill us, they planned it out,” Barnes said.

Barnes said there were so many people out that evening, hours after the Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade. She said things happened fast.

“These guys joined walking with us some kind of way,” Barnes said. “We don’t know who, we don’t know what’s going on. I just remember Mike pulling out his camera. And he started recording. I said, ‘Mike put your phone up, pay attention to your surroundings because you never know what will happen.'”

She said the situation escalated when one of the individuals confronted them.

“As soon as Mike put that phone up, one of them stepped in front of me and said, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ I remember Quay saying, ‘I don’t know you, move around.’ And the boy saying, ‘Bet, bet,’ then he dropped back and he started shooting.”

The chaos that ensued was captured in emergency communications, with reports of multiple shootings throughout the downtown area. Two days later, it was confirmed that eight people were shot near Pearl and Lamar streets, including Barnes’ son.

“He was shot four times and grazed three,” Barnes said.

The shooting claimed the life of 21-year-old Cortez George. Capitol police arrested brothers Michael and Marquavius McLeod, who Barnes identified as her nephews, Mike and Quay. The McLeods are charged with murder and aggravated assault in connection with the shootings.

“We don’t know them. We were just running away,” Marquavius McLeod said after the brothers were arrested.

Despite the presence of law enforcement during the St. Paddy’s Parade, the violence occurred hours after the event concluded. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba acknowledged the efforts of the Jackson Police Department but noted the need for ongoing security measures, including cameras. He emphasized that while cameras can help solve cases, they won’t stop crime.

“Will it enable us to be able to find the missing pieces to cases and instances where we don’t have all the data? Absolutely, but we have to make that investment and more importantly, we have to make community investments,” Lumumba said.

James Hopkins, with Reset Jackson, suggested that removing barricades and reopening streets could have reduced the crowd and potential violence.

“That way, so many crowds would not have been hanging out downtown,” Hopkins said.

More than a month after the shootings, Barnes’ focus is on recovery. Her son is walking again.

“I’m just trying to heal and make sure my people are straight,” he said.

Barnes urged others to come forward with information.

“These folks tried to kill my baby, my son, but don’t nobody wants to listen to me though,” she said, pleading for witnesses to speak up.

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