A gathering of family and friends to mourn a loss turned into a scene of further tragedy on the night of October 24, 2020, in Greenwood, Mississippi. Jonathan Pitts, a 42-year-old Black male from Chicago, was in town with his sister and other relatives to attend their grandmother's funeral. In the late hours of that Saturday, a burst of gunfire shattered the post-funeral gathering being held on West Martin Luther King Drive.
When the shooting ceased, Jonathan Pitts and his 41-year-old sister, Katrina Pitts, lay dead, their lives abruptly ended by the very violence they had traveled to escape. Eight other individuals were also wounded in the mass shooting, turning a somber occasion into a horrific ordeal for the family and the community.
Initial investigations by the Greenwood Police Department were met with the immediate challenge of an assailant who had vanished into the night before their arrival. Eyewitnesses reported that a semiautomatic rifle, specifically an AR-15, was used in the attack, with shell casings from the weapon recovered at the scene. For a time, the motive behind the senseless act of violence remained elusive, and no immediate arrests were made, leaving a grieving family with unanswered questions and a community in shock. The swift and brutal nature of the attack left investigators with few initial leads, prompting a plea to the public for any information that could lead to the perpetrator's capture.
The investigation eventually led to a significant breakthrough with the arrest of Tyrell Stigler in connection with the deadly shooting. Stigler was subsequently charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of Jonathan and Katrina Pitts, as well as eight counts of aggravated assault for the injuries sustained by the other victims. Additional charges against him included shooting into a dwelling, drug possession, and drug trafficking. In a further development, it was reported that Stigler was also charged in connection to a separate deadly shooting that had occurred on September 17 of the same year. After being held in jail since his arrest, Tyrell Stigler's trial for the mass shooting began in January 2025. He faced charges including capital murder, which carries the potential for the death penalty, first-degree murder, drug trafficking with a firearm, and aggravated assault.
