Around 400 Columbus residents turned out for a public meeting Monday night to ask city officials questions about the Oct. 16 shooting death of Ricky Ball.

Mayor Robert Smith held the meeting in the gymnasium of Hunt Intermediate School — near the area where Ball, 26, was shot to death by Columbus Police Department officers.

Smith, city attorney Jeff Turnage, interim police chief Capt. Fred Shelton, Community Police Officer Rhonda Sanders, Ward 4 city councilman Marty Turner and Lowndes County NAACP president Lavonne Latham Harris answered questions at the meeting, which lasted a little more than two hours.

The crowd packed the gymnasium bleachers. Others stood around the gymnasium’s wall.

Dozens walked to a microphone and asked city leaders questions.

One of the most pertinent: “They say Mr. Ball had a gun. Was that gun fired?”

The mayor said, “I have no knowledge of that,” and asked people to have patience while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation conducts an investigation.

Smith also asked the crowd not to take justice into their own hands. MBI’s investigation may take anywhere from four to six months, he said.

Of the three officers present during Ball’s shooting, one has been fired and the other two have been suspended without pay for 30 days, Smith said. He added that the two suspended officers have appealed their suspension.

Loudest moment

Ball was the passenger in a vehicle which officers pulled over near 21st Street North on the night of Oct. 16. An incident report given by city officials to The Dispatch last week states Ball attempted to run from police, was Tased, pointed a pistol at officers, was shot twice and then ran away, out of sight. Authorities say officers found Ball laying between two residences with a 9mm handgun and suspected narcotics nearby. Authorities said that 9mm had been reported stolen from a police officer’s home in August.

Monday night’s crowd became loudest when Shelton said the police officer who had reported the gun stolen was on the scene after Ball was shot. A few members of the crowd hollered the word “conspiracy.”

Shelton explained that the officer had been on duty and responded to the call of “shots fired” like every other officer on duty.

Frustrations voiced

The question and answer session of Monday’s meeting lasted about an hour and a half.

Some citizens suggested there should be changes made to CPD body camera procedure. Each of the officers involved — Canyon Boykin, Yolanda Young, Johnny Branch — were equipped with body cameras. None of the officers activated their body cameras until after the shooting. Boykin, who was fired by the city council Friday, had previously been disciplined for not turning on his body camera, according to Smith.

Other citizens said the officers involved should be charged criminally. City officials said that following an investigation by MBI and the FBI, if charges are warranted, a grand jury will hear evidence.

Other citizens took the opportunity Monday night to tell city officials that they had been unfairly harassed by CPD officers.

Though Turner said at the beginning of the meeting that the issues raised at the meeting were not about race, several citizens accused police officers of harassing young black men.

“Racial profiling is real,” said John McMath, a janitor at Caledonia High School.

Shelton told the crowd his officers do not harass young black men. Many people shouted “Yes they do!”

Lack of information

Most citizens expressed frustration at the lack of information on the shooting. Several people accused CPD of a cover-up.

Ernesto Ball, a relative of Ricky Ball, went so far as to say that officers and the EMTs on the scene of Ball’s shooting let Ball die so Ball could not testify against them because the ambulance remained at the scene for half an hour before taking Ball to the hospital.

Shelton answered that it takes time for the EMTs to stabilize shooting victims and that was why the ambulance did not immediately drive to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.

During the meeting, Columbus resident Laisha Neal passed around a petition calling for the assembly of a grand jury to determine whether criminal acts by the CPD resulted in Ball’s death. The petition — which began collecting signatures Thursday — has about 2,500 signatures so far, Neal said.

Several people in the crowd offered support for Shelton and the CPD as a whole, but added that the CPD needs to do more to weed out officers who repeatedly violate procedure or have citizens complaints made against them.

Shelton told the assembled crowd all officers undergo a background check and psychological evaluation when they are hired.

Smith told the crowd that everything discussed at the meeting would be taken under consideration.