In the early hours of March 21, 2018, the life of 27-year-old Rodrique Dshaun Watson, a male resident of Natchez, Mississippi, was cut short by gunfire. The fatal encounter unfolded in the parking lot of a Zipy gas station located on Old Washington Road. Reports from that night suggest a chaotic scene, with as many as four individuals believed to have been involved in the shootout.
Watson was identified as one of the shooters and tragically became a casualty of the violence that erupted.
The investigation into Watson's death led to the arrest of several individuals. Da'Larren White, 25 years old at the time, was identified as the primary suspect and faced a murder charge in connection with Watson's death. Following the shooting, White sustained injuries and received treatment at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson before being taken into custody. Alongside White, two other men, 24-year-old Keith Burns and 25-year-old Gregory Hammett, were also arrested. They faced charges of tampering with evidence, accused of removing Watson's weapon from the scene after the shooting.
The legal proceedings that followed took a significant amount of time, partly due to delays in receiving the autopsy report from the state crime lab. Da'Larren White was eventually indicted by a grand jury and his case went to trial. In a turn of events that concerned local law enforcement, an Adams County jury found White not guilty of the murder of Rodrique Watson on September 18, 2020. The outcome of the charges against Keith Burns and Gregory Hammett for tampering with evidence is not publicly documented in the available online sources.
