A reported domestic situation in Indianola this past Sunday evening ended in tragedy. According to Indianola Police Investigator Irish Johnson, a 24-year-old Indianola man apparently shot a 27-year-old female multiple times at Love’s Truck Stop before apparently turning the gun on himself. The female victim, who is reportedly from south Mississippi, was still alive when police arrived on the scene. She was later pronounced deceased at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. The Enterprise-Tocsin has decided not to release the names of the victims at this time out of respect for the families. Both of the victims were truck drivers, Johnson said, and when the female arrived in Indianola, she reportedly had a 10-hour layover, and she apparently phoned the male and asked him to pick her up at the truck stop. He drove her back to his residence on Birdsong Street, where the two later got into a verbal altercation. “She wanted to leave,” Johnson said. “He took her phone and purse and left.” Police were called to the residence, and contact was established with the male, who apparently agreed to return her things. “They made contact with him. He brought the purse and phone back,” Johnson said. “They told him that contact was not to be made with her. They escorted her back to her truck.” Johnson said that when the female got back inside of her truck, police left the scene. “We got another call that there were gunshots at Love’s,” Johnson said. The male apparently shot from the passenger side of the female’s semi-truck and struck her multiple times, Johnson said. “She sustained several wounds on the right side of her body,” he said. The female apparently returned fire with a small caliber weapon, which Johnson said was recovered on the passenger side of her semi ‘s cab. She was able to get out of the cab before collapsing, he said. Johnson said that when officers arrived on the scene, they found the female lying between two vehicles near the shop at the Love’s property. She was still alive and responsive at that time, and Johnson said that by the time he arrived at the scene, she was in the back of an ambulance. She was transported to UMMC where she was pronounced dead less than an hour after arriving there, Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton told The E-T. Police found the male face down near the female’s semi with a weapon lying underneath him. Johnson said that the apparent murder-suicide is still under investigation. He said that he will be combing through the evidence that arrived from the crime lab this week, as well as all of the narratives from the crime scene.
