On a Sunday afternoon in Brookhaven, Mississippi, 24-year-old Darion Reese was fatally shot in a grassy area at the intersection of North Monticello Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The shooting, which occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m. on October 13, 2013, was the culmination of an ongoing altercation. Reese was struck by a single gunshot to the chest and was pronounced dead at King's Daughters Medical Center less than an hour later.
The incident escalated when two men, David
Jones Jr., 29, and Kevin Collins, 48, drove up to Reese. After a brief verbal exchange, gunfire erupted between the three men. Witnesses reported that both Collins and Jones, as well as Reese, fired their weapons during the confrontation. After the shooting, Jones and Collins fled the scene in their vehicle, a silver or gray Grand Am. The day after the shooting, both Jones and Collins turned themselves in to the Brookhaven Police Department and were subsequently charged with murder. They were held in the Lincoln County jail without bond.
During the exchange of gunfire, a stray bullet struck an innocent bystander, 39-year-old Kimberly Simon. Simon was stopped in her car at the intersection when she was hit in the left shoulder. She was taken to King's Daughters Medical Center before being airlifted to a hospital in Jackson. Simon, a service member visiting family, was released from the hospital the following day.
Both David Jones Jr. and Kevin Collins faced legal consequences for their roles in the fatal shootout. In May 2015, Jones pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with 17 years to serve and three years of post-release supervision for the manslaughter charge, and an additional five years for the aggravated assault. During the sentencing, Reese's mother, Carla Gayten, addressed Jones, stating, 'As part of my healing process, I have to forgive. And right now I forgive you.' Jones also apologized to the family, expressing that he never intended to kill anyone. Collins was sentenced to 20 years for manslaughter and 10 years for aggravated assault, with eight years of his sentence suspended.
