In the early morning hours of June 7, 2003, a violent encounter inside the Fayette Police Department in Alabama claimed the lives of three of its own, including 40-year-old Corporal James Eddie Crump. A male with a decade of law enforcement experience, Crump had been with the Fayette Police Department for two and a half years. The tragic events unfolded at approximately 5:30 a.m.
as Corporal Crump and his fellow officer, Arnold Strickland, were in the process of booking a suspect who had been arrested for operating a stolen vehicle.
During the booking procedure, the 18-year-old suspect managed to seize one of the officers' service weapons and opened fire. Both Corporal Crump and Officer Strickland were fatally wounded in the ensuing chaos. The gunman also shot and killed dispatcher Leslie 'Ace' Mealer, who was on duty in the dispatcher's office at the time of the incident. The suspect then fled the scene in a stolen patrol car, prompting a multi-agency manhunt.
The flight to freedom for the suspect was short-lived. Deputies from the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office in Mississippi apprehended him just three hours after the deadly shooting. The suspect was subsequently charged with capital murder for the deaths of the three law enforcement officials. On October 6, 2005, following a trial, he was convicted of the charges and received a death sentence for his actions that day. Corporal Crump was survived by his son.
