Shooting in Tupelo: A Mississippi city tries to heal

TUPELO — Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre stepped out of his car in the parking lot of the city’s Wal-Mart. He immediately spotted local black preacher James Hull, who had also just arrived at the store.

“I could hear the wheels turning in both of our hearts and minds at the same time,” Hull said.

Hull has publicly questioned the culture within the Tupelo Police Department, especially in the aftermath of Antwun "Ronnie" Shumpert’s death. One of Aguirre’s men killed an unarmed Shumpert after he fled from his vehicle during a traffic stop June 18.

ALSO READ: 'They're gonna kill me next'

Officer Tyler Cook, who intercepted Shumpert during the chase, shot the 37-year-old black man four times after an altercation involving Cook's K9, which police say inflicted little harm but which the family's attorney says mutilated Shumpert. City officials suggest Cook directed his K9 to pursue Shumpert, who was hiding in the crawl space underneath a house. They say Shumpert fought off the dog and attacked the officer, while the family's attorney, along with much of the community, questions every detail of their story.

When the chief saw Hull, “At first, I thought he was going to be kind of, maybe, hostile," Aguirre said.

Instead, he greeted Aguirre with a friendly, "Chief!"

"He said ‘Chief, I just want you to know, I still love you, brother.' He said, 'We’ve got some differences of opinion, but I still love you.' ... He actually believes we can do good things here. And that gives me hope,” Aguirre said.

Tensions have flared in the weeks following Shumpert's death, dividing a community known for peacefully integrating in the Deep South in 1970. Each side is defined by the narrative it believes, whether based on the few facts available or the preconceived notions that accompany a headline becoming more and more common in the United States: White Cop Kills Unarmed Black Man.

These beliefs generally fall along racial lines in a city with a 37 percent black and 59 percent white population.

One side criticizes the mayor’s handling of the situation from the very beginning, while others believe the attorney from Grenada hired by Shumpert's family has fanned the flames.

Still, many leaders including Lee County and Tupelo NAACP president Chris Traylor acknowledge the importance of simply awaiting the results of a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation report. "It just don't work overnight," Traylor said, adding that action will be taken if and when concrete evidence of wrongdoing is discovered.

'House with binoculars'

The MBI investigation could take months, and, for some, the fatigue that accompanies unanswered questions is enough to drain any hope for reconciliation.

“Even if I knew the full story, would that change anything? Would that change the next situation?” said Aaron Washington, owner of A Plus Barbershop & Salon. “You can’t deny the fact that Afro-American males are having lethal force used upon them.”

Bishop Clarence Parks of the Temple of Compassion and Deliverance said part of the issue can be boiled down to people's misguided perceptions and America's failure to have a genuine discussion about race.

“If we’re not careful, we’ll stay in our house with our binoculars and look long distance and try to figure out what one person is doing. In the end, we end up judging them wrong,” Parks said.

Nettie Davis, a Tupelo councilwoman of 16 years, said the Tupelo community has reacted reasonably to the event. She acknowledges how events across the country, including the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, five Dallas police officers and three Baton Rouge officers, have amplified the situation in Tupelo.

“I, as well as other members of the community, want justice done, but it’s kind of hard to keep the community under control with all of the things going on around the country,” Davis said. “It’s kind of adding to it.”

'Justification'

Around 3 a.m. June 19, Shumpert's uncle visited Peggy Shumpert's home to deliver the news that her husband was dead, that he had been killed by a police officer after a traffic stop a few hours earlier.

"I couldn't catch my breath," Peggy Shumpert said. "It's indescribable."

The next day, Mayor Jason Shelton called the killing "justified" at a press conference.

"That word alone does something to me," Peggy said. She said she won't be convinced that her husband's actions warranted excessive, ultimately lethal, force.

While Shelton says he would not advise another mayor in his situation to use those words, he stands by his description based on the information he had at the time and the information he has now. Officer Cook said Shumpert attacked him and that he had acted in self-defense.

Peggy tries not to listen to people when they try to justify her husband's death, but — to an extent — Peggy said she understands the folks who believe in the police department and the authorities and who take them at their word.

"These people, to me, are people who were much like myself at one point. You trust in the law to do just what they say they're going to do which is serve and protect, but until you've actually been placed in my shoes, will you still be that person that trusts in the law?" Peggy said.

Peggy has had a difficult time explaining to her two small children why their father's not around. She was looking forward to celebrating six years of marriage with Shumpert in October. The couple met shortly after high school through a mutual friend.

"He was so in tune with people," Peggy said. "That was one of the main things I admired about him."

The last few weeks, Peggy has spent her time "trying to get my life back on track. Trying to figure out what (to do) now from here. Most of the time, I guess, I'm just spaced out, trying to piece together what really happened that night. The guy I know, he's not a violent person."

Speaking up

A group called the Coalition of Concerned Pastors and Leaders formed in response to the incident with a goal of encouraging the community to speak out peacefully and to reject the use of violence.

Parks, a member of the coalition, said his congregation is hurting. He's consoled young men who have come to him in tears and who he said might otherwise seek to act out. In Tupelo, there's an overwhelming respect for the church, which is why the coalition believes it is important to integrate faith into rallies held across the city.

Over the years, the city has maintained relatively good race relations. Parks says that’s because the black community has often kept silent in times when they have been harmed.

