Coroner offers glimpse of how off duty trooper was killed

RIPLEY, Miss. (AP) – A coroner says an off-duty Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper appears to have been standing outside a vehicle on Sept. 30, while the person who shot him was sitting inside the vehicle’s passenger side.

Kenneth Josh Smith

Tippah County Coroner Chris McCallister tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that trooper Josh Smith of Walnut was shot one time in the face.

Officials have charged 43-year-old Troy Anthony Eaton of Rienzi  with murder and aggravated assault. The second charge relates to the nonfatal shooting of Smith’s 38-year-old brother-in-law, Rickie Dale Vick of Michigan City.

The shooting occurred in the Hatchie River bottom, an area that people sometimes frequent to ride all-terrain vehicles. Officials have yet to explain why they believe Eaton came to shoot Smith and Vick.

Eaton is jailed without bail.