Author: Kerry Wilkins

A veteran Jackson police officer was found nonresponsive at his fiancé’s home Wednesday morning, and city officials said he is believed to have died of natural cases. The officer, city officials said, is Capt. Lee Robinson, who joined the department in February of 1995, and served for over 28 years. During a Wednesday city budget hearing, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba asked for a brief silence to pay respects to the fallen officer. “Our prayers are with his family,” Lumumba said. “We ask the Lord to give his angels charge concerning his family. We can’t share any details until we understand…

Whenever the Pearl River gets uncomfortably high, people who lived here back in the 1970s can’t help but remember the Easter Flood of 1979. The river rose to its highest level ever recorded on the Jackson gauge: 43.28 feet. Low-lying areas along Town Creek near downtown were among the first to flood. Northeast Jackson neighborhoods east of Old Canton Road were under water that got up to some people’s gutters. The river backed-up into Hanging Moss Creek, flooding the Kroger on I-55 and the buildings around it. Homes at the Jackson Country Club took on water, along with many in…

Mississippi’s Capitol Police Department, created to protect state buildings, has become Jackson’s de facto second police department. During the past year, Capitol Police has doubled in size to almost 120 officers and expanded its reach into an 8.7-square-mile zone of Jackson called the “Capitol Complex Improvement Zone.” This is where the former capitol security force now sets up traffic checkpoints, combats street crime and even investigates homicides. Jackson, however, still has its city-run police force, the Jackson Police Department. The expansion of Capitol Police is the response of the Republican, majority-white state legislature to Jackson’s stubborn crime problem. The homicide…

A white supermajority of the Mississippi House voted after an intense, four-plus hour debate to create a separate court system and an expanded police force within the city of Jackson — the Blackest city in America — that would be appointed completely by white state officials. If House Bill 1020 becomes law later this session, the white chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court would appoint two judges to oversee a new district within the city — one that includes all of the city’s majority-white neighborhoods, among other areas. The white state attorney general would appoint four prosecutors, a court clerk, and…

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed on Friday legislation that expands the state’s law enforcement reach in the city of Jackson and implements major changes to its judicial system. One of the laws signed on Friday, SB 2343, will expand the state-controlled Capitol Police jurisdiction from its current boundaries around state buildings to almost the entire city. The law enforcement agency will report primarily to state-appointed leadership instead of local officials. Another law, HB 1020, will establish a new court system within the boundaries of a state-created district known as the Capitol Complex Improvement District – an area that includes the state Capitol building, downtown, Jackson State University, and nearby neighborhoods and businesses. That judge will be appointed, not elected, by the Republican state…

Fans of the rollicking world of rodeo sports can witness the International Pro Rodeo Association’s largest gathering of cowpokes in the country this month, when riders from around the world convene for the first Keath Killebrew Memorial Rodeo in Jackson, Miss. “It’ll be the second largest rodeo in the world and the largest in the United States,” says Jeremy Smith of Deep South Rodeo, a lifetime rodeo fan and promoter. “We’re drawing cowboys and cowgirls from all over the U.S., Canada and South America, and as far as Australia.” Stakes in the contest will build through the weekend as riders compete for…

More than $100 million in funding has been distributed for repairs to Jackson, Mississippi’s beleaguered water system, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday, the first tranche of more than half a billion dollars appropriated by Congress. “For years, the people of Jackson, Mississippi, have suffered the consequences of aging water infrastructure,” Biden wrote in a statement. “Last summer, the city’s water system reached a crisis point when a major flood aggravated longstanding problems in the system and left tens of thousands of people without any running water for days on end. Long before then, families in Jackson lived under the constant threat of…

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The independent manager working to fix the long-troubled water system in Mississippi’s capital city will also be assigned to oversee repairs to the city’s deteriorating sewer system, under an order filed Wednesday. Officials from the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the city of Jackson all agreed to give the extra duties to Ted Henifin. Henifin had decades of experience running water systems in other states before U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate appointed him late last year to run the Jackson system. Wingate had said during a hearing in May that…

Madison police arrested a man and woman from Alabama after a chase on Monday, July 31. Police said just after 9:00 a.m., officers responded to a report of suspects in a vehicle in the Windsor Hills neighborhood. They said the suspects had stolen items from a garage from a home.Kayla Crawford’s husband arrested: Mobile Co. Sheriff’s Office Officers located the 2003 Toyota Tundra truck on Highway 463 near Interstate 55. They said the vehicle fled southbound on I-55. Investigators said the vehicle was reported stolen from Walker County, Alabama. Capitol police also joined the chase. During the chase, a Capitol…

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – A man who died of multiple gunshot wounds Friday afternoon has been identified. Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham Stewart identified the victim as Michael Tyrone Hannah III. He was 25 years old. Officials with the Jackson Police Department said Hannah was found lying in a grassy area near McCain and Wichita streets around 4:30 Friday afternoon. Witnesses told police they saw a Black Nissan speed away from the scene. No further details of a potential suspect or suspects were available. Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. See a spelling or…