Magnolia man's death may have saved his family

Janis Dillon, Zerrick Ward's mother, recalls hearing the "pop, pop, pop" that took her son's life at the front door, and the words of the masked man with the gun.

"I'll blow everybody's brains out," he said after shooting Ward, 34, multiple times at his home in Magnolia on May 19.

Family members said the man tried to shoot them as well, but realized he was out of bullets. Ward lived long enough to tell police what had happened before dying in the hospital.

Dillon said her walls and her washer and dryer have holes in them, and "can't nobody tell me why." She remembers trying to get a response from her son, whose death may well have saved the rest of his family from the same fate.

"I said, 'Zerrick, you alright?' and he didn’t say nothing," she said. "It’s a hurting feeling because you know that child was my baby, he was just a quiet person, he didn't even curse. And he cared so much about his baby. I can’t understand why someone would want to do this to him."

Sherrelle Gardner struggles with how to make her 2-year-old son, King, understand why his father was killed in cold blood.

"He has been telling me things like, 'I want to go see my daddy,'" Gardner said. "He'll tell me, 'My daddy's at work.' He always brings him up and I don't know what to say."

Gardner and Ward had known each other about 10 years. She said Ward was always quick to help not only with the babysitting, but with the bills and diapers.

"He would keep him for me while I worked," Gardner said. "They used to take a lot of pictures, he loved to take pictures with him and let him play outside. They had so many pictures together in his phone. It’s like I lost half of myself, half of me, and it took a big chunk out of my help support system. He was such a big help, and I know nobody is going to fill those shoes."

King was Ward's world, his family said. When the two were together, they were constantly playing outside, smiling and taking pictures. Now those pictures memorialize the man who lived for his son and died for his family.

"He came here yesterday and was saying, “I’m fixing to go where my daddy is,' and they had to take him outside,” said his cousin, Lekeisha Dillon.

Gardner said she had tried to tell King in terms he'd understand. But how do you make a child understand something even grown-ups can't?

"I took him to the park the day after it happened, and I was walking with him just looking at him while he played, and I picked him up and told him that his daddy is in heaven now, and that he’s going to be his angel looking down protecting him," she said, her voice emotional. "He’s only 2. I’m just praying that he’ll be OK because he loves him."

This isn't a product of Ward's way of living, his family said. The quiet father kept to himself and wasn't one to be found in the clubs. He didn't lead a high-risk lifestyle.

"That’s what’s hurting us the most, he had no enemies. He was a person that loved to be off to himself. He was always at home," said Lekeidra Dillon. "It’s very devastating. It wasn’t a robbery, they didn’t even take anything or destroy nothing in his room, they were looking for blood. The only reason they didn’t get everyone in the house was they ran out of bullets at the door."

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In spite of being rushed to the emergency room at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center and being given six pints of blood, Ward died around 1:30 a.m. that Friday morning. Magnolia Police Chief Ray Reynolds told The Enterprise Journal's LaKeadra Coffey that at this point there's no clear motive, and that there's no evidence that says the shooting was part of a robbery.

"He should be remembered as a caring person. He loved," Gardner said. "Everyone knows how he felt about King. He would have given him the world if he could have. I want everyone to remember him as being a great father, a great person, a person that would help anyone that he could. He never had any drama, none of that. It was really hurtful that they would take someone so innocent like that."

Ward's family just wants to see a resolution. Lekeisha Dillon said she understands why police have to keep some information to themselves, but she really wishes they would go ahead and put handcuffs on the person who took Zerrick Ward away from the people who loved him. And both Lekeisha and Janis Dillon implored the shooter to give himself up.

"I just want to tell him he needs to come forward and face what he did to my son," Janis Dillon said. "My son didn't bother nobody."

If you know anything about the death of Zerrick Ward, please call the Magnolia Police Department at 601-783-9926 or the Pike County Sheriff's Department at 601-783-2323.

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Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.