Derrick Mack

Derrick Mack was a 46-year-old Black man who his family described as a nice person, an outdoorsman, and a painter who loved his family. “If he had it, you could have it,” his sister, Katina Mack, recalled. He was a father to his only child, a son named Quindarius. His mother’s living room became a place of mourning for his siblings after his sudden death.

On the evening of Sunday, January 7, 2024, a dispute between neighbors on Boyd Street in Canton, Mississippi, turned violent. The argument, which family members believe was over $60, escalated to gunfire just after 7:30 p.m. Both Derrick Mack and his 25-year-old son, Quindarius Mack, were shot. Derrick managed to get inside his mother’s house and sat in her recliner. He told her he had been shot and was gasping for air. Emergency services transported him to Merit Health in Canton, where he died from his injuries. Quindarius was taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center with life-threatening injuries but was later released. The shooting was the first homicide in Canton that year.

The Canton Police Department began an investigation, initially identifying a neighbor, Micheal Morment, as a person of interest. Morment turned himself in to police for questioning. A few days later, on January 10, authorities arrested a 16-year-old high school student, Rantelvin Dajuan Richardson, at his school. His 34-year-old mother, Masheka Gibson, was also taken into custody.

Richardson was charged with murder for the death of Derrick Mack and aggravated assault for the shooting of Quindarius Mack. Gibson was charged with accessory after the fact. Richardson, who was a minor at the time of the shooting, was tried and convicted of the lesser offenses of manslaughter and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to serve consecutive prison terms of 20 years for manslaughter and 10 years for aggravated assault.

In September 2026, the Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed Richardson’s conviction and ordered a new trial. The court found that Richardson’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel had been violated. Richardson had not been informed that his chosen attorney had been suspended from practicing law, a fact known to the trial court, the state, and the attorney himself. The appeals court ruled that this deprivation of counsel was a structural error that could not be considered harmless. The case is awaiting a new trial.