UPDATED 5:00AM THURSDAY
We still don’t know why a suspected car thief who escaped from jail in Raymond and allegedly killed a man in Jackson wound up hiding out in Leake County. Sheriff Randy Atkinson says that’s something he’s trying to figure out.
“That’s still under investigation, (as) to what led him here to be in Leake County.”
Dylan Arrington was found dead Wednesday after a shootout with law enforcement officers at a house north of Carthage which caught fire during the standoff. Atkinson says he and one of his investigators had returned to the Conway community where a neighbor had reported seeing Arrington Tuesday night. The sheriff and the deputy were standing outside when the man discovered the fugitive in his home.
“And (by the) time we got the house covered, front and rear, where we knew he wasn’t going to leave out of the house, he opened fire on my deputy from the front of the house.”
Investigator Jerry Horn was shot in the leg. He’s recovering in a Jackson hospital. The sheriff says he’s doing well.
Atkinson says he’s not sure how many shots were fired during the standoff– but as officers were waiting for more support to arrive, Arrington opened fire again, this time with smoke pouring out of a window.
“We have no idea how the fire got started.”
Later, a body was recovered from the rubble of the house. Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones confirmed Wednesday night that it was Arrington’s body. He was among four inmates who escaped from the Hinds County Detention Center last weekend– and is suspected of killing a minister from D’Lo who stopped to help after Arrington apparently wrecked a stolen motorcycle in Jackson Monday night.
UPDATED 3:15 pm WEDNESDAY
An escapee from the Hinds County Detention Center is believed to have died in a fire this morning after a shootout with law enforcement that left a Leake County deputy wounded. A citizen had reported seeing Dylan Arrington on his property in the Conway community on Tuesday and Sheriff Randy Atkinson says he and one of his investigators went back early today to talk to the witness again.
“I spoke with him briefly. The homeowner went in the house and came running out saying ‘he’s in the house, he’s in the house’.” We got the house covered and he started shooting out of the front of the house and struck my deputy,” Atkinson says. Investigator Jerry Horn is being treated for a leg wound at a Jackson hospital. The sheriff says Horn is doing well.
During the shootout, the sheriff says smoke began pouring out of the house, which eventually burned to the ground. It’s believed that Arrington didn’t escape and a body has been recovered from the rubble. Atkinson says they don’t know how the fire started.
He was one of four inmates who broke out of the jail in Raymond last weekend. He’s suspected of killing a minister from D’Lo who had stopped to help him after Arrington apparently wrecked a stolen motorcycle in Jackson Monday night. He drove off in the victim’s truck.
Atkinson says he has no idea of how Arrington wound up in Leake County. That’ll be part of the ongoing investigation.
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