In the late hours of a Sunday in Natchez, Mississippi, a heated argument inside the M & M Deli on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive tragically escalated, leading to the death of 56-year-old Charles Edward Knight on November 15, 2015. The verbal altercation between Knight and another man, identified as 36-year-old Lavander Lashon Williams, spilled out into the parking lot and turned into a physical fight.
Following the fight, Knight attempted to leave the scene in his blue Chevrolet pickup
truck. It was at this moment that Williams reportedly retrieved a firearm from his own vehicle and opened fire on Knight as he was driving away. The sound of gunfire pierced the night, and Knight's truck continued across Steam Plant Road before coming to a stop in the backyard of a church.
When deputies from the Adams County Sheriff's Office arrived, they followed the tire tracks from the deli's parking lot to the churchyard. There, they discovered Knight inside his truck, having succumbed to a fatal gunshot wound to his back. The investigation quickly led them to Merit Health Natchez, where Williams was seeking treatment for injuries he sustained during the earlier altercation.
In the early morning hours of the following day, authorities arrested Williams in the hospital parking lot. He was subsequently charged with murder and booked into the Adams County Jail. The incident marked Williams' 29th arrest in Adams County since the year 2000. Later, another individual was also charged in connection with the fatal shooting. Eventually, Lavander Lashon Williams pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder for his role in the death of Charles Edward Knight.
