In the winter of 2017, the community of Poplarville, Mississippi, was shaken by the violent and untimely death of 26-year-old David LaVell Gilmore. An African American man and a graduate of Poplarville High School, Gilmore was known to his loved ones and was a member of Trinity Outreach Ministry.
On the evening of December 20, 2017, at approximately 9:10 p.m., Gilmore was in the parking lot of a Minute Mart convenience store located at the intersection of Mississippi Highway 26 and U.S.
Highway 11. It was there that he was shot once in the head. He was quickly transported to Pearl River County Hospital, but tragically succumbed to his wound and passed away. The cause of his death was ruled a homicide.
Law enforcement arrived at the scene to find the suspect still present in the parking lot. The individual, identified as 19-year-old Aritaeus Antwann Johnson, also of Poplarville, was taken into custody without incident. Johnson was subsequently booked into the Pearl River County Jail and charged with second-degree murder.
The Poplarville Police Department, with assistance from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Pearl River County Sheriff's Office, launched a thorough investigation into the shooting. While an arrest was made swiftly, the motive behind the fatal encounter remained under investigation. Following his death, Gilmore's body was sent to the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory for an autopsy before being returned to his family. His funeral service was held on December 30, 2017, at Triumph Missionary Baptist Church, and he was laid to rest in the Dave Monday Cemetery.
