WEST POINT — “They sounded like firecrackers,” Joe McClenton of West Point remembered Thursday.
McClenton had watched from his carport on Travis Street, Monday, as a West Point juvenile, Marcus Johnson, was shot.
Johnson was recovering at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo on Saturday.
McClenton was first to Johnson”s side after the shooting.
Johnson said “I don”t want to die. I don”t want to die,” repeatedly, McClenton recalled.
Johnson was walking from the direction of the post office on Kitty Bryan Dill Memorial Parkway when he was approached by two black juvenile males, McClenton said.
One of the boys shouted to Johnson, “What now?!” McClenton said, and Johnson gestured with his arms out as if to accept the challenge. It was then that Johnson was shot; McClenton heard four shots fired from what he believes was a small-caliber handgun.
Johnson was shot several times, but West Point Police Department Officer Mike Burgess did not know where he had been struck. Paramedics had stabilized him by the time Burgess arrived on the scene.
One of the boys ran from the scene, but the other lingered for a few moments “as if he were waiting for a car,” McClenton said, but he eventually fled on foot.
Police continue to investigate the Monday shooting and are pursuing several leads.
McClenton heard the shooting was in retaliation for an earlier altercation.
Burgess last week declined to speculate on the motive until he interviewed the victim.
“We really don”t know until we can talk to him,” Burgess said, Wednesday.
On Christmas Eve, the victim still was sedated at the Tupelo hospital and was unable to speak with authorities.
Saturday, Johnson was intubated and still in the intensive care unit, but his condition was improving.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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