The autopsy of a 26-year-old man shot and killed by a Columbus Police Officer on Friday night is expected to be conducted today in Jackson, Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said this morning.
Warren Strain, a spokesperson with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, said the process could take longer than that to determine the circumstances surrounding the death of Ricky Javenta Ball due to what he called a backlog at the state Crime Lab.
“It may be tomorrow before they get to the autopsy,” Strain said. “There are several cases that were brought in before this.”
Strain said the incident that led to Ball’s death began around 10 p.m. with a traffic stop near the intersection of 21st Street North and 14th Avenue North in Columbus. CPD attempted to pull over the car — which Merchant said was a Mercury Grand Marquis — for a routine traffic stop. Strain said a female driver did not stop immediately. Strain said the female driver, who he declined to identify, was the only other passenger.
“The driver didn’t stop,” Strain said. “From what I understand, Mr. Ball jumped from the car and ran. They proceeded on foot. And that’s what we’re trying to sort out now, what happened from the time he left the vehicle to the time he was fatally wounded.”
Merchant said Ball was shot at approximately 10:08 p.m. Friday. He was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle at 11:12 p.m. Friday.
Strain said details on the number of shots fired and times Ball was struck will not be revealed until the autopsy is complete.
Strain said MBI was called to the scene by CPD and that their investigators were on the scene quickly. MBI is overseeing the investigation, as it often does in Mississippi law enforcement shootings.
“The crime scene unit responded and processed the scene, so they will submit whatever it is they found to the crime lab for processing,” Strain said. “That’ll take some time.”
Authorities have not said if Ball was armed or attacked officers.
Columbus Chief of Police Tony Carleton did not respond to multiple messages this morning.
Councilman voices concerns
Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner took to Facebook on Sunday morning to voice frustrations about Ball’s death and lash out at fellow elected officials Kabir Karriem, a Columbus councilman, and Leroy Brooks, a Lowndes County supervisor.
In a series of 14 increasingly-agitated posts on his Facebook page, Turner openly criticized Columbus Police Chief Tony Carleton’s silence on the shooting and twice called for his firing. Turner also questioned why Karriem, who represents Ward 5 on the council, and Brooks were not commenting publicly about the incident.
Turner told The Dispatch Monday morning that he criticized Brooks and Karriem in his posts — some of which were laced with profanity — to call them to do something about the situation.
“All I try to do is be nice and cordial and professional,” Turner said. “It doesn’t seem like that’s working. I have to say something to get them from sitting on their hands.”
Brooks called Turner’s comments “irresponsible” Monday morning. Ball’s shooting happened within his district but he said it’s too early to make statements about the case until more facts are known.
“This is not a political issue,” Brooks said. “This is an issue where there’s a procedure, and the procedure is, I understand that it’s been passed on to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and everyone needs to sit still until they complete their investigation.
“There’s a number of rumors floating around and no one knows (what happened),” Brooks continued. “It’s not something I’m going to address because I don’t have anything to address. I don’t know what happened, but for me to go out and inflame the situation — that would be irresponsible.”
The Dispatch could not reach Karriem by press time Monday.
Dispatch reporters Isabelle Altman, Alex Holloway and William Browning contributed to this report.
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