Details of incident at Dollar General are much worse than the original reports indicated
Kimberly D. Kennedy had met up for a child swap with the father of her two children when he shot and killed her during a domestic violence incident in a store parking lot in Stone County, Sean Tindell, head of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said.
“Tragic, just tragic,” Tindell said. “Their two children were there, and it’s obviously a traumatic incident for them,” as well as others in the Dollar General store that sits at a busy intersection.
The child’s father, Perry Stephens Jr., 52, of the Benndale community in George County, died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after he killed Kennedy in front of their two children, Tindell said.
Before the suspected suicide, Stephens shot and injured a Stone County sheriff’s deputy who responded to the domestic violence incident.
Tindell said the call came in from a customer around 4:15 p.m. Sunday after Kennedy expressed concerns to them and others about “the father’s state of mind.”
“We have three investigators assigned to the case,” Tindell said. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which operates under the umbrellas of the MDPS, is conducting an investigation into the shooting.
Though the investigation is continuing, it appears Stephens may have been seated in his vehicle when he shot and killed Kennedy, who was standing outside the vehicle.
Stone County Coroner Wayne Flurry said the preliminary findings indicate that Kennedy died of multiple gunshot wounds, while Stephens died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Autopsies are pending, Flurry said.
Tindell did not identify the injured deputy, saying, “We want to make sure the deputy is in a good place before we release the name.”
Tindell said the former couple’s two children have since been placed in the care of Kennedy’s relatives.
“The whole thing is tragic,” Tindell added. “That store is at a busy intersection and usually has a lot of customers. We are lucky nobody else was injured.”
