Police Station Shooting Kills Mississippi Detective

Suspect he was interviewing dead as well
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 5, 2013 2:01 AM CDT
Updated Apr 5, 2013 2:30 AM CDT
Detective, Suspect Killed at Miss. Police Station
Jackson, Miss. Assistant Chief Lee Vance, center left, comforts Chief Rebecca Coleman, center right, Thursday, April, 4, 2013, after detective Eric Smith was shot and killed.   (AP Photo/The Clarion-Ledger, Greg Jenson)

A murder suspect and the detective who was questioning him were both found dead at police headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi. As detective Eric Smith, 40, interviewed Jeremy Powell, 23, other officers heard gunshots. They entered the room to find the men dead, CNN reports. Police haven't offered a sequence of events in the shooting, the AP notes, though both men suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Powell was being questioned in the process of being arrested in the murder of Christopher Alexander, 20, who was stabbed in the neck.

Smith had begun homicide work fairly recently, said a city councilman, who noted that "there may have been more than one police officer in the room." The effects of the shooting rippled through Jackson, with police cars parked across major streets and officers comforting each other, the AP notes. "The entire city of Jackson and the Jackson Police Department family are all hurting," said a police spokesman. (More Eric Smith stories.)

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