Coast agencies searching for man who shot Harrison County deputy

Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peterson on Saturday said the search continues for a man suspected of shooting an on-duty deputy Friday morning.

It’s been more than 24 hours since the search began for the shooting suspect described as a white man in his 40s with gray hair, a strong build and a mustache, between 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-5 and 250 to 300 pounds. He was wearing dark jeans and gray garden gloves, driving a older-model white truck, possibly with copper wires hanging off the side. The truck has box-like headlights and a box-like front end, and may be a 1990s model Ford or a Chevrolet.

Peterson said Friday a Harrison County deputy at about 11:30 a.m. was pulled over on the side of a dirt road off of East Jordan Road next to Mississippi 605 when a white pickup pulled up behind the patrol car. Both men got out of their vehicles, he said, and at some point the deputy was shot in the chest with a handgun. Peterson said the shooter was wearing garden gloves when he got out of his truck and fled the scene after the shooting.

Peterson has not yet released the name of the wounded deputy, who was airlifted to University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile and was released Friday afternoon.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation will take the lead in the investigation, which is normal procedure for an officer-involved shooting. MBI did not respond to a request for information Saturday.

The wounded deputy and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department have received an outpouring of support on social media.

This story was originally published July 29, 2017 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Coast agencies searching for man who shot Harrison County deputy."