Man dies in Hwy. 310 shooting


Thursday, September 29, 2011
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Man dies in Hwy. 310 shooting

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

Photo by Barry Burleson

Gathering evidence Thursday at the scene, near where the body was found, are (from left) investigator Cody Teel, Major Kelly McMillen, investigator Jason Mills, investigator Tammy Thompson and Sheriff Kenny Dickerson.

A Yarborough Chapel Road resident was shot and killed at a Highway 310 residence Thursday, according to Marshall County Sheriff Kenny Dickerson.

He said officers were dispatched to 1760 Highway 310 in Laws Hill around 11 a.m. regarding a shooting incident. When officers arrived, they found Lorenzo Gipson, 56, dead with two gunshot wounds on the property of Andre Ramon Matthews, a Memphis, Tenn., resident and owner of the property.

Matthews had already contacted the sheriff’s office regarding multiple incidents of theft of scrap metal he had stored on the property, Dickerson said.

Investigators searched the property and found various active tracks and trails where subjects appeared to have traversed the property and officers found items that had been brought out to the gate of Matthews’ driveway and other items in a bucket at the shooting scene, he said.

A vehicle believed to have been driven to the area by Gipson was parked nearby on Levy Road up the highway from the Matthews property, the sheriff said.

Law enforcement officers report to the mobile home just off Highway 310.

Officers searched the property for additional subjects and found none, he said.

Matthews cooperated with law enforcement fully during the investigation, Dickerson said. Evidence collected will likely be presented to a grand jury, the sheriff said, depending on the decision of the district attorney.

Although the new law, the Castle Doctrine, could be called into play in this case, Dickerson said the old law known as common self-defense could also be applied to the evidence.

“When an individual is on his own land and a person appears to be trespassing and stealing and the owner has no choice but to retreat, defend himself or to be killed, the old law could apply,” Dickerson said. “It appears this could be a case of self defense.”

He said presenting the evidence to the grand jury would not be uncommon in a case such as this just as a means of letting the citizens look at the facts and decide on the facts as presented by the district attorney.

The next grand jury meets October 11-13 in Marshall County.

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