A man who was trying to flee from Biloxi, Mississippi, police on Wednesday was killed in an officer-involved shooting, a police official confirmed. The shooting occurred about 8 a.m. Wednesday on Popp’s Ferry Road near Camp Wilkes Road. The man’s name has not yet been released. “Around 7:53, we got a shoplifting call from the Home Depot and the suspect fled the store,” Biloxi Police Major Chris De Back said. He said the suspect was a 61-year-old man driving a maroon Dodge Ram pickup, and officers tried to pull him over for a traffic stop but the man fled. “He was stopped again and there was an altercation and officers attempted to use a stun gun on him and he escaped again and shots were fired,” De Back said.
The man tried to hit an unmarked gray van driven by a police officer who happened to be in the area, De Back said. The officer heard the pursuit over his radio and was trying to assist, he said. It’s unclear how many officers fired and how many times the man was struck. The truck came to rest in the parking lot of Popp’s Ferry Sales and Service. It appeared to have crashed into a forklift.De Back said no officers were injured in the shooting. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) will take over the investigation. MBI typically performs independent investigations of officer-involved shootings in Mississippi. [Source: Sun Herald]