DAVID MILLER
WEST POINT — The more details revealed in the New Year’s Day shooting death of Devin Mitchell, the more questions arise.
The accused shooter, Tavaris F. Collins, 31, didn’t know Mitchell, who was shot and killed at age 16 in front of his cousin’s home at Ridgewood East Apartments. Police said Collins didn’t see Mitchell when he fired into darkness at what he said was someone firing at him.
West Point Police Chief Tim Brinkley said fireworks being used by residents that night might have been mistaken for gunfire. But residents of the apartment complex, who declined to be identified, said most of the New Year’s Eve festivities were over by the time the shooting took place, at approximately 2:55 a.m.
“There really wasn’t anyone outside at that point,” one resident said. “I didn’t too much hear fireworks.”
Mitchell was visiting his cousin, Queenie Walker, at the time of his death. Walker said Mitchell wasn’t using fireworks that night and there weren’t people standing around outside when he was shot.
Multiple residents said they distinctly remember hearing four shots fired that night, and within minutes, police arrived. One of the four shots struck Mitchell in the head.
Brinkley said Collins didn’t leave the scene and was taken into custody shortly after police arrived.
“There was a crowd gathered immediately after but no witnesses that actually saw it,” Brinkley said.
There was “quite some distance” between Collins and Mitchell when the shots were fired, Brinkley said, but he declined to say where exactly Collins was when he fired. And without witnesses who actually witnessed the shooting, it’s unclear where Collins was standing.
Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.
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