CLARKSDALE, Miss. — Two cousins were murdered in the middle of a busy highway, and no one will admit to seeing anything. Clarksdale Police say the two men may have been murdered as a result of an ongoing feud between two communities.
Tammie Taylor is a mother dealing with the agony of losing a child. In September 2017, Taylor’s son, Montez Watson, and his cousin, Shuron Burnett, drove from Jonestown to Clarksdale, Mississippi for a barbeque.
Clarksdale Police say their troubles started on a basketball court.
“Witnesses say Burnett made the statement, ‘I’m not beefing with anyone, and I’m not here for anyone to beef with me,” Investigator Tim Douglas said. Detectives say, when Watson and Burnett left the court, they were followed. They drove about a mile to the intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 6 before they were surrounded by gunfire.
“All I could visualize was my son out there begging for his life,” Taylor said.
Burnett’s body was riddled with bullets. He died on the scene. Watson was rushed to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his head and back.
Taylor says, when she arrived at Regional One Hospital her son wasn’t able to speak. But he gave her a message she still holds on too. “He was on a ventilator, but he still could write. You know what he said? He said, ‘Don’t cry.’ He wrote that on a piece of paper. He said, ‘God got me.”
Moments later, Watson took his last breath.
Investigators say the gunmen need to be behind bars. “If you car anything about a human life or about the families that have to live with the pain of losing their two sons, you would give the families some consideration,” Investigator Douglas said.
If you know who killed Mortez Watson and Shuron Burnett, call Clarksdale Police at (662)-621-8152.
