A Mississippi police officer shot and wounded an unarmed 11-year-old boy while responding to a domestic disturbance at his family’s home.
Aderrien Murry was shot in the chest by an Indianola police officer early Saturday morning and placed in intensive care on a ventilator with a collapsed lung and other injuries, including fractured ribs and a lacerated liver, reported Mississippi Today.
“This cannot keep happening, this is not okay,” said the boy’s mother Nakala Murry during the press conference. “If a non-police officer was to shoot someone, you know it’s not okay. When the police do it, they have protocol. He was trained, he knows what to do.”
In fact, the officer who shot Aderrien was named the department’s “best officer,” according to the family’s attorney, who identified him as Greg Capers, although police haven’t released his name.
“If he’s your best, Indianola, you need a clean house from top to bottom,” said family attorney Carlos Moore.
Nakala Murry said she snuck her phone to Aderrien and asked him to call her mother and the police after the father of her other child came to the family’s home and became irate, but police haven’t released any information about what led to the shooting — and Nakala Murry said her son didn’t understand why the officer shot him.
“His words were: ‘Why did he shoot me? What did I do?’ and he started crying,” she said, adding that she saw blood come from her son’s mouth.
Capers was placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, but the family’s attorney said city officials must explain why the officer hadn’t been disciplined for past alleged misconduct, including using a Taser on one of Moore’s previous clients while he was handcuffed during a December 2022 incident.
“What are you waiting on? Someone to actually die?” Moore said. “An 11-year-old almost died. By the grace of God, he is alive. The people of Indianola are not going to wait until somebody dies.”