JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Capitol Police has shot four people since August with little public explanation — a toll that has alarmed some residents, community leaders and local politicians as the state seeks to expand the once-obscure agency’s power.
The victims include a 25-year-old father of two who was fatally shot in the head during what police described as a response to a traffic violation and a 49-year-old woman who is recovering after she was struck in the arm by an officer’s bullet that crashed through her apartment’s walls as she lay in bed.
It’s unclear what prompted these shootings and whether they were justified. The Mississippi Capitol Police does not equip officers with body cameras and has provided few details to the public or to the families of those who were injured or killed. The agency has an unusual level of authority for a state capitol police force, after Mississippi empowered its officers to aggressively patrol the streets of Jackson to stem a record rise in murders. The police force operates outside of the city’s control, leaving much of its work opaque.
“Something is not right. I know that,” said Arkela Lewis, 44, whose son, Jaylen Lewis, was killed by Mississippi Capitol Police officers in September. “No one has told me anything.”
Now, state officials want to give the Capitol Police even more area to patrol, billing the move as a way to further help Jackson tackle its violent crime problem.
Two competing proposals under consideration by the Republican-led, majority-white state Legislature would expand the Capitol Police’s jurisdiction in the majority-Black city. One of the proposals, which passed the House this month, would have diverted the criminal cases of people arrested by the Capitol Police to a new state-run court outside the city’s control, a move that sparked an uproar from Jackson’s legislators and mayor. A Senate committee removed that provision Thursday, but Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Antar…
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