EDITOR”S NOTE: An earlier version of this story said that victim Mark Caudill had fought with the suspect at the Columbus Holiday Inn earlier in the evening before the shooting. Caudill”s mother and fiancée said that Caudill had not been at the Holiday Inn. Police also had not linked Caudill to that incident.
The family of a local man “caught in the crossfire” in a deadly downtown bar shooting remembered him as a loving fiancé and son in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Meanwhile, bond was set at $3 million for the California man who allegedly gunned down him and another man early Wednesday.
Daniel Paul Copple, 43, who according to reports was an independent contractor working at Severstal, was charged Thursday with two counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault while manifesting extreme indifference to life. Killed were 33-year-old Mark Caudill, a design engineer originally from Columbus who lived in Birmingham, Ala., and 42-year-old James Bennett Mann of Columbus.
“He was the most loving person I”ve ever met,” said Bennett”s fiancée, Susan Robinson. “I loved him so much.”
Copple, allegedly on the run from police after hitting a pedestrian with his vehicle and leaving the scene late Tuesday, entered the Elbow Room Lounge at Second Avenue North and Fifth Street North in downtown Columbus at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
When he began acting erratic, Caudill pulled his handgun, police said. Although he had a permit, it is illegal in Mississippi to carry a handgun in a bar.
Copple wrestled the gun away from Caudill as Mann tried to intervene.
“I think he was caught in the crossfire,” said police Public Information Officer Terrie Songer.
Copple fire several shots, hitting both men multiple times. Caudill died almost instantly while Mann died later Wednesday at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
The bartender, Mike Ward, was in the side room during the shooting, but did not say he was threatened by Copple in his statement to police, according to Songer.
Both Caudill and Bennett “happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Robinson said.
“Bennett was caught up in the middle of it,” Robinson added.
Mann”s friends mirrored her statements, recalling how giving he was.
“He damn sure wasn”t perfect, but he was a good guy,” said Mann”s longtime friend, Mark Leonard. “He didn”t deserve this. No one does.”
The viewing for Mann will be at 1 p.m. at Memorial Funeral Home on Saturday, with a celebration of his life following at 2 p.m.
Caudill”s funeral service will be Monday at 11 a.m. at Lee-Sykes Funeral Home Chapel.
Mann”s mother, Patsy Nowicki, called him the “pride and joy” of her life and said she was struggling to make sense of his death.
“We just want to wake up from this nightmare,” she said. “But we can”t.”
Copple, of Lucerne Valley, Calif., had been staying in Columbus for several weeks before the shooting.
The defendant was much more calm Thursday, Songer said. When arrested at the scene of the shooting, he had cursed and threatened officers and passersby, and appeared to be intoxicated.
He has several misdemeanor arrests on his record, none in Mississippi, Songer said.
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