Coast mom ‘terrified’ her Navy vet husband will die after shooting. He’s alone in ICU.
Amy Fletcher is lying to her 5-year-old son.
The Kiln mother and wife doesn’t want her child, Jackson, to know why his father, Brett Fletcher, is in critical condition at a Hattiesburg hospital.
“I told him, ‘Daddy had a four-wheeler accident and had to go to a hospital,’” Amy Fletcher told the Sun Herald. “I don’t want him to fear that people will shoot him when he walks out of the house.”
Brett Fletcher, a retired Navy chief petty officer and civil worker for the Department of Defense, was shot about 7 p.m. Monday on his own street, about 100 yards away from his own driveway.
The Fletchers’ neighbor, Mark Dempsey Hoda, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and felon in possession of a firearm.
Hoda, 57, is being held at the Hancock County jail on a total bond of $510,000.
Brett Fletcher was riding an ATV down his street, off Rocky-Hill Dedeaux Road, before the shooting and was able to call 911 and tell responding deputies what happened, Hancock Chief Deputy Jeremy Skinner said in a press release.
Hospital on lockdown over COVID-19
An argument over Brett Fletcher riding his four-wheeler on the roadway is what led to the shooting, Skinner said in the release. Amy Fletcher said she was told her husband was shot in close-range by a shotgun.
Brett Fletcher was shot in the abdomen, doctors told Amy Fletcher. The bullet caused a hole in his diaphragm, two holes in his stomach, a hole in his spleen and two holes in his intestines. The bullet also clipped his pancreas.
He was flown by medical helicopter to Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg. He’s had an emergency surgery to remove his spleen, and he was set to have another surgery Thursday to repair the holes in his intestines.
Brett Fletcher is in critical condition at the ICU, and Amy Fletcher is no longer allowed to see him beause the hospital is on lockdown after Tate Reeves issued a shelter-in-place order Wednedsay due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
“I’m terrified that my husband is going to die,” Amy Fletcher said. “I’m also terrified that my family has to live down the street from (Hoda).”
The Fletchers live on a sprawling 18 acres at the beginning of Road 372. Hoda lives with other people on a property further down the dead-end road, Amy Fletcher said. She said she’s never met or interacted with anyone who lives there.
Amy and Brett, along with Jackson and Amy’s mother, were visiting with friends who are building a house at the end of the street on the night of the shooting.
Amy, Jackson and Amy’s mother took their golf cart down to the end of the street, Amy Fletcher said, while Brett Fletcher and his Navy friend who is currently staying with them took four wheelers.
Amy Fletcher said her family was helping the friends bring in lumber and other supplies because it was supposed to rain, and the friends had previously had issues with people stealing supplies from their property.
Brett Fletcher was on his way back to his home to get a tarp to cover supplies when the shooting occurred. Amy Fletcher saw the blue lights and went to check on her husband and found him lying in the ditch, his four-wheeler nearby.
When Amy Fletcher asked a person in the street what happened, she said the person told her: “(That) will be the last time he drives (an ATV) down this road.”
Amy Fletcher said they’ve never had issues with neighbors before the shooting and have called police a few times about trespassers on their property.
For now, Amy Fletcher will keep checking in on her husband and keep her friends and family on Facebook.
“I will never turn right out of my driveway again,” she said. “I will never go down that road, ever again.”
The Sun Herald has reached out to Skinner for comment. We will update this story as more information is available.
