Jackson Jambalaya

Anthony Warren interviewed the shooting victim in the recent Eastover Drive robbery in the Northside Sun last week. Mr. Warren reported:

The victim of a recent shooting in Eastover isn’t so angry about being shot herself, but is mad that one of the crooks who broke into her friend’s home at the corner of Eastover Drive and Ridgewood Road on June 28, shot the owner’s puppy before fleeing the scene.

“(It wasn’t) even barking. He shot it out of meanness,” she said.

The woman, who asked that her name not be used, had just entered the Eastover home around 7:45 p.m., when she noticed that the house had been ransacked.

At first, she thought the dogs did it.

The owners were out of town, and the Northsider was stopping by to check on the canines, an adult Chow mix, and a seven or eight-month-old German Shepherd mix.

“I walked into the keeping room and saw the mess and thought the dogs did this. Then I saw a guy with a black mask,” she said. “I screamed at him and said, ‘what are you doing?’”

The crook, an unidentified black male, came into the room “and shot me in the right upper arm,” she said.

When the shot was fired, a second burglar appeared out of a bedroom and fled the scene on foot. The first suspect “hung out” for another five minutes, according to the victim.

“It might have been three, but it felt like five.”

During that time, the criminal walked to a back room and shot the puppy.

The victim only heard the young dog bark once. “She was the sweetest thing, the way she would wag her tail when you walked in,” she said. “That was totally uncalled for.”

The intruders had apparently pried open a rear window near the home’s central air conditioning unit. “My friend said there was a lot of construction going on nearby the house, so that’s probably how they saw the window,” she said.

Both were said to be in their late teens or early 20s. The woman said one suspect took off his mask briefly, but put it on before she could get a good look at him.

“I saw him, but I couldn’t pick him out in a lineup,” she said.



after The second crook fled, the woman called police on her cell phone. The crooks left the scene with jewelry and other small items, she said.

She didn’t know how he got out of the house.

“I gave the police the wrong address. I called them back and told them I was across from Northminster (Baptist Church),” she said. Officers arrived on the scene in four or five minutes.

“They (officers) were all over the place,” she said.

The woman was taken by ambulance to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she was treated and released.

On Monday, the bullet was still lodged in her upper right arm. She was planning to visit an orthopedist this week, but didn’t know if she would need surgery or physical therapy.

“I hope to go back to work pretty soon,” she said.

She hopes the crooks are caught even sooner.

At press time, the case was still under investigation. Precinct Four Cmdr. James McGowan, who was on vacation when the incident occurred, was unaware of any leads in the case.

“I’m checking this morning. We need to catch these jokers,” he said.

Article reprinted with permission from the Northside Sun.