Defendant shot dead outside Mississippi courthouse

Authorities investigate a shooting Monday in Canton, Miss., where a man fatally shot a defendant waiting in a courtyard outside the courthouse. A suspect is in custody, law enforcement officials said.
Authorities investigate a shooting Monday in Canton, Miss., where a man fatally shot a defendant waiting in a courtyard outside the courthouse. A suspect is in custody, law enforcement officials said.

CANTON, Miss. -- A man got out of his pickup, walked up to the defendant in a drug-dealing case and fatally shot him in the chest, then set down his gun and surrendered as deputies confronted him outside a Mississippi courthouse Monday morning, law enforcement officials said.

Police and other officials said they weren't sure why the suspect -- 24-year-old William B. Wells, a former Canton firefighter with no history of trouble -- would shoot Kendrick Armond Brown. But it came just days after Wells' mother was shot and wounded in a case that police are investigating.

Brown was in a small courtyard outside the Madison County Courthouse with his lawyer, Rusty Williard, when he was shot, District Attorney Michael Guest said. Brown, 37, faced charges of selling cocaine and had been sentenced to prison time on past drug counts, according to an indictment. He was expected to reject a plea offer on his latest charges Monday and was not a witness or a suspect in other criminal cases, Guest said.

Wells was booked into the county jail with a bail hearing set for this afternoon. Before Monday, "he hadn't been in any trouble or anything," Canton Police Chief Otha Brown said.

But on Saturday night, the police chief said, Wells' mother was shot while in her car. Sherry Wells drove herself to the Canton Police Department, reported that she'd been shot, and was transferred to a hospital in an ambulance, according to police.

Sherry Wells had been scheduled to testify against Brown. Earlier Monday, Guest described her as an informant. He later said authorities are "most definitely" investigating retaliation as a motive.

On Monday, the shooting unfolded quickly, Sheriff Randy Tucker said. There are metal detectors inside the courthouse, but the parking lot is open to the public and unguarded. The Canton Police Department is at the rear of the parking lot, less than 200 yards from the front door of the courthouse.

After the shooting, officers searched with metal detectors under crape myrtle trees, looking for the shell from the semi-automatic handgun.

Guest said he thought there was little that deputies could have done to prevent the shooting. "There would have been, in my opinion, no way this could have been stopped," Guest said.

Canton Fire Chief Andrew Hughes said Wells was a firefighter for about a year before quitting in June 2014.

Hours after the shooting, a group of friends and relatives gathered at Wells' house, which shares a backyard fence with the home of his mother and father. The homes are just southeast of Canton's courthouse square.

Lebertha Luckett identified herself as Wells' girlfriend and said she'd known him since high school.

"He's a good guy," Luckett said. "I don't know what happened."

A Section on 08/04/2015

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