Sheriff’s deputies arrest shooting, drug suspects


Thursday, May 15, 2008
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Sheriff’s deputies arrest shooting, drug suspects

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

A suspect is in jail and charged with aggravated assault following a shooting on Dowdy Road in the county Friday, May 9, according to Sheriff Kenny Dickerson.

Officers received a call around 8:16 p.m. to the intersection of Highway 72 and Roberts Chapel Road and found a man sitting in the passenger side of a 1995 Crown Victoria with a gunshot wound to the face, he said.

The driver was attempting to take the victim, Johnny Dowdy, 38, of the Dowdy Road area to the hospital, Dickerson said.

The suspect, Christopher Lawrence Briggs, 34, of 1067 Kimbrough Chapel Road, later turned himself in to authorities. Dickerson said a small caliber handgun was recovered during later investigations and is thought to be the weapon used in the shooting of Dowdy, who remained in the Memphis Med Tuesday in critical condition.

Briggs remained in jail on $50,000 bond as of Tuesday.

In a separate investigation of a drug case, Dickerson said two arrests were made in the Potts Camp area.

Candace Kilpatrick, 21, and her boyfriend Joseph Smith, 20, of 47 Winburn Tower Road, were arrested Tuesday, May 6, following the burglary of a pharmacy in New Albany, May 2, according to the sheriff.

He said New Albany police contacted the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department for assistance in the burglary investigation where the suspects are believed to have received large numbers of prescription drugs thought to have been taken by the burglary suspect and passed on to Kilpatrick and Smith for distribution.

Smith was arrested first and Kilpatrick was arrested later in the same day.

Both suspects were charged with five counts possession of controlled substances with intent to sell and with on count child abuse due to the presence of the contraband in the vehicle also occupied by two children and driven by the suspects.

Dickerson said an estimated 3,000 dosage units of prescription medications - Zanex, Hydrocodone and Oxycodone, Valium, Soma and Vicaden - were seized from the suspects’ vehicle during the time of the arrest.

Because children were present in the vehicle with illegally obtained drugs, child abuse charges were also brought against the two suspects, Dickerson said.

Both Kilpatrick and Smith were released May 13 on $20,000 bond.

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