Three officers with the Jackson Police Department are on administrative leave after a person died in their custody last week. 

Officers responded to a service call near 500 E. Beasley Road Saturday night and took a person into custody who experienced a medical emergency, according to a news release from the department. An ambulance was called, but the person, who has not been identified, died at the scene. 

Officers Avery Willis, Kenya McCarty and James Land will remain on leave until an internal police investigation is complete, according to Jackson police. 

“The Jackson Police Department is committed to community-oriented policing and providing relevant information to the public, however, until both internal and external investigations conclude, the department will make no further comments,” the department said in its release.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigates officer shootings statewide, is also investigating. In statements from JPD and the city, the incident was described as an “officer-involved incident” rather than a shooting. 

“The loss of life is always tragic and we remain committed to transparency,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a Wednesday statement from the city. 

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Mississippi Today’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications:

• Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
• Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

For print publications:

• You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Michael Guidry for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

If you have any other questions, contact Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields.

3 JPD officers on leave following individual’s death in custody

by Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
January 4, 2023

<h1>3 JPD officers on leave following individual’s death in custody</h1> <p class="byline">by Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today <br />January 4, 2023</p> <p>Three officers with the Jackson Police Department are on administrative leave after a person died in their custody last week.&nbsp;</p> <p>Officers responded to a service call near 500 E. Beasley Road Saturday night and took a person into custody who experienced a medical emergency, according to a news release from the department. An ambulance was called, but the person, who has not been identified, died at the scene.&nbsp;</p> <p>Officers Avery Willis, Kenya McCarty and James Land will remain on leave until an internal police investigation is complete, according to Jackson police.&nbsp;</p> <p>"The Jackson Police Department is committed to community-oriented policing and providing relevant information to the public, however, until both internal and external investigations conclude, the department will make no further comments," the department said in its release.</p> <p>The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigates officer shootings statewide, is also investigating. In statements from JPD and the city, the incident was described as an “officer-involved incident” rather than a shooting.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The loss of life is always tragic and we remain committed to transparency,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a Wednesday statement from the city.&nbsp;</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2023/01/04/3-jpd-officers-leave/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/MT_icon-logo-favicon-1.png?fit=134%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=1088077&amp;ga4=G-VSX4B701MS" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p> Copy to Clipboard

1