Duty Death: Garry Welford - [George County]
By Police1 Staff
UPDATE: The Associated Press and WLOX-TV in South Mississippi have now reported that two suspects — 18-year-old Brandy Nicole Williams and 24-year-old Christopher Lee Baxter — were arrested early Thursday, July 22, 2010. The original Police1 report on this incident, posted late Wednesday, follows...
LUCEDALE, Miss. — George County (Miss.) Sheriff Garry Welford was killed during a suspect pursuit. The fleeing suspects, who at present have not yet been caught, appear to have intentionally struck Sheriff Welford as he was laying spike strips to end a pursuit on on Bexley Road in Lucedale, Mississippi.
According to the Associated Press, Tony Lawrence, District Attorney for Mississippi’s 19th District, said in a news release that Sheriff Welford was airlifted to the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile, Ala., where he was pronounced dead shortly after 1600 hours local time.
Cherie Ward of the Mississippi Press reported that, “Lucedale police spokesman Joe Apker identified the two suspects in the hit-and-run as 24-year-old Christopher Baxter and 18-year-old Brandi Williams.”
An investigation is being handled by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Jackson, George, and Greene County District Attorney’s office.