"Most of the time what you have to do if you want to get along is not say anything about it," Parks said. "When you start speaking up about things, then that brings the feelings of other people that are in the community that you thought, at one time, they wanted peace, too, and you find out that, no, it’s not like that."

For much of Parks' community, this isn't the first seemingly racially motivated incident by police. Black residents of Tupelo express feeling targeted by law enforcement officers on a regular basis.

"There's always been harassment here. The way that it was done has really shaken up the community. And whom it was done by — people we were supposed to trust," Peggy said.

A “Cultural Diversity Assessment” released in 2008 illustrated racial biases within the city’s hiring and firing practices. The report, which the city commissioned, focused also on the police department, suggesting the department fosters a culture of racial profiling, excessive force and other violations.

“Tupelo does not always live up to the image of an 'All-American city,'” Hull said.

Shelton says the report does not reflect his administration, which took over in 2013. Since he’s been in office, he says he’s implemented programs that bring officers and children together. Shelton created his community outreach task force in 2015 with the goal of preventing situations similar to what happened in Ferguson, Mo.

But tension remains. "Our community, we are afraid of the police. Not all of them, but a lot of them," Parks said.

The Police Department has a total staff size of 141 employees, 27 of which are African American.

Now, the coalition is asking Shelton to implement an independent review board for its police department and put more black employees in leadership positions within the city.

“I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” former Councilwoman Davis said.

They've also asked for removal of the state flag, which contains the confederate battle emblem, from city hall.

'Only love can do that'

Where social media gave a voice to the frustration in the aftermath of Shumpert's death, it documented a clear racial divide.

“They weren’t wishy-washy. They knew. They were either behind the police if they were white. Or it was murder if they were black,” said Leigh Ann Hubbard, a Tupelo native who now lives in Oxford. "That bothered me to see all of a sudden the city dividing when we’ve been through so much in Mississippi. The last thing we want to do is go backward.”

Hubbard, who is white, attended the first peace rally at Parks' church. Though many of her friends encouraged her not to go, she found the gathering peaceful and productive, in stark contrast to the expectations of many of her peers.

A Facebook post she wrote about her experience at the rally received more than 1,000 likes and almost 650 shares.

Others, like Timothy Coltharp, a white man who lives houses down from the crawl space Shumpert is accused of using to evade police, think the gatherings have done little to unify black and white residents, though he admits he hasn’t attended any of them.

Fred Everett, an elderly white man who lives down the street from where officers pulled Shumpert over, generally trusts that the police did what they could to handle the situation. He saw the blue lights flashing for an hour from outside his window that night, but he did not attempt to find out what happened.

He uses what he's heard in the aftermath to put himself in the officer's shoes, chasing a suspect in the black of night. He poses the question, "What would you do if he attacked you?"

Coltharp describes himself as having “lots of opinions” on the recent events in Tupelo and across the country, but when asked what they are, he offers the first thing that comes to his mind: part of a Martin Luther King quote, “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Demonstrators at a small protest July 8 embodied King's message. For the two hours they stood there, "love" seemed to be the word uttered more than any other.

The protesters lined a busy corner on the intersection locals call Crosstown. They mostly faced the traffic — headlights illuminating messages like “God is Love” and “Am I Next?”

But emotions heightened among the peaceful crowd as 9 p.m. neared and Tupelo police officers positioned themselves closer and closer around the demonstrators, who did not have the required permit to congregate there.

Protester Shon Cunningham, dressed in all-black, chucked the sign she had been holding. "Peace Be Still," read the neon green poster board, which landed on top of the bushes lining the sidewalk that separates Main Street and the Tupelo CVS.

“Something bad wrong with Tupelo. We’ve known it. We’ve just never had anyone with gumption to tell the truth,” Cunningham said to the officer who approached her. "I was out here to let everybody else know, we love our kids just like you do. Treat them fair. If you have to shoot them, don't shoot them twice."

The officer clutched his hands, listening to a fatigued Cunningham. He nodded his head, interjecting “right, right” when he could.

'We've seen this before'

Local groups have promised to remain peaceful at demonstrations, but as tensions built toward a rally set for July 30, rumors had much of the city sitting uneasy. The city responded by denying a permit to both the Stand Up Mississippi group, which sought to hold a peaceful march in support of Shumpert's family and League of the South, which intended to counter-protest.

While there has been no hint of violence at recent rallies, Caltharp said he does worry about escalation at events in the future. “I’m pretty sure Ferguson was supposed to be a peaceful protest,” Coltharp said.​

Some residents brace for the worst. Meanwhile, the flyers for the now cancelled event, officially called a "prayer intercession," are decorated with images of prayer hands and even quote Proverbs. Organizer Ellis Westbrook said he's sent a clear message to anybody unwilling to join in prayer with the residents of Tupelo: "Stay home."

A new rally will be organized in a different location within the city for a later date, Westbrook promises.

"We know there's a division here, and that's what we're trying to fix," Westbrook said.

Hubbard said the current situation Tupelo faces poses a key question: Which path will the broken community take?

“I think the people who want to divide — and there are people who want to divide; they’re coming out of the woodwork, and they’re lying — they’ve chosen the wrong community. Because we’ve seen it before. We’ve been through this, and we don’t want to go through it again,” Hubbard said.

Still, tensions are high, and Hull believes even after the Shumpert case is resolved, the community will “still have issues left with the Tupelo police department.”

Contact Anna Wolfe at (601) 961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.