Police in Mississippi arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly shooting and killing two children and then holding a third child hostage at gunpoint during a standoff with law enforcement officers.
Deputies arrested Marquez Griffin on Monday night, January 9, after a standoff. Police charged the man with two counts of murder and aggravated assault concerning the deaths of two children, who police said were a girl aged one-year and a nine-year-old boy.
The Coahoma County Sheriff’s Office released a statement saying they had received a 911 call from an individual claiming that someone had shot a child at the Summit Garden Apartment Complex located on Coldwater River Road in Jonestown, Mississippi, about 65 miles from Memphis, Tennessee.
Responding officers at the scene made contact with the attacker, whom they later identified as Griffin.
According to the responding deputies, Griffin was holding another child hostage at gunpoint in the apartment when they first encountered him.
The sheriff’s deputies talked to Griffin, and he eventually agreed to let the child go and dropped his weapon. Officers immediately detained the man and took him into custody.
After placing Griffin under arrest, officers were in for a shock as they searched the home and discovered that two children had sustained gunshot wounds before law enforcement arrived.
Unfortunately, one of the children was pronounced dead at the scene, and police rushed the other to a nearby hospital where the child was pronounced dead.
One of the victims was identified as one-year-old Averi Jones.
Averi’s grandmother, Melrose Haile, spoke to the news media about the tragedy and provided more details about the incident.
The distraught Haile said that the child’s mother told her that Averi was asleep when Griffin put a pillow over her little head and shot her.
The grandmother said that Averi’s mother told her that she and Griffin were friends and that several other children were in the house at the time of the tragic shootings.
The distraught grandmother questioned the relationship between the mother and Griffin, asking how a friend could do that.
Police took Griffin to the Adult Detention Center in Coahoma County, where he is currently detained. He has been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
The sheriff’s office said Griffin’s motive is unclear and further details have not been released. The case is under investigation.