WEBB — Officials are seeking leads in the early Sunday (May 25) slaying of a Tutwiler man who was gunned down here on a crowded Main Street.
Tallahatchie County Sheriff Jimmy Fly identified the victim as Dontavious Lamar Garner, 22, of 205 Hopson St., Tutwiler.
“He was shot multiple times in the abdomen area and also the arm and chest,” noted Fly, who said the crime occurred about a quarter past midnight in the vicinity of the Webb Post Office.
Garner was transported by ambulance to the emergency room at Tallahatchie General Hospital and was being transferred to a Memphis trauma center when he died en route, Fly explained.
A 30-year-old Webb female at the scene who also was hit by a bullet was taken by private vehicle to a Ruleville hospital, where she was treated and released, the sheriff noted.
“We feel like Garner was the intended victim and that she was just an innocent bystander,” Fly added.
Officials recovered five, 10 mm shell casings from the street at the scene of the shootings, the sheriff noted.
A sheriff’s deputy who was investigating a complaint about vehicles racing in the Main Street area of Webb had driven through the crowded downtown only moments before gunfire rang out, Fly added.
“He heard several shots, turned around and came back to the scene to find the victim laying in the street,” he noted.
With the local high school having held graduation in town earlier Saturday and it also being Memorial Day weekend, Fly said “there was a crowd of people in the area at the time” of the crime, and “We feel like the suspect was in the crowd with them.”
Fly said investigators have conducted numerous interviews but have no leads.
The sheriff said anyone who has any information is asked to contact the sheriff’s office in Sumner at 662-375-8676 or in Charleston at 662-647-5511 or 662-647-3700.
“This is a case where we know there are people who were there and more than likely know something. We just ask that they come forward,” noted Fly, who added that his “thoughts and prayers go out” to Garner’s family.
