Gulfport police identify man shot by officer after foot chase

A man shot by a police officer after a traffic stop Tuesday was an armed felon who was on probation, police said.

Joshua Deandre Jones, 26, was taken into custody after his release from a hospital, Gulfport police Sgt. Clayton Fulks said.

He was a passenger in a car pulled over in a traffic stop on West Birch Drive at Wildwood Drive in an Orange Grove neighborhood off Dedeaux Road when he got out and ran, police said. Jones was reportedly armed and resisted arrest before a detective shot him, Fulks said.

Jones was released from a hospital after he was shot and was booked at the Harrison County jail, the docket shows.

Police arrested him on a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon. He also is held for the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Jones was on probation on a robbery conviction in Jackson County.

Judge Melvin Ray set a $100,000 bond on the firearm charge, but Jones has no bond on the probation warrant.

Police arrested the driver of the vehicle, 22-year-old Demas C. Booker II, on a probation warrant. Booker was on probation for accessory after the fact to an armed robbery and felony eluding.

After Tuesday’s shooting, Fulks said detectives were investigating a series of drive-by shootings when they saw Booker driving in the neighborhood and they knew he was wanted on a probation warrant.

Police have not said what part of his body was wounded or how many times Jones was shot.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigations is handling the case. The Harrison County sheriff’s crime-scene unit collected evidence from the scene.

This story was originally published September 6, 2018 at 5:29 PM.