(AP) — An 85-year-old security guard was shot and killed as he sat in his car outside an apartment complex, Mississippi authorities said Monday.
Multiple shots were fired at David Herring and it appears that one hit him, though a full autopsy is pending, Madison County Coroner Alex Breeland told the Clarion Ledger.
The shooting was “absolutely a homicide.,” he said.
Days earlier, a 77-year-old Simpson County sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed while taking a man to a mental hospital.
Breeland said Herring was sitting in his car outside the Canton Estates apartment complex when he was shot. The coroner said 911 was called at 11:17 Sunday and Herring died in a hospital about 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Heath Hall, spokesperson for the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, could not be reached for comment and calls to Canton Estates went to voicemail, the newspaper reported.
Madison County is just outside of Jackson and about 50 miles (81 kilometers) north of Simpson County, where Deputy James Blair was killed Friday.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said Sunday that Joaquin Blackwell, 22, of Magee, was charged with capital murder in Blair’s death. After an extensive manhunt, he was caught Saturday behind a gas station near the Region 8 Mental Health Services building, where he was being taken under a court order.
Simpson County Sheriff Paul Mullins said investigators believe Blackwell took a gun from deputy James Blair, shot him and ran into the woods.
Blair had continued to work to provide for grandchildren he and his wife were raising, news outlets reported. He had also worked as a school crossing guard.