MARSHALL COUNTY, Miss. — Authorities say a trustee at the Marshall County Jail committed suicide after he stole a county weapon and shot himself Tuesday afternoon.
Tony Farese, an attorney for the Police Benevolent Association speaking on behalf of the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, said the trustee gained access to a sheriff’s office vehicle around 3:30 p.m. and retrieved the weapon. Farese said he then shot himself, sending a bullet through one of the vehicle’s windows.
“The projectile went through the back windshield of the truck which sounded the alarm. That’s how authorities knew that this had occurred,” Farese said.
“That’s very shocking. That’s just unreal. To me, it’s unreal,” said Pamela Sharp, who lives nearby.
Farese declined to say how the trustee was able access the vehicle, which he said was locked at the time. He also wouldn’t say who the vehicle and weapon were issued to.
Trustees are generally well-behaving and given more responsibilities than regular inmates, Farese said. But he also said the trustee shouldn’t have had access to the vehicle or the weapon.
“He certainly violated policies and procedures. It was a deliberate act on his part,” Farese said.
He said the trustee had been held in the Marshall County Jail since March on a burglary charge and was due to be released in August. But Tuesday afternoon, detectives with the Senatobia Police Department arrived to question him about an embezzlement case, Senatobia police confirmed.
“This individual, I believe, became thrown into the depths of depression when he learned that there were gonna be additional criminal charges and that he would not get out in August,” said Farese.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case.
