The Indianola Board of Aldermen voted down a motion on Monday night to reinstate IPD Officer Greg Capers and place him on desk duty.
This decision came a few days after city leadership was able to view the body camera footage of the May 20 shooting of 11-year-old Aderrien Murry at a B.B. King Road residence. Capers was responding to a 911 call made by the child, apparently due to a domestic disturbance at the time.
Capers was initially placed on suspension with pay May 22.
The board voted on June 12 to suspend Capers without pay, although the city was still awaiting the conclusion of the official investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi was the lone no vote on June 12, and while he was not present for last Thursday night’s review of the body cam footage, he made the motion this past Monday to bring Capers back to work, as the city is still apparently waiting for the final report from MBI.
Ward 2 Alderman Darrell Simpson seconded the motion, but it was defeated on a 3-2 vote.
Last Thursday’s meeting was the first major development from the city’s side since they voted to take Capers' pay more than a month ago.
Carlos Moore, the attorney representing Aderrien Murry and his family, filed a $5 million federal lawsuit against the city, Capers and IPD Chief Ronald Sampson.
Nakala Murry, Aderrien Murry’s mother, filed a criminal affidavit against Capers in June, but a hearing is not scheduled on that matter until the fall.
Prior to going into closed session on Thursday, attorney Danny J. Griffith, with the Jacks, Griffith, Luciano law firm out of Cleveland, who is apparently representing the city in this matter, described the shooting as a “tragic accident.”
He then asked that all who were going back to review the footage leave their phones and any recording devices behind.
Griffith spoke briefly with The Enterprise-Tocsin before the closed session, suggesting an impending release of all information related to the shooting as soon as the investigation is complete.
Not much has been said on the record about what was seen on the body camera tape, but whatever was shown did not spur the majority of the board to take action during this past Monday’s meeting, which was attended by both Nakala and Aderrien Murry.
“I was hoping they would discuss him being terminated, permanently, but as of now, I haven’t been having much hope for anything,” Nakala Murry told The E-T after the meeting, visibly frustrated at Fratesi’s motion.
“I hate the fact that they had to even bring a motion in for him to still be part of the police station in some type of way,” she said.
Nakala Murry said she has not seen the body cam footage, but she did see footage from a camera taken at a neighboring business.
The body cam, she suggested, would tell a more complete story.
“It should be everything,” she said. “If he had his body camera on, it should be from the time he pulled up to my residence until he was down there with my son, while he was shot. Hopefully, everything is still there.”
Aderrien Murry will start sixth grade here in Indianola in a few weeks, and for the mother and son, the summer has been anything but routine, with Nakala not being able to work, while helping her son recover from his injuries.
“To be honest, he’s not having a good summer,” she said. “When this happened, it took away half of his summer. We usually do something, go somewhere. We haven’t been anywhere or done anything. I’ve been out of work, without pay.”
Nakala Murry said she just returned to work recently as a prioritization representative, working from home.
In addition to attending board meetings, Nakala Murry organized a petition in June, which seemed to help sway four aldermen to back Capers’ suspension without pay.
As of right now, Capers’ future with the Indianola Police Department remains uncertain.
“I’m just hoping basically that the right thing is done,” Murry said. “There’s only so much I can do. My main concern was taking care of my son, who was shot. He’s doing okay. He’s doing better now, and I just hope the law prevails and they do what they’re supposed to do.”
