54
Officer slain in shootout
Lots of photos at link!
A nine-year Jackson police officer was killed Thursday following a gun battle on a city street with a carjacking suspect who also died.
Thomas Catchings, a 41-year-old motorcycle patrol officer, died while in surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.He'd lost a large amount of blood from a gunshot wound to the abdomen, Dr. Robert Schwieg said.
Omar Hampton, 18, of 5551 Shaw Road had been pronounced dead about an hour earlier at the same hospital.
He was shot three times --once in the right shoulder, the left forearm and buttocks, said Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart.
"It's a very sad day
for us," Police Chief Robert Moore said at UMC. "Our prayers go out to the comm
unity and family."
The deadly encounter between Catchings and Hampton happened about 3 p.m. near Lindsey and South drives after a U.S. Postal Service employee flagged Catchings down minutes earlier about being carjacked, according to police. Catchings had radioed that he had spotted the stolen white Ford Mustang. Minutes later, officers arrived to find Catchings and Hampton in the street and the Mustang in a ditch.
Anita Johnson, a motorist who came upon the scene, wept as she recalled seeing Catchings lying on the ground, trying to get up. She said she dialed 911.
"He still had his hand on his pistol," Johnson said. "He was perspiring real bad. He just said he was hot and he had to stand up."
Catchings, the 11th Jackson officer killed in the line of duty, had been conscious before being taken to the hospital. He was not wearing a bullet-resistant vest because he had
been attending training at the Legion Softball Complex on South Drive for a weekend assignment, police spokesman Robert Graham sai
d. Training ended about 2:45 p.m., and Catchings was headed home, he said.
Grief-stricken officers and officials, including Moore and Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., gathered at the hospital to await word on Catchings' condition.
After word of his death spread, officers with tear-filled eyes stood in clusters in the hospital parking lot. Some held each other for support. Others, with bowed heads, paced as Catchings' relatives left the hospital.
"It's indeed a sad day," the mayor said. "I knew Thomas Catchings personally. People in the police department put their lives on the line for us."
Timothy Harper, a postal worker, flagged Catchings in the 900 block of Robinson Road near Pecan Park Circle and told him he had just been carjacked, Graham said. Harper pointed to his white Ford Mustang, and Catchings told Harper to cal
l 911. Catchings then tried to catch up to the car, Graham said.
R.A. Kay, a U.S. postal inspector, confirmed an employee was carjacked of the employee's personal vehicl
e during his lunch break but would not identify the employee. Harper could not be reached.
"We're assisting Jackson Police Department with the investigation," Kay said.
Catchings told dispatchers he was trying to catch up to the Mustang. It was the last transmission dispatchers got from him, Graham said.
Afterward, dispatchers repeatedly tried to contact Catchings, but he didn't respond, Graham said. Other motorcycle officers started looking for him.
A witness whom Graham wouldn't identify told police she saw the Mustang pull onto South Drive and crash into a ditch. Catchings got off of his motorcycle and approached the man, who was climbing out the driver's window, Graham said.
"The suspect climbed out a car window, fell to the ground and came up shooting,"
Graham said. "Officer Catchings fired multiple shots."
Officers found a .25-caliber weapon, which they said Hampton had fired.
Eric Bailey of 219 Lindsey Drive said he saw a motorcycle officer chasing a Mustang as he l
ooked out the window of his home. The man in the car was steering with one hand and firing a gun out the window with the other, Bailey said.
"I didn't see the officer with a gun out," Bailey said. "I heard one (shot) right here," said Bailey, pointing to the street in front of his home.
"I heard four more shots from down there," he said, pointing to the intersection where Catchings and Hampton were found.
Bailey said hundreds of people gathered at the intersection before police arrived. "All this street was filled with cars," he said.
Bailey said he's thankful nearby Lake Elementary School students, who were walking home when the shooting occurred, didn'
t get hurt.
Jason Smith, a Jackson Public Schools spokesman, said some students still were in the school for an after-school program.
The doors of the school were locked and students were kept in the classroom. Parents were allowed to pick up children, but in a different area than usual. Extra security offic
ers were at the school with walkie-talkies to escort children from the school.
Parent Victoria Shorter said she hadn't heard about the shooting before she arrived at the school to pick up her daughter, Octava.
Octava, a first-grader, said children were taken to the school auditorium. "They just told us someone had been shot," she said.
Anita Johnson said she was praying for Catchings, whom fellow officers say was well respected and liked.
"He's a police officer. He has a job to do," Johnson said as tears streamed down her face. "We don't know when we leave if we'll come back home."
In 2001, Catchings and former officer Maceo Simmons both were acquitted of charges of sexual battery and conspiracy to commit sexual battery. A 19-year-old woman accused Simmons of sexually assaulting her while Catchings served as a lookout in September 1999.
Catchings and Simmons both were placed on administrative leave without pay in December 2000.
Catchings returned to work after his acquittal. Ea
rlier this year, Catchings testified against Simmons at a federal trial, during which Simmons was convicted of violating the woman's civil rights.
**********
Wake up America and smell the nigger.
T.N.B.
: 
