Mayor says progress made in investigating Natchez shootings

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson said “great progress is being made” as Natchez police respond to last Friday’s murders of two teens outside a Devereaux Drive nightclub.

During a meeting Tuesday with the Natchez Board of Aldermen, Gibson said he couldn’t elaborate. “We are not revealing details because the investigation is ongoing,” he said.

The mayor and aldermen expressed concerns about the alarming rise in gun violence displayed by recent mass shootings elsewhere and two isolated incidents close to home last week in Natchez.

“Gun violence affects each and every one of us,” said Alderman Billie Joe Frazier, a retired Natchez police officer. “Natchez is not immune, nor is any other community. We’re going to have to get a hold on this.”

Travione Jones and Devin Winchester, both 19, were shot to death Friday night in the parking lot outside a Natchez nightclub by the Cash Savers grocery store and not far from the Natchez Police Department. Two others were injured.

In a separate incident, shots were reportedly fired at a female walking her dog in a yard on the 800 block of North Union Street. The woman was not hit, but a bullet struck the dog. The pet is recovering from its leg injury.

As the Natchez shootings remain under investigation with no arrests, Gibson said, people with knowledge about the assailants must come forward.

“Withholding that information is a crime within itself and you might as well be an accessory to that crime,” he said. “It is your duty as a citizen to help us to keep this community safe.”

The mayor praised the enhanced partnership between the Natchez Police Department and Adams County Sheriff’s Office and noted video cameras have been posted throughout the city and county to help catch criminals.

However, Gibson expressed anger about a judicial system that “bonds a criminal out of jail and puts them back on the streets” to commit more crimes. “If any judge and any court and anyone in our legal system who thinks that’s right – and if something should happen – you then have blood on your hands,” the mayor said.