Editor's Note: The audio recordings can be heard by clicking the play button below the above photo.
The officers who responded to 11-year-old Aderrien Murry’s 911 call on May 20, 2023 may not have had adequate information about the home’s occupants prior to attempting a forced entry that was followed by Officer Greg Capers apparently shooting the same child.
This is according to Murry family attorney Carlos Moore who today released audio from four separate 911 dispatch calls, providing perhaps more context to the officer-involved shooting that happened during a response to a domestic disturbance call at a B.B. King Road residence during the 4 a.m. hour of that morning.
This comes nearly a week after two minutes of the body camera footage from that morning were released to the public.
That footage appears to be from Capers’ body cam and begins at the point when Capers received permission, through dispatch, to gain entry into the residence by force, and it ends with the shooting and the call for medical assistance.
The roughly five-minutes of audio released this week includes a 911 call from Nakala Murry’s mother, who was not present in the home, and what appears to be Aderrien Murry calling from within the home.
This audio is likely not exhaustive, as conversations between dispatch and the responding officers are not included.
IPD Chief Ronald Sampson told The Enterprise-Tocsin today that the city is still acting under a court order and would not be offering a comment at this time.
“At the proper time, we look forward to making a statement on this incident,” he said.
The city has maintained that officers were unaware that any children were in the home that morning and that officers were acting under the belief that Nakala Murry and a man later identified as John Nolden were the only persons inside the residence.
And while the audio files do not directly contradict that, the initial emergency call with Aderrien Murry’s grandmother might have provided information to suggest to the dispatcher that there were more than two occupants in the home.
“The audio recordings reveal that one caller advised the police that no weapons were involved, and another caller advised that there was a child in the house,” attorney Moore said in a statement today. “This crucial information should have been known to the responding officers and should have informed their approach to the situation.”
When the call with Nakala Murry’s mother began, the dispatcher asked the woman on the other end, “What’s going on at that location?”
“The boyfriend is jumping on the momma,” she said.
“Okay, are you at that location?” the dispatchers asked.
“No, that’s my grandson. He called me,” the caller responded.
Back in May, Nakala Murry told The E-T that when the father of one of her other children showed up that morning “irate,” she gave a phone to her son and asked him to call his grandmother and then 911.
“Who can the officer make contact with at that location?” the dispatcher asked.
“Nakala Murry,” the woman responded.
“Okay, I have officers en route to that location,” the dispatcher said.
Another file contains the initial 911 call from inside the home. The caller’s voice appears to be that of Aderrien Murry.
He spoke in a frightened whisper throughout the call. There does not appear to be anyone else in the room with the caller.
“Is this the Indianola Police Department?” the caller whispered. “I need a cop sent to 1*** B.B. King Road.
“629?” the dispatcher asked.
“Huh?” the caller responded.
“You said 629 B.B. King?” the dispatcher asked again.
“1***,” the caller said.
“I*** B.B. King? Nakala Murry?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yes,” the caller said.
“Okay, I’ve got officers en route to you,” the dispatcher said, followed by an illegible response by the caller. “I’ve got officers en route. Somebody already called for you, they’re en route right now.”
After disconnecting, the dispatcher later regained communication with the caller.
“They are outside,” the dispatcher said.
“I know,” the person on the other end of the phone said, adding what sounded like, “He won’t let us open the door.”
“He won’t let you open the door?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yeah,” the caller said.
“Hold on, stay on the phone,” the dispatcher said.
She returned to the line moments later and asked, “Are you giving them permission to kick the door in? Is there any weapons involved? Do he have any weapons?
“No, I don’t think so,” the caller said. “I don’t think so.”
“They’re asking, do they have your permission to kick the door in?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yes,” the caller said.
After a few seconds, the officer can be heard kicking the door, as was seen in the body cam footage. Nakala Murry can be heard going to the door.
Capers can be heard interacting with her, asking if the man inside the home was armed. Nakala Murry, on the body cam footage, told the officers that the man did not have any weapons.
“Come on out!” Capers can be heard shouting. “Come out sir! Don’t make us come in!”
At that point, there is no more interaction between the caller and the dispatcher, but the phone that was used to make the 911 call appeared to continue to pick up the audio from the front of the home.
The shooting of Aderrien Murry can be heard, as well as a male voice, that does not appear to be the officer, shouting, “What happened? What happened? What happened?”
Capers can be heard calling repeatedly for MedStat, the county’s ambulance service.
That is the point where the body cam footage cut off, but the dispatch audio continued.
“Who shot?” the male voice shouted. “Who shot?”
Crying can be heard in the distance by multiple people.
“What happened, baby?” the male voice asked.
The dispatch call went to recorded music for the remaining seconds of the call.
Nakala Murry filed a $5 million federal lawsuit against Capers, the city and others days after the shooting.
According to a court filing filed by the city’s attorneys back in the summer, “On that date, officers with the Indianola Police Department were dispatched to a residence for a violent domestic dispute with no inclination that children were present… Though the IPD officers did not know children were present, they were aware that the Plaintiff’s address had been the scene for dozens of violent, and sometimes armed, disputes involving Nakala Murry and the same suspect in the subject call. This same evidence will show nobody ever advised that children were present in the residence. The statements reasonably conveyed to dispatch were that only two individuals were present in the home: Nakala Murry and John Nolden. Even upon exiting the residence, Nakala Murry never informed Officer Capers nor Officer Webb that anyone other than the suspect, Nolden, was within the residence nor that any children were present. Thus, when the individual ran at Officer Capers from the back room where he had been informed the suspect was located, any similarly situated officer could objectively believe that a suspect with a violent criminal history was charging at him.”
Capers, last month, was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in the case after the Sunflower County grand jury issued a no true bill, declining to indict him. Later in December, Capers was reinstated to the Indianola Police Department, having been on suspension without pay since June.
Moore said the 911 audio shows “Discrepancies between the initial call and the subsequent police actions.”
“The failure to appropriately assess the situation and recognized the presence of a child in the house is a grave oversight that cannot be ignored,” Moore said.
Again, there is likely more audio and video that has yet to be made public.
Back in December, a judge ordered the body cam footage of the shooting sealed.
Even so, the two-minute segment of the likely more-lengthy video account of that incident was released last week, reportedly by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which was the investigating agency in the case.
That footage shows some things but not everything.
The audio files and the video release offer some context, but it could be some time before the public is privy to all of the evidence in the case.
