Posted on Tue, May. 06, 2008

GULFPORT -- Police have asked for the public's help to figure out why a Gulfport man was shot and left in the middle of Washington Avenue early Monday.

James Knight Jr., 25, died shortly after he was taken to Memorial Hospital, said Coroner Gary Hargrove. An autopsy was pending.

Knight's death is the city's fourth homicide this year.

Knight was shot multiple times, according to police.

A caller notified police of a man passed out in the middle of the street at 2:32 a.m., Hargrove said. Authorities were able to confirm Knight's name through an identification card in his wallet.

He was lying near McArthur Street, which is north of Airport Road and a short distance from where Washington becomes Rippy Road. Police diverted traffic away from the wooded area for nearly eight hours.

"It's to avoid contaminating the crime scene," said James Griffin, a public information officer for the Gulfport Police Department.

In a short while, crime-scene technicians placed 30 or so evidence markers in and around the street in the Turkey Creek neighborhood.

"We're just asking to hear from anybody who saw anything suspicious between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.," Griffin said.

Investigators later Monday were questioning people who knew Knight.

"We've got to start from who he knew and go from there," Griffin said. "Investigators are talking to people that he knew to find out if there were any problems that could have led to this. They could come up with something tonight or this may be one of these situations that it takes a while for people who know something to talk."

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call police at 868-5959 or Mississippi Coast CrimeStoppers at 1-800-433-TIPS (8477).