A Steens man in custody for shooting another man to death was described by neighbors as “unstable” and a gun lover.
Forty-five-year-old George Jackson Strickland remained at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center this morning, after admitting to shooting 36-year-old Christopher Wayne George multiple times.
The incident happened just before 10 a.m. Monday at the 6214 Highway 50 E. home Strickland shared with his wife, Patricia.
The shooting was the culmination of a verbal argument between the two men, said Lowndes County Chief Deputy Greg Wright.
Patricia Strickland ran next door to call 911, then returned to her home.
“She was going to see if she could help him,” the neighbor said.
As the 911 dispatcher remained on the phone with the neighbor, George Strickland ran across the yard to Red”s Body Shop next door.
He handed the gun over to the owner and waited for sheriff”s deputies to arrive.
Witnesses at the body shop said Strickland told them he caught his wife with another man, and he shot the man in self-defense.
“He said he was going to kill him, but he got him first,” said one man, who was waiting at the body shop for an estimate on repairs from hitting a deer.
Strickland also reportedly was afraid his wife would retaliate.
George has been living with the Stricklands “for some time” and was a family friend, Wright said.
Wright did not offer details of the dispute except to say “It appeared to be a domestic situation.”
Investigators, sheriff”s deputies and a deputy coroner remained at the scene of the shooting, a small, one-story, brick home, until mid-day. At 11:30 a.m., George”s body was transported from the home, amid a front yard littered with idle vehicles, including two pickup trucks, a tractor, a boat, a delivery truck, an Oldsmobile and a classic car beneath a tarp.
George was pronounced dead at the scene. He was shot multiple times in the upper body, according to Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant, who was transporting the body to south Mississippi for an autopsy this morning.
“(Patricia Strickland) was taken to the hospital and released yesterday,” Merchant said.
A man who knew George Strickland said he was a qualified mechanic for Sesser Chevrolet, before Carl Hogan purchased the dealership. He also reportedly had suffered two heart attacks and was disabled.
“He was always nice to me,” said Sharon Shawver, whose family members have lived next door to the Stricklands for about 16 years. “There had to be something going on over there for him to have done what he done.”
But George Strickland also could be argumentative and territorial, neighbors said.
“One time I was walking down the road, and there was an 18-wheeler coming from this way and 18-wheeler coming from the other way. I jumped into his yard to get out of the way,” recalled John, Shawver”s stepbrother, who wouldn”t give his full name. “He told me if I didn”t get out of his yard, he would shoot me. … He wasn”t your neighborly neighbor”
“He liked his guns,” Shawver said. “He would get out there and shoot them.”
“He was unstable,” John said.
Sheriff”s deputies had visited the Sticklands more than once, responding to complaints of George Strickland shooting randomly, sometimes in the middle of the night, neighbors said.
George was a longtime resident of the Columbus and Lowndes County area and had worked as a tattoo artist, Merchant said.
George Strickland is charged with murder and aggravated assault with a weapon or other means to produce death, for shooting at his wife. According to the Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office, it was his first arrest. According to the Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office, it was his first arrest.
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