Mother Of A Shooting Victim Finds Peace Amid Tragedy

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The mother of a man killed in a Starkville shooting earlier this month says her healing has begun.

Louella Perkins’ son Earnest Perkins, Jr. died at a Jackson hospital. And it was there that she made a decision she says helps her cope with the loss. She decided to donate her son’s organs.

She says, “With his life taken so soon – just to be able to save someone else. That was so important to me.”

And Perkins says it was not a difficult decision to make. “I was in there with Earnest. I actually was on my knees praying. I had his hand and I don’t know. It was just God.”

Perkins donated her son’s heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and pancreas.

She says, “He has contributed to saving five other people. And just to know that he and I both – I just say both of us – were able to do that is just something that helps me through each day.”

Perkins is hopeful the state crime lab will be able to perform her son’s autopsy soon, so she can move ahead with arrangements to lay him to rest.