Bond has been set for the man involved in a Saturday night incident which injured a county Metro Narcotics agent and landed a Columbus police officer on leave pending investigation.
Marvin Dale Kyles, 25, of 75 Glynis Road in Steens, was issued a $50,000 bond on the felony charge of aggravated assault on a police officer. Bond has not been set for an additional felony charge of possession of more than one ounce of marijuana.
Kyles was pulled over by a Columbus police officer around 10:30 p.m. Saturday for playing his car stereo too loudly, according to Jon Kalahar, spokesman for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the case.
Kyles turned into the Dutch Village Shell station at the intersection of Highway 50 and Lehmberg Road and was speaking with an officer from the Columbus Police Department when the on-duty narcotics agent came to assist, said Columbus Police Chief Selvain McQueen.
Kyles had marijuana in plain view, and the officer prepared to take him into custody, McQueen said.
That’s when the situation went awry.
Faced with the possibility of arrest, Kyles slammed his white Chevy Blazer into reverse, striking the city patrol officer’s car and dragging the narcotics agent, who was leaning into the passenger window of the vehicle and trying to switch off the ignition, Kalahar said.
When Kyles pushed his car into drive, attempting to escape with the narcotics agent’s body still being dragged, the Columbus police officer fired his weapon from the driver’s side of the vehicle, McQueen said.
MBI, Columbus police, and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office have not specified whether the officer was attempting to shoot at Kyles. They also have refused to release the names of the agent and officer involved as well as the injuries Kyles and the agent suffered.
Kyles was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle and was released Sunday. The agent was treated on the scene, according to Lowndes County Chief Deputy Marc Miley.
Kyles is currently being held at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, where he faces the two felony charges as well as a misdemeanor charge of excessive or unreasonable noise. A bond of $409 was set for the misdemeanor.
A court date has not been set.
The Columbus police officer is on administrative leave pending the MBI investigation. Local law enforcement agencies routinely place officers on leave and turn the case over to MBI after any incident where an officer discharges a firearm in the line of duty.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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