Police on Wednesday were still seeking new information about Sunday morning’s mass shooting that left three dead and over a dozen injured in downtown Indianola.
IPD Chief Ronald Sampson told The Enterprise-Tocsin on Wednesday that investigators recovered two guns from the scene along with three different types of ammunition.
“We suspect that there may be a third shooter,” Sampson said.
Sampson believes that two of the fatal victims, Cameron Lee Butts and Marquette Baites, both 19 and from Greenville, were two of the alleged three shooters.
Police recovered an AR-style pistol, Sampson said, along with a 9mm handgun.
Two types of rounds at the scene were consistent with those two guns, but police also found .45 caliber rounds.
“We did not recover a .45,” Sampson said.
All three of the fatalities were 19 years old.
The third was Indianola resident Areon Butler.
Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton told The E-T that she was called to the scene near the corner of Church Street and Second Street just after 12:50 a.m.
The Indianola Police Department also confirmed that as many as 16 others were shot directly or by ricochet bullets during the massacre.
Anywhere from two to five victims were flown out by helicopter, while others were treated at South Sunflower County Hospital.
Sampson said there was a large crowd of people gathered around a club on Church Street.
Police officers were near the scene when the shooting began. Sampson said that officers were in the process of setting up barricades to help the flow of traffic and to keep individuals from gathering on the courthouse grounds nearby.
Sampson said that when the shooting occurred, multiple off-duty officers came to the scene to assist first responders.
He said that the Sunflower County Sheriff’s Department also assisted, as well as the Indianola Fire Department.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist with the case.
Over one hundred live and spent bullets were found at the scene, he said.
Anyone with any information about the shooting is encouraged to call the Indianola Police Department at 662-887-1811.
