Investigators seek clues about highway shooting

By John Howell
Panola County authorities continued on Thursday to assist with an investigation into a bizarre, rolling ambush shooting on Highway 51 in Tate County Monday night, Sheriff Dennis Darby said.
The shooting injured the female driver of a vehicle later found to have five bullet holes. A child passenger in the vehicle was not injured, according to Sheriff Darby. The victims had recently moved from Lafayette to Tate County.
The motorist stopped around 10-10:30 p.m. Monday night at the intersection of Highways 310 and 51 in Como where a vehicle with several men inside turned and followed her north, according to the sheriff.
As she proceeded, the vehicle began to pull close behind her vehicle and then fall back before pulling close again. She slowed and allowed the vehicle to pass.
After the vehicle, described as a blue SUV or crossover type, gained enough lead, the driver stopped and several people, described only as black males, got out of the car.
As the woman attempted to drive around on the partially blocked highway, shots were fired, striking her vehicle, Darby said.
The woman continued driving until she reached the Senatobia Police Dept. to seek aid. She was quickly airlifted to the Med in Memphis.
Darby said that Panola Sheriff’s Dept. Major Barry Thompson and Capt. Gray Nickels are assisting Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and Tate County officers in the investigation, seeking information from a network of informants. “We need to get a tip,” Darby said.
“One of them dropped their cell phone; they’re working on it,” the sheriff said.
Darby said he did not yet know whether the incident was gang-related.