Some arrested in Pass shooting have criminal background

PASS CHRISTIAN -- Police on Thursday identified people arrested during investigations of possible connections to the city's Feb. 7 shootings, saying some could be persons of interest in the deadly gunfire from at least two shooters.

Two men died and four people were wounded on Davis Avenue as hundreds of people scrambled for safety as shots were fired after the Pass Christian Carnival Association's Mardi Gras parade.

The names of those arrested with the help of multiple agencies reveal some have high-profile criminal backgrounds. All are being held without bond, but none of the arrests is directly related to the shooting.

Also, court documents identify one of those arrested as one of the wounded. Charles Earl Johnson is held on a probation warrant. It was his bloody clothes that disappeared before police could retrieve bagged evidence from the hospital, an affidavit said.

Police Chief Tim Hendricks said the arrests of eight people from Gulfport in related investigations and other probes have not yet led to the arrests of shooters. Those arrested, he said, were taken into custody during investigations of people suspected of having key information or involvement.

"Certain ones are being scrutinized very heavily as persons of interest," he said.

Those arrested:

Malcolm Joseph Dedeaux Jr., 23; probation warrant from the state Department of Corrections.

Jessie Lee Williams Jr., 23; two probation warrants from MDOC.

Jermaine Rashod Ratcliff, 26, possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

Quamaine Rashawn Williams, 24, possession of a stolen firearm.

Charles Earl Johnson, 29, federal probation violation.

Rodney Jerome Burks, 26, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and a probation violation from MDOC.

Deonica Lasha Shaw, 24, possession of a stolen firearm.

Sharon Ann Johnson, 51, hindering prosecution.

Mother and son

Sharon Johnson is the mother of Charles Johnson, said their attorney, Michael Crosby. She is accused of taking her son's bloody clothes, bagged for evidence, from Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, where she is employed as the cafeteria supervisor.

Crosby said he is representing the mother because he had represented the son on his federal conviction.

It was Charles Johnson who was shot three times. Hendricks had identified the wounded as a 29-year-old man shot three times -- twice in a leg and once in an arm; a 23-year-old man shot in the chest; and a 23-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man each shot in the leg.

Crosby said hospital personnel had handed the distraught mother a bag of her son's belongings -- including a ring, watch and billfold -- and told to her to keep an eye on it. At no time did police tell her the bag was considered evidence, he said.

"His bag of personal belongings were the last thing on her mind as she walked around and waited to see if her son would live or die," Crosby said.

An affidavit says she lied when an investigator asked about her son's clothes and she replied someone must have picked them up in the waiting room.

She didn't lie, Crosby said, but was trying to remember something she thought was a low priority.

A SWAT team soon forced its way into her home while she was away, "trashed it" and left, he said. Later, she saw someone running in her yard, opened the door and a detective asked her, "Where are the clothes?" Crosby said.

Sharon Johnson told the investigator to call her attorney, and the investigator said she was under arrest for obstruction, Crosby said.

Son's charge

Charles Johnson is held with no bond for a final revocation hearing Feb. 25 in federal court. After he regained consciousness at the hospital, he called his mother and asked for a detective's number so he could call and cooperate with the shooting investigation, Crosby said.

He had pleaded guilty in 2009 in a drug-trafficking organization's conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Hancock County. He and others were arrested in Diamondhead in 2008 over the purchase of 15 kilos of cocaine for $300,000.

He went to prison and was released on probation Sept. 11, 2013.

Court documents show he violated terms of his probation in 2014 and 2015, but his probation had not been revoked.

He tested positive for marijuana, admitted drug use, failed to find lawful employment and declined to enter a drug-treatment program. He was placed in temporary programs to give a urine sample after a phone notification, and took a decision-making class, documents said.

Police have described him as a victim of the shooting, but have not said if he was a target or a bystander.

Isaiah "Winky" Lee Major III, 43, of Bay St. Louis, and Carlos "Los" Bates, 29, of Gulfport, died at the scene, falling about 20 feet away from each other.

Williams brothers

Two arrested are the sons of Jessie Lee Williams Jr., who was fatally beaten in the Harrison County jail booking room 10 years ago this month. Gulfport police had arrested him on misdemeanors.

The older Williams' death resulted in a life prison term for former booking Sgt. Ryan Teel, and nine former jailers pleaded guilty to related federal charges in a probe of the deprivation of inmates' civil rights under color of law. The killing also resulted in Harrison County's $3.5 million lawsuit settlement and Gulfport's settlement for an undisclosed amount.

The father's 23-year-old namesake has been arrested on two probation warrants on state convictions. He had pleaded guilty in 2012 to accessory after the fact to murder in the 2011 shooting of Melvin Presley and a separate charge of possession of a stolen firearm.

His brother Quamaine Williams now faces a stolen-firearm charge. Police have not said if the weapon was involved in the Pass shooting or if it was seized in a Feb. 12 raid of the family's home. A caller to the Sun Herald had reported a SWAT-style raid at the Williams home with federal firearms agents present.

Others charged

Dedeaux was on probation for a felony marijuana conviction from a 2011 arrest. The county jail docket shows he's been arrested twice on drug charges since 2013. He was arrested Feb. 11 in a traffic stop. He had a small amount of marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids and also received traffic tickets, followed by a probation warrant, the jail docket showed.

Burks was on probation for a burglary conviction from an arrest in Forrest County. His new charge is suspicion of distributing marijuana. He was indicted on a cocaine charge in February 2015.

Ratcliff also is suspected of distributing marijuana.

Police have not said if the drug charges are related or if drugs were a motive for the Pass Christian shooting.

It's also unclear if Shaw's firearm charge involves a gun used in the shooting.

Witnesses sought

Hendricks repeated his plea for witnesses to come forward with video shot in the area just before, during or after the shooting.

To give a tip, call police at 452-3301 or email video to investigations@ci.pass-christian.ms.us.

Video can be emailed through an anonymous email account, Hendricks said, or a copy of it can be left at the police station in an envelope.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Some arrested in Pass shooting have criminal background ."