CLARKSDALE, Miss. — A security guard gunned down on the job in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Finnis Melvin “Butch” Catledge was shot and killed early Tuesday morning while he was inside the guard shack at a Clarksdale power plant.
Family members said they don’t know why this happened, because the victim was a hard-working, good man.
“I just don’t understand this senseless act. What’s the point of it?” asked the victim’s sister, Linda Martin. “He was just a nice guy, never bothers anybody.”
Around 1 a.m. bullets smashed through a window and wall, and struck him.
“If you point the camera at the window you can see, like, seven right there, bullet holes,” said Garrett Catledge, the victim’s nephew.
Police said they didn’t have a clear motive at this time, but investigators are hoping footage from a surveillance camera next to the guard shack will help solve the crime.
According to Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett, the video showed several suspects walking by the guard shack.
Luckett was outraged by the what he called a very “vicious” crime.
“It was almost as if they walked by and thought, ‘let’s kill somebody.’ Turned around, went back, shot up the building. Hit him twice, once in the chest, once in the head and he died on the scene. And they ran,” he said.
“Butch” Catledge worked for Wood Security in Clarksdale.
The firm was under contract to provide security for the Clarksdale power plant on Hicks Street.
Tuesday family members gathered outside the small guard shack and remembered this hard-working man.
“Coming here every night. Never causing any trouble. Never bothering anybody,” said the victim’s nephew.
Linda Martin said in all the years her brother worked here, she never had cause to worry about his safety.
“Cause he said nothing was going on out here. Just him and this building,” she said.
We’re told Catledge was formerly a security guard at one of the Tunica casinos.
He would have turned 60 years old on May 15.
If you can help, you’re urged to call Clarksdale Police at 662-621-8151 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.