Tag: Mississippi
Gun-toting frat bros pose in front of Emmett Till memorial, may face federal charges
Three fraternity brothers at the University of Mississippi have been suspended by chapter officials — and are possibly facing federal charges — for taking a photo in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till while holding a shotgun and AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
“The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of ‘likes,’ and no one said a thing,” says a complaint filed with the UM Office of Student Conduct.
The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network, reviewed the complaint and obtained a copy of the picture in question, which was taken earlier this year.
Ole Miss student and Kappa Alpha Order member Ben LeClere posted it on his private page in March and is reportedly the one holding a shotgun.
Two of his fraternity brothers, John Lowe and another young man who has yet to be identified, can be seen posing alongside him — the latter of whom is toting the AR-15.
A fourth person, said to be the photographer, may have also been with the trio, the complaint says.
KA officials reportedly suspended LeClere, Lowe and the other man on Wednesday after the photo was brought to their attention by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
“The photo is inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. It does not represent our chapter,” said Taylor Anderson, president of Ole Miss’ Kappa Alpha Order, in an email to the center. “We have and will continue to be in communication with our national organization and the University.”
US Attorney Chad Lamar, of the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford, was also shown the image and chose to refer it to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for further investigation.
“We will be working with them closely,” he said Thursday.
Ole Miss officials condemned the students’ actions, calling the photo “offensive and hurtful.” They claimed to have received a copy of it back in March, which they forwarded and referred to university police — who then gave it to the FBI.
University spokesman Rod Guajardo told the Center for Investigative Reporting that the FBI decided to not investigate the incident because the picture “did not pose a specific threat.”
He pointed out how while the image may be “offensive,” it’s not a violation of the Ole Miss code of conduct — since it was taken off campus and not at a university-affiliated event.
However, the school “stands ready to assist the fraternity with educational opportunities for those members and the chapter,” Guajardo said.
The Emmett Till sign that was captured in the photo has been targeted several times since being erected in 2008.
Vandals reportedly threw the first site marker into the nearby Tallahatchie River — where Till’s body was dumped after his 1955 lynching. The second was shot up repeatedly, with officials estimating that it got blasted more than 315 times before finally being removed and replaced in 2016.
The third and most recent sign, which was captured in the IG photo, had to be taken down last week after being riddled once again with bullet holes. It’s unclear if LeClere, Lowe and the other young man were responsible.
The fraternity brothers are just the latest Ole Miss students to come under fire for incidents involving civil rights icons.
A trio of Sigma Phi Epsilon members got hit with federal charges several years ago after they placed a noose around the neck of a James Meredith statue, along with a Confederate flag.
Meredith was the first known black student to attend Ole Miss.
One of the fraternity members pleaded guilty and received six months in prison for “using a threat to intimidate African American students and employees because of their race or color,” according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.
All of them wound up withdrawing from the university. The school’s Sigma Phi chapter was later shuttered following an internal investigation.
“Hazing, underage drinking, alcohol abuse and failure to comply with the university and fraternity’s codes of conduct” were the reasons given as to why the fraternity’s national headquarters was closing the chapter.
Photo Credit: Instagram/Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting
Hospital employee fired for calling doughnut shop worker the N-word in video
A Mississippi Baptist Medical Center employee has been fired after video of him calling a doughnut shop worker a racial slur multiple times went viral.
Kyle Thomas worked in the radiology department at the medical center in Flowood, Miss.
On Saturday, he visited the local Donut Palace in his full scrubs and he got into an altercation with shop employee Keaundrea Wardlaw.
According to Wardlaw, Thomas was upset about the service and the two began to argue.
In the video Wardlaw recorded, Thomas is heard telling Wardlaw, a black woman, to “shut her f–king mouth,” and then proceeds to call her the N-word multiple times.
Wardlaw responds by calling Thomas a “b—h“ and later follows Thomas out to his car, where she records his license plate number.
The video has since gone viral, pulling in thousands of negative reactions demanding Thomas be let go from his job.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, Thomas tried to defend his actions, writing, “I am so sorry, there is nothing I can say that will change what I said. I drove back up there and tried to apologize and she had gone. I regret every word that I said there is no excuse to ever say these horrible things. I only hope that by me sharing a public apology in this incident you could show me some grace. I was upset about another issue and it spilled over into this and I can’t apologize enough,” Yahoo Lifestyle reported.
Wardlaw confirmed to WJTV that Thomas came back to apologize to her boss for causing a scene, but did not apologize to her. According to WJTV, Wardlaw said she would have accepted an apology from Thomas.
However, Twitter users did not believe the apology.
Ayoka Pond, a spokesperson for the hospital, said in a statement to Fox News that Thomas’ actions do not represent the hospital and confirmed that he had been fired.
“We are aware of the confrontation captured on video involving one of our off-duty employees at a local donut shop. We take this situation very seriously. This employee’s language and behavior does not represent our organization’s values and his employment has been terminated.
“We want our patients, employees, physicians and our community to know that we find the language used in the video to be completely unacceptable and inconsistent with what we expect from employees or anyone associated with our organization. We are committed to a work environment that is inclusive and where everyone is respected and valued.”
