Gulfport Teen Shot by Cop Outside Family Dollar Taken Off Life Support [Update]
Updated as of 10/11/2022 at 9:30 a.m. ET
The 15-year-old teen who was shot by an officer at a Family Dollar in Gulfport, Mississippi has died, according to WLOX News. New details about the case have been revealed, however, it is still unclear if the teen was the suspect the officers were looking for.
Read more
The report says the Gulfport police received a tip about a group of teenagers in a Kia Soul waving guns at people. A vehicle matching the description was stopped at the Family Dollar and everyone in the vehicle fled. The press release says the officers pursued 15-year-old Jaheim McMillan, thinking he was one of the armed suspects. Bystanders recalled in the video footage that McMillan ran from a vehicle but had surrendered with his hands up seconds before he was shot, per Newsweek.
His mother, Katrina Mateen, said he wasn’t who they were looking for and just got caught up in the mix.
“He came out the dollar store with his hands up, and they shot him in the head....The video I seen on Facebook is basically, the man is saying that my son didn’t do anything. He had his hands up, so why did y’all shoot him?” said Mateen to WLOX.
McMillan was in critical condition following the incident and his mother had hope he’d recover. “I’m not going to pull the plug on him. Maybe he can come back. If he can, I’m going to give him that chance,” she told WLOX.
Saturday, he died after being taken off life support. He wasn’t the only one in his family to be killed by police either.
Read more from WLOX News:
The family of Jaheim McMillan has dealt with an officer involved shooting before. The teen’s uncle was killed in a standoff with police in 2018. Officers were cleared of any wrongdoing a year later.
“They killed his uncle, Marvin McMillan, a few years back,” Mateen added. “When I got here yesterday, they handcuffed me and walked me across the street.”
As police maintain their innocence, the victims and their families are crying foul. It’s clear that there are two vastly different sides to this story that won’t go away anytime soon.
Officials said in a statement that all four of the gun-waving suspects are in custody and their firearms were recovered. The four were charged with two counts of aggravated assault. However, authorities did not specify whether McMillan was one of the suspects they were looking for.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the incident. For now, the officer involved in the shooting has been placed on “non-enforcement” duties amidst the investigation. Body camera and dash camera footage may not yet be available to the public.
