Tear Gas Used to Flush Shooting Suspects

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) — Clay and Lowndes County authorities use tear gas to force shooting suspects from a Clay County home.

Details remain sketchy but West Point police investigators say a man was shot several times Tuesday night in the northeastern part of the city. Late Tuesday night, investigators went to a home on Apostolic Drive in the Siloam community in western Clay County in search of the suspects.

They were confronted by at least one man who said he was barricaded in the home, armed with a rifle and handguns and would shoot anyone who came close.

West Point and Clay agents called in the Columbus-Lowndes Special Response Team for assistance.

The two men inside the home ignored pleas from police and family members to come out. Tear gas finally was used to flush them out at about 2 a.m. and end the three-hour standoff.

Five people originally were in the house but a man, woman and child escaped by locking themselves in a bedroom and climbing out a window.

The two remaining men are thought to be suspects in the shooting, but police said they still are investigating and would release more details later today. The names of the suspects or the shooting victims or whether weapons actually were found in the home also were not being released.