The Donut Shop also released a statement announcing its zero-tolerance policy for racist behavior.
“I am extremely disappointed and disgusted at what took place this past Saturday. It was shocking and painful to watch this footage and imagine what Ms. Wardlaw must have felt at the time. Regardless of the grievances people have or anything that may have happened prior to this incident, no one deserves to be treated this way. We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior, and we will support Ms. Wardlaw in whatever action she chooses to take as a result,” the Donut Shop wrote on Facebook.
Wardlaw claims she did not want the man to be fired but felt Thomas should be held accountable for using the N-word, she told WJTV.
Man charged with knowingly spreading HIV
GULFPORT, Miss. — Police say a Mississippi man has been charged with knowingly exposing others to HIV.
News outlets report 29-year-old Tyrone Ross, of Gulfport, was arrested Sunday as the result of a complaint received against him at a hospital.
Gulfport police Sgt. Clayton Fulks says Ross met a man while they were in jail and was intimate with him behind bars. Fulks says they continued their relationship after they were released.
Police say the relationship lasted between October 2015 and May 2018.
Police say Ross had previously been convicted for knowingly exposing others to HIV twice. It’s unclear if Ross has a lawyer.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/05/22/man-charged-with-knowingly-spreading-hiv/
Inmates broke out of jail to burglarize a Dollar General, then snuck back in to sell what they stole
A group of Mississippi inmates busted out of jail this week, burglarized a bargain store — and then broke back in and returned to their cells, according to a report.
The jailbirds, identified as Levontaye Ellington, Travis Baker, Maurice Robertson and Jacquiez Williams broke out of the Holmes-Humphreys County Correctional Facility in Lexington Tuesdayby hopping a fence, Mississippi News Now reported.
Once in the clear, the men walked less than a mile to a Dollar General chain store after closing and swiped anything they could grab.
“They stole cigarettes, cigarette lighters, phones and just items they felt they could sell in jail,” Lexington Police Chief Robert Kirklin said according to the report.
But rather than extend their newfound freedom, the foursome inexplicably snuck back into the jail, undetected, baffling police.
“You’re already in jail, but you want to break out and break back in?” the chief said. “That is just something. I heard it all.”
The inmates denied their involvement in the scheme, even though they were caught on store surveillance footage, according to the report.
“Just looking at the type of clothing they had on and just one of the bags they had put some of the merchandise in,” police were able to pin the inmates to the crime, Kirklin said.
The inmates were charged with commercial burglary.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/09/21/inmates-sneak-back-into-jail-after-breaking-out/
3 Mississippi Teenagers Arrested for Allegedly Killing 6-Year-Old Boy After Stealing Car He Was Left In
Three Mississippi teenagers are accused of killing a 6-year-old boy after stealing the car he was left in.
The child, Kingston Frazier, was left alone in a Toyota Camry in a Kroger parking lot around 1:15 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.
The three suspects pulled into the parking lot in a separate car, the Hind’s County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. One of them allegedly got into the Camry before both vehicles pulled away. It’s not clear whether the driver of the Camry knew the child was in the car.
When Kingston’s mother came out of the store, she alerted a nearby sheriff’s deputy that her vehicle was missing. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert when it became clear that a child had been inside the stolen vehicle.
Kingston was found dead later Thursday morning in rural Madison County when a passerby noticed the car abandoned on the side of the road and recognized it from the Amber Alert. The boy was shot in the back of the head, Madison County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Heath Hall said.
Dwan Wakefield, D’Allen Washington and Byron McBride — all in their late teens — are being held without bond in the Madison County Detention Center, Hall said.
All three will be charged as adults with capital murder for the killing of a child during a kidnapping, District Attorney Michael Guest said in a press conference Thursday. They’re also facing auto theft charges in Hinds County, according to the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office.
Multiple state and local agencies collaborated on the investigation, including the Jackson Police Department, the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the MBI. The FBI is also investigating, Hall said.
Oxford man dies in car crash after Confederate Flag rally
Coming home from the confederate flag rally in Alabama Author Anthony Harvey 49 died Sunday July 19th when his 2005 Ford explore flipped over near the Pontotoc County just before noon.
No one deserves to die but I believe when you’ve spent half your life believing in a LIE and then writing about it as I read his quote from his book “Why I Wave the Confederate Flag” he clearly has TRIED to form his twisted opinion into FACT. (No I have not read the book but have read a page or two to know that this book is BS) He wrote a book based off of NOTHING but fictional imagination he’s wanting so much to prove to the world that The Civil War was not fought over slavery and that the demise of his race is not of the white man, but rather of our own making. WOW that was very hard for me to read I guess we all can agree to disagree and I do feel bad that he died thinking we as a people of color in America ran away from physical bondage to one far worse–mental bondage. I pray that we as a nation can TRULY see that damn confederate flag is nothing more than hate and separate but equal (UEQUAL) and this history has brainwashed a lot of our people of color. I Pray that he at least recognized his forefathers fought for his freedom.
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) –
An Oxford, Mississippi man died in a car crash Sunday while on his way back… By WMCActionNews5.com Staff