It's been 26 years since Kenneth Tornes went on a racist rampage to kill whites at the Jackson Fire Department. The Jackson firefighter showed up at JFD headquarters on April 24, 1996, killed four white JFD officials and injured three others (one of the injured victims was black). He led police on a chase that ended in front of McRae's at Northpark Mall. Ridgeland police officer Corporal Richard Gooch stopped Tornes with incredible marksmanship as he shot Tornes in the eye at 50 yards with a pistol. The 9mm round did not kill Tornes, but instead glanced off of his skull. Tornes died in prison.
33 comments:
The state of mental health in America is actually a crisis. I am a 2A advocate, so I am not going to blame guns. This is a people problem. However, there is either something in the water or some cosmic energy in space that is bombarding our planet in cosmic crazy waves. It could also be instincts. Since we are currently in a state of war, famine, and pestilence.
There needs to be a national campaign to never forget this racist act. The City of Jackson needs an annual memorial and this should be in every news report across the nation.
Never forget.
I remember that horrific day very well.
Recall the day vividly. The tragedy occurred at a time when Jackson was still vibrant, and the future was still optimistic. Ultimately, turns out the incident was an omen: it (and associated individuals) played some role in Ditto losing to Johnson in ‘97. Reading the other front page articles, one realizes how little else has changed for the good since since 1996. Calhouns are still a supervisor, the jail is still and issue, and WorldCom built in Clinton.
That front page. Wow.
One of my employees was almost run over by that psychopath as he was fleeing the scene. He missed him by inches as he sped up the wrong way on Congress St. at really high speed.
Oh please…!LuDUMBa claims only whites are racist. See his quote this week about the legislature’s. It’s laughable to imagine Chokwe even acknowledging this event
after tornes was arrested and jailed he hired an excellent and reputable lawyer to secure the pension fund he had and forward it to his next of kin.
that POS at the hinds county d a's office named bobby delaughter cooked up a bogus, shake-down case to force the lawyer to return the money and have the lawyer financially sanctioned.
after delaughter managed to get away with this scam the mississippi supreme court reversed the sanction saying that delaughter's actions constituted a disciplinary sanction and only the mississippi state bar could discipline an attorney.
mr delaughter was later convicted of judicial corruption , removed from the bench, disbarred and sent to prison.
äfter prison he, as most everyone in central mississippi does after being involved in a scandal, moved to new orleans ,and took up a writing career. he later wrote a murder mystery and told a reporter in a interview he 'hoped to scare the hell out of people'' with his little book.
make no mistake about it mr delaughter, you don't scare anybody anymore.
One of the Firemen shot keyed his mic during the altercation and the actual shots went out over the JFD radios. The photographer who shot most of those photos actually heard the shots over the scanner and was running toward the fire station when Tornes passed him driving wildly up West Street toward Pascagoula.
So these were "hate crimes," right?
Please do a "Flashback" on the cause and the death of Officer, William Louis Skinner.
I did six months ago.
That was at a time where the clarion ledger we still a somewhat decent newspaper. 50 cents. A lot of local people still worked for the Liar. Long ago.
Maybe I'm missing the point, but a headshot at 50 yards with a 9mm handgun is amazing. I wonder what he was shooting.
On another note, I see that the Hinds County Detention Center was viewed as a source of revenue. That backfired.
8:11, county farm, not detention center. County farm was a money maker til the state pulled the plug.
Bad journalism, as usual. He didn’t kill them because they were white. Skin color had nothing to do with it. BTW, he killed a black woman too. So, Tornes was racist against blacks and whites?
"Anonymous Anonymous said...
Maybe I'm missing the point, but a headshot at 50 yards with a 9mm handgun is amazing. I wonder what he was shooting.
On another note, I see that the Hinds County Detention Center was viewed as a source of revenue. That backfired.
April 24, 2022 at 8:11 PM"
No offense to the officer, kingfish or anyone else, but that shot was luck.
Stan Adams, one of the four firemen, was a tremendous person, a friend of mine. His wife and children still suffer from their loss that day. It’s like it was yesterday.
10:43 PM, the article says a Beretta 9mm. It would have been a Beretta 92 9mm as that's the only Beretta 9mm that saw use as a service pistol over here in the 90s.
1996. Crack and Extacy ruled the clubs and outlying areas. EVERYBODY was dancing the dance. Lord, how many friends and family did I have to watch succumb to these drugs. It was bad then and it's bad now.
@10:52 PM
What happened to Stan? I didn’t read the article.
"That was at a time where the clarion ledger we still a somewhat decent newspaper. 50 cents. A lot of local people still worked for the Liar. Long ago.
April 24, 2022 at 6:56 PM"
The CL was never a decent paper.
Also, "No offense to the officer, kingfish or anyone else, but that shot was luck.
April 24, 2022 at 10:43 PM"
Apparently you never learned to shoot very well. A lot of folks regularly practice well past 50 yards with their defensive handguns.
But the article says 75 feet.
Gooch was the firearms instructor for Ridgeland PD at the time.
He was one hard headed SOB
8:01 Stan was one of the four firefighters that was shot.
I was a college student, hitting balls on the range at Jackson Golf World on North State street, heard the sirens
An officer in LA made a similar shot about a week ago.
One in Austin took a guy out at 100 yards with his Glock last year.
No doubt some good luck was in play but some shooting skills accompanied the luck.
My mom hired Tornes to cut some trees in the yard at my parent's house. This was just weeks before he shot up the fire house. Apparently he had a tree cutting service as a side job. She was shocked when she learned that he was responsible for the murders. She said he had been a nice acting polite young man.
Kingfish you should’ve been a firefighter instead of a fake, wanna-be journalist. You would’ve made a great Jackson, Mississippi firefighter, twenty-six years ago.
"An officer in LA made a similar shot about a week ago.
One in Austin took a guy out at 100 yards with his Glock last year."
Now tell us how many officers shot at someone with a Glock (or other pistol) and missed.
All of them. We'll wait.
I remember that afternoon - I was involved in that pursuit with JPD.
@2:35 AM
Agreed.
He would’ve made an even better “white shirt” (especially when donned with his white cap) firefighter, twenty-six years ago.
I wonder if JPD would pursue such today, god forbid it happens again.
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