Four people injured after an early morning shooting in Starkville

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Four people were injured after a shooting that happened Sunday morning in the gravel parking lot behind Coconuts Convenience Store and the Catholic Church at 601 University Dr.

Police say that this incident was not random and all people involved knew each other.

Cotton district residents are hoping that police can put an end to the violence.

“I think they could work better on like, informing us more on when stuff happens because I feel like we should be allowed to know if something like that happens in the middle of the night. But I think they also keep it pretty good about taking care of it because none of us even knew, for a while, that this happened until this morning,” Cotton District resident, Macey Ainsworth said.

Starkville Police Chief Mark Ballard said the early Sunday morning shooting happened over the ending of a relationship.

Ballard told WCBI the threat of gunfire was over within three minutes because more officers were patrolling the Cotton District after a Mississippi State postseason baseball game.

“This was an argument that occurred, as you can tell, in kind of an isolated area of a parking lot here, where the parties knew each other. So, thank goodness it wasn’t in a crowd but this, unfortunately, is another event where individuals are making bad decisions, allowing their emotions to go, decided to settle it by pulling a gun and pulling the trigger,” Chief Ballard said.

The people injured in the shooting were taken to OCH Regional Hospital.
Even though the Cotton District was crowded, no bystanders were injured by gunfire.

“Sometimes, there isn’t really anything they can do because there was so many police out in the district last night and there usually is. Especially on the weekend,” Ainsworth said.

Eric Jefferson and Zahied Logan were taken to jail after their injures were treated at the hospital.

A third suspect was being treated for a severe ankle injury.

A female victim was treated and released from the hospital.

“I sincerely believe that had the officers not been in the area as fast as what they were, that these injuries would have perhaps been a lot more significant and we would have perhaps had a loss of life,” Chief Ballard added.

Starkville police say this investigation is still open and they are looking for Jallel Jones.

If you have information about Jones, please contact The Starkville Police Department and the Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers.