RIPLEY, Miss. — Officials aren’t saying what led up to a deadly shooting inside of a church in Ripley, Mississippi Sunday morning. But they did say a Tippah County constable shot and killed a church member after the constable was allegedly attacked with a knife.
Ripley police say 57-year-old Patrick Sanders, who’s reportedly the son-in-law of the church’s preacher, attacked Constable Keith Bullock with a knife. That led to Bullock shooting and killing Sanders.
Sanders died on the scene, and Bullock was treated and released from a local hospital.
“There’s so many good people around here,” resident Annette Brooks said. “This is a sweet bunch of people that goes to church here. You’d never dream of this happening.”
Travis Roberson is Sanders’ neighbor, and he also knows Bullock. He says Bullock made the right choice.
“I think Mr. Bullock did what he needed to do in that situation. There ain’t no telling how many people he saved by doing that,” Roberson said.
We still don’t know if an argument between Sanders and Bullock sparked the deadly incident, but we were told that the shooting didn’t happen during service.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the incident.