Shooting on Craft Street takes life

A shooting in the 400 block of Craft Street took the life of a Holly Springs man, according to police chief Grant Glover.

He said officers responded to a call around 8:56 a.m. Wednesday, July 20, and found Michael Smith, 44, lying face down and unresponsive.

Both Holly Springs and Marshall County authorities responded to the scene.

Coroner James Richard Anderson, who pronounced Smith dead at the scene, said Smith was shot in the back at what appeared to be close range. Smith’s body was taken immediately to the state medical examiner’s office in Pearl for autopsy, he said.

A suspect had left the house and was being sought by sheriff’s deputies when his mother intervened and convinced him to turn himself in to authorities, Glover said.

“The suspect, David Earl Thomas Jr., 30, of the 100 block of Joe Cox Road, turned himself in at 2 p.m. In the parking lot of Starlite Grocery,” Glover said.

Thomas was charged Wednesday with murder. Municipal court judge Cornelia Fondren denied bond to Thomas because he is considered a flight risk, because he fled the scene of the shooting.

The pursuit of Thomas involved a multi-agency manhunt by U.S. Marshals, Holly Springs Police, the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms) the Mississippi Highway Patrol, DeSoto County and officers with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, following the shooting on Craft Street.

Sheriff Kenny Dickerson said Thomas was driven to a location near Lake Center where he was dropped off.

Thomas evaded capture for five hours, the sheriff said, when he was encouraged by his mother to turn himself in to authorities.

Thomas cooperated with authorities and went with law officers to a rural location on Higdon Road where a handgun believed to have been used in the shooting was recovered with the assistance of the suspect.

Dickerson said the investigation led authorities to think the shooting may have been related to a domestic dispute.