CANTON, Miss. — A man fatally shot a defendant waiting in a small courtyard outside a criminal courthouse in Mississippi on Monday morning, and a suspect is in custody, law enforcement officials said.
The suspect has been arrested and is in jail, Madison County Sheriff Randy Tucker said. According to an indictment forwarded to The Associated Press by Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest, the victim was Kendrick Armond Brown.
Tucker and Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest said they don't know why the suspect would have shot Brown.
Brown was expected to appear in court on drug charges, but he was not a witness or a suspect in other current criminal cases, Guest said.
The shooting happened outside Madison County's criminal courthouse in Canton, a historic antebellum town known for its Christmas light festival on the town square.
The suspect got out of a car, walked up and shot the victim once with a semiautomatic handgun, Tucker said. Deputies emerged from the courthouse, and the suspect laid down the handgun and was arrested without a struggle, Tucker said.
The victim was hit once in the chest and died on the scene, Tucker said. He described the shooting as unfolding quickly.