82-year-old Prentiss man shot in the face, robbed while trying to help stranded motorists

JEFFERSON DAVIS COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT) - One family is filled with horror and fear this week after their father’s trip to the store turned into him fighting for his life.

“He was headed into Prentiss and two people were stopped right there right out of his driveway on the side of the road,” described Gayle Parish, John Anderson’s daughter. “So he stopped. He went back and got a gas can that he had gas in and took it back to them.”

But the 82-year-old Good Samaritan didn’t expect what would happen next.

“When we got there, we found that he had been robbed, he had been beat,” she said. “We were trying to get things off of his face, blood off his face, when we found out that he had been shot.”

Parish says a neighbor found her father on the road. With help from local volunteer fire departments, her father was stabilized and taken to the UMMC trauma center where he’s in critical condition from his injuries.

“They are going to try to get him slowly off the ventilator,” she explained. “They’ve got to get a lot of the swelling down and just see what we’re looking at in the future as far as getting him fixed.”

Parish says the situation has been not only scary, but stressful for her family.

“There were two people close that heard the gunshot. And we were all right there. And this just happened in broad daylight, which is very scary.”

Now, Parish and her family are warning people to not only be aware of their surroundings, but also of people’s intentions - it could cost a life.

“You know, you think it’s far away, and it’ll never happen to me. But to say this has changed all of us, I don’t think we’ll ever be exactly the same.”

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