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Sheriff urges caution while driving
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The Tate County Sheriff's Office is urging residents of Tate County to use extra caution while driving, particularly at night.
Sheriff Brad Lance said that if someone attempts to pull a driver over using flashing lights, and the driver is unsure of who is pulling them over, then the driver should not stop. Instead, the driver is encouraged to keep moving and use their cell phone to dial 911, so that dispatch can verify that it is a real officer.
If dispatch cannot verify that it is a real officer, drivers are encouraged to keep moving and help will be sent.
Lance said that Tate County deputies have been told not to over react if someone does not immediately pull over, and added that safety of Tate County is the department's primary concern.
The statement comes on the heels of two recent shootings that have taken place on north Mississippi highways. It has been rumored that someone is pulling people over in what appears to be an unmarked police car, and possibly using blue lights.
The first shooting occurred May 8, on Interstate 55 in Panola County near Pope, when a 74-year-old man from Nebraska was shot to death. The second occurred days later, on May 11, when a Hernando woman was found dead on Highway 713 in Tunica County.
District Attorney John Champion, flanked by Lance, DeSoto County Sheriff Bill Rasco, Tunica County Sheriff K.C. Hamp, Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby, and other area law enforcement personnel, confirmed that representatives of area law enforcement have joined forces to review evidence, and have found that that the two shootings may have been connected.
The vehicles belonging to both drivers were found on the side of the road.
Champion said that law enforcement does not have any witnesses at this time, and asked that anyone with any information share it by calling their local law enforcement agency, or the Mississippi Department of Public Safety at 1-888-827-4637.
"The last thing that we want to do is to create a panic," Champion said. "I will say this, we have a tremendous amount of man-power on this case."
Champion said that he would not confirm that someone is posing as a police officer, but also said that he would not eliminate the possibility. He also said that there was not a specific vehicle that he could connect with the cases.
A report in DeSoto County that a person was pulled over by someone posing as a police officer turned out to be false, according to Champion.
"I'm not putting serious credence into (the suspect posing as a police officer in a police car), what we're putting credence into is that the common denominator that you have is that in both instances, we believe both vehicles were on the side of the road and we are looking at how the vehicles got there," Champion said.
"We're sending the message that we're investigating the case and that we're going to catch them. We're going to work hard on it," Champion said. "But on the other hand, we're also going to make sure that the roads are covered. Obviously we can't be at every place at every moment, but law enforcement officers, sheriff's departments and municipalities are all going to have their roads covered."
Recent events have caused area law enforcement to re-examine old reports to see if there is any relation.
In Tate County, Lance recalls one particular incident on Monday, April 2, in which a woman traveling southbound on Interstate 55 between Senatobia and Coldwater was pulled over by someone with flashing lights during the afternoon.
Lance said the woman was adamant that the flashing lights were not blue. She said a man got out of the car looking disheveled, and told the woman that she was speeding, before asking for identification. The woman did not roll her window down because she felt uncomfortable. Instead she cracked it and said her identification was in her purse in the trunk of the vehicle and she was not going to get out of the car. She in turn asked for his identification, before he became irritated and went back to his car and sped away.
According to Lance, the woman described the man as in his 40s, with a plaid shirt untucked and tan pants, with sunglasses. When the woman asked why he wasn't in uniform, he said that it was his day off. She told law enforcement that the man was driving a gold sedan.
Lance said that he wasn't sure if the event was related to the highway shootings or not, but said, "in light of everything that's going on, we have to look at it."
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©The Democrat 2013
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