Photo by David Cook
The Marshall County Sheriff’s Department responded to Griffin Inc. early Monday morning.
Suspect charged in fatal shooting
The Marshall County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a shooting that took place at Griffin Inc. on Highway 178 East near Byhalia.
Sheriff Kenny Dickerson said the call to 911 came in Monday, Jan. 20, at about 7:24 a.m. regarding an employee shooting at the plant that manufactures armored vehicles.
Upon officers’ arrival, the sheriff said the victim, DeAndre Jones, 26, of the Isom Chapel Road area, was lying on the floor inside the plant area with multiple gunshot wounds, the sheriff said.
The suspect, Lamont Burchette, 28, of the Roberts Chapel Road area near Slayden, fled the scene in a silver or grey 2012 Jeep Liberty, Dickerson said. The suspect was thought to have driven westward on Highway 178. A BOLO (Be On The Lookout) was immediately sent to law enforcement agencies in the area, including Memphis, Tenn.
Dickerson said investigators took reports that the suspect had come to work and was working inside a vehicle in the plant when a short time later he asked permission to go outside. He was given permission and the suspect got in his Jeep Liberty and drove to the back of the plant.
He is believed to have then entered the back of the plant on foot and allegedly approached the victim and began shooting. The victim fell to the floor and the suspect allegedly fired numerous more shots that struck the victim, Dickerson said.
Burchette was taken into custody in Memphis Monday around 11 a.m. by the Memphis Police Department’s Organized Crime Unit, the sheriff said. He was charged with murder after investigators learned that Jones had died in the hospital in Memphis, Tenn., Dickerson said.
Investigators recovered numerous spent casings in the area where the shooting occurred, the sheriff said. The weapon used in the shooting is believed to have been a semi-automatic 9 mm handgun.
Officers with the Memphis Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff’s Department and the Memphis Organized Crime Unit, spotted the Jeep Liberty at a park near an apartment complex in Memphis. The vehicle was kept under surveillance and sometime later, Burchette returned to the vehicle and fled. Officers pursued the Jeep and the suspect was taken into custody after he stopped and got out of the vehicle and ran in the proximity of Greenwood Street, Dickerson said.
He was taken to 201 Poplar Avenue, and Marshall County carried an arrest warrant to the Memphis jail Monday. Burchette remained in custody Tuesday while Marshall County provided a detainment order to Memphis authorities. Sheriff Dickerson said his department is seeking extradition of Burchette back to Marshall County.
Dickerson thanked his officers and those in Memphis for work on the investigation.
He also expressed his regrets to Griffin Inc. owners and their personnel.
“Griffin is one of our outstanding industrial sites and I believe they had no idea or reason to believe this would happen,” the sheriff said. “All the personnel at Griffin were completely cooperative with our investigation of this unfortunate incident at their workplace.”
Jones’ body was sent for an autopsy at the state medical examiner’s office. His funeral service is set for February 25 at 11 a.m. in the H.W. Byers High School gymnasium.