Fire officer who shot boy, 11, family urges

Aderrien Murry, 11, was shot by police in Mississippi on Saturday after calling 911 during a domestic disturbance involving his mother. MUST CREDIT: Photo courtesy of Nakala Murry.
Aderrien Murry, 11, was shot by police in Mississippi on Saturday after calling 911 during a domestic disturbance involving his mother. MUST CREDIT: Photo courtesy of Nakala Murry.

The family of an unarmed 11-year-old Black boy in Mississippi are calling for the officer who shot him last weekend to be fired.

The child had called 911 in Indianola, Miss., on May 20 to report a domestic disturbance to try to protect his mother, said his family's attorney, Carlos Moore.

Aderrien Murry was released from the hospital Wednesday after being placed on a ventilator and chest tube for a collapsed lung, fractured ribs and lacerated liver, Moore told The Washington Post.

The boy was given a cellphone by his mother and told to call the police during a domestic disturbance involving the father of another one of her children, Moore said. After the child called 911, an Indianola police officer who was identified by the attorney as Greg Capers "had his gun blazing" upon arrival at the home around 4 a.m., Moore said.

When Nakala Murry, the boy's mother, told the officer that no one in the house was armed, the officer yelled out that anyone in the home should come out with their hands up, Moore said.

Even though Aderrien adhered to the officer's commands and had his hands up, Capers shot the unarmed boy in the chest, according to the family and Moore.

"His words were: 'Why did he shoot me? What did I do?' and he started crying," the boy's mother said at a news conference this week.

The Indianola Board of Aldermen voted this week to place Capers on paid administrative leave while the case is investigated by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. It's unclear whether he will face additional discipline or possible termination.

Neither Capers nor Indianola Police Chief Ron Sampson immediately responded to requests for comment Thursday morning. The Indianola Police Department confirmed to CNN that Capers was the officer involved in the shooting. Sampson told the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Miss., that the shooting was "extremely tragic, on both sides."

There have been 1,078 people who have been fatally shot by police in the United States in the past 12 months, according to a Post database. So far, 404 people have been shot and killed by police in 2023, the database shows. Although half of the people shot and killed by police are white, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for roughly 14% of the U.S. population and are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans.

Upcoming Events