WEBB — Authorities have charged a 15-year-old boy with first-degree murder in the Monday afternoon shooting death of a 23-year-old man in the Goose Pond subdivision near here.
Both males lived in the subdivision on Goose Pond Circle, noted Tallahatchie County Sheriff Jimmy Fly.
The accused, Kejwuan Marquez Garner, faced a Tuesday afternoon initial appearance and preliminary hearing before 2nd District Justice Judge Denise Washington in Sumner, said Fly.
Washington ordered Garner’s bail set at $250,000.
The teenager, whom Fly said is charged as an adult, is being held at the DeSoto County Adult Detention Center in Hernando.
Garner allegedly shot Dodavian Demartian Anderson, aka “J-money,” once in the chest at close range with a Glock .40 caliber pistol, the sheriff explained.
Tallahatchie County Coroner Ginger Meriwether pronounced Anderson dead at the scene at 2:30 p.m., she said Tuesday. The official cause of death is pending autopsy results from the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory in Pearl, Meriwether added.
She said Benevolent Aid and Burial Society of Glendora will be in charge of funeral arrangements.
The shooting was reported to the sheriff’s office in Sumner at 1:26 p.m., according to the radio log book.
“We know that there was some type of altercation right before it happened,” Fly said, adding that he cannot say more because the circumstances are part of an ongoing investigation.
The encounter and subsequent shooting occurred in the street near Anderson’s residence, the sheriff noted.
“We’ve interviewed two eyewitnesses who gave statements,” said Fly.
Garner allegedly fled the scene but was taken into custody without incident outside a home in another area of the Goose Pond subdivision, the sheriff stated.
“We were able to locate him pretty quick, within about 30 minutes of the [initial] call,” he noted.
Investigators recovered a spent shell casing, a live round and the suspected murder weapon, said Fly. The handgun was found near the scene, in a place where Garner is alleged to have hidden it.
All of the evidence has been taken to a state Crime Lab for processing, he noted.
Fly said the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist his office.
Any violent death is tragic, the sheriff noted, but he said this one features another layer because of one trait the victim and accused had in common.
“Both of them were so young, 15 and 23. That’s the sad thing about it,” Fly said.
