Charge upgraded to attempted murder in Jackson County domestic violence shooting
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department on Friday upgraded a felony domestic violence charge to attempted murder against man accused of shooting and injuring his wife.
Vinet Williams Moore, 41, is being held in the Jackson County jail without bond. He is scheduled for his first court appearance Monday.
Moore is accused of shooting his wife, Michelle Coleman, 41, several times after he went to her home on Brookstone Drive in the St. Martin community early Thursday morning.
Coleman, a 43-year-old Air Force veteran and mother of four who still worked a licensed practical nurse at Keesler Medical Center, remains hospitalized at USA Medical Center in Mobile.
“She is up and talking now,” Sheriff Mike Ezell said Friday, and investigators are headed that way to interview her about the shooting.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call at he home shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday. The call is believed to have been made by two of the children, ages 9 and 15, who managed to escape through a window after the shooting.
A deputy at the scene managed to pull Coleman out of the house to an ambulance to get her immediate medical treatment.
Deputies arrested Moore after negotiating with him until his surrender seven hours later. When deputies first arrived, there was an an exchange of gunfire with the suspect, Ezell said, though the man wasn’t hit.
Coleman’s cousins said she had been trying to get a divorce from Moore and had gotten a protection order in the past to keep him away. The Sun Herald has since confirmed the divorce is pending.
Ezell said the the protection order, also known as a restraining order, may have already expired, though authorities are still looking into that.
Coleman’s family said she had repeatedly reported Moore for domestic violence and most recently, he had allegedly kicked in a door at the home and beat her so badly that her ribs were broken.
The sheriff said deputies had gone to the home in response to domestic violence calls on various occasions, but Moore was already gone by the time deputies got there.
The sheriff’s department is researching additional information for the Sun Herald that the sheriff said Friday that research is ongoing and information may not be available until next week.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 2:36 PM.
