The MS Coast has lost many officers in the line of duty, including two in Motel 6 shooting
The double fatal shootings of South Mississippi police officers responding has happened twice before since 1998.
Police from across the region on Wednesday escorted to the bodies of fallen Bay St. Louis police officers Sgt. Steven Robin and Officer Branden Estorffe to the state crime lab.
First responders from Mississippi and nationwide will gather in Hancock County in the coming days to honor the slain officers.
They last came in February 2021, when Lt. Michael Anthony Boutte Sr., a member of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, was shot and killed by a man threatening suicide in a domestic incident.
Police also came to Biloxi in force in May 2019, after Biloxi officer Robert McKeithen was shot in the back outside the Biloxi Police Station. Three people pleaded guilty to a charge of accessory after the fact to capital murder. The suspect in the murder is still awaiting trial.
Shot and killed in June was Exo, a K9 officer with the Pascagoula Police Department who was tracking a shooting suspect in rural Jackson County The suspect then shot the dog.
Two other capital murders
The other double capital murders of police officers in South Mississippi came in Wiggins on Nov. 27, 2005, and in Long Beach on May 6, 1998.
In both cases, police were responding to domestic incidents.
In Wiggins, Investigator Brandon Breland, 23, and Officer Odell Fite, 48, were shot and killed by the suspect who struggled with police and then shot them with one of the officer’s own pistol.
Police had been called after the suspect had visited a friend in the hospital that day while his wife was also visiting. He surprised the friend’s wife at home that night, beat her, removed her clothes and attempted to rape her before she was able to escape out of a bathroom window and call police, according to Sun Herald reports.
Long Beach double murder
Det. James Northcutt and Sgt. Steven Morgan with the Long Beach Police Department were shot by a suspect with an AR-15 assault rifle in 1998.
Witnesses said that when the suspect heard the police sirens, he put down the handgun he was holding and picked up the rifle, according to a report. A third officer was wounded.
The suspect was shot and killed by an off-duty officer from another department who was nearby when the shooting occurred.
Other Coast officers killed
The pages of the Sun Herald and the Officer Down Memorial Page recall other shootings of police officers in South Mississippi dating back decades. Most recent are:
▪ George County Sheriff Garry Marshal Welford died July 21, 2010, during a high speed pursuit. The sheriff was struck and killed by the suspects’ vehicle. He was in his third term as sheriff and is survived by his wife and three children
▪ Lt. Robert James Curry with Gulfport Police Department died when a vehicle pulled out in front of his police motorcycle on Aug. 14, 2008
▪ Patrolman T. Micheal Byrd with Pascagoula Police Department died March 27, 2006 during a vehicle pursuit
▪ Police Officer Larry DeWayne Lee with Moss Point Police Department died Oct. 17, 2002 during a vehicle pursuit
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 1:38 PM.
