Yazoo City mother fearing for life after her 10-year-old was shot, injured

YAZOO, Miss. (WLBT) - Sunlight pierces through some of the walls inside Lashonda Jones’ Yazoo City home.

Bullet holes fill every single room.

3 On Your Side counted 50 in all and also found a shell casing resting on one of her children’s mattresses.

But one hole, in particular, is the reason why Jones didn’t want her face shown on camera. That’s because it’s from the bullet that cut through her 10-year-old’s back.

“I’m not going to say she’s doing good because she’s not. She hasn’t been asleep since this stuff happened,” Jones said. “All night long, [she says,] ‘Mama, I’m scared. I’m scared.’ And I’m scared, too, because I don’t know what to do.”

She says everything about the situation is tragic right down to the day on which it happened — Mother’s Day.

“About 1:30 in the morning, I heard a big sound. It actually sounded like a firecracker,” she recalled.

Then, she heard a different sound — screams from her 10-year-old, who told her mom that the bottom of her stomach was burning.

“By the time I got through looking around her body and stuff, she had a bullet hole like an inch from her spine. It could have literally paralyzed her or even worse,” Jones said.

The mother of seven says Mother’s Day was not the first time her home had been shot up; it was the third.

This past weekend, she and her seven children slept at someone else’s house, and on Sunday, she said that home was shot up too.

“You can’t lay down and feel safe because you know somebody is coming, and you’re lost because you don’t know why,” Jones said. “I’m homeless now, and it’s sad because I’ve got seven kids and nowhere to go.”

As Jones tries to find a place where she and her children can safely lay their heads at night, Yazoo City leaders are trying to figure out how to deal with what they call a ‘crime crisis,’ especially now that their chief of police has resigned.

“We had a chief a month ago who was out here stopping all this violence. We need him. We need justice in Yazoo City,” Jones exclaimed.

Over the last nine days in Yazoo City, a 16-year-old was shot and killed, and Jones’ 10-year-old was shot and injured.

City leaders are looking for solutions, and residents are asking them to look faster.

When Kenneth Hampton sent in his resignation letter Monday, he became the third police chief in three years to resign in Yazoo City.

Captain Patrick Jaco says he is taking over as chief for the time being.

He wouldn’t say how many officers there are to respond to crimes. Instead, he provided the following statement.

I can tell you that we are not as bad off as the public is making it out to be. I can’t give an exact number at this time because those numbers are subject to change. We are in the process of hiring as we speak and have others interested in coming to work for our police department to serve our city and keep our communities safe. I can say this though: yes, we are short-handed just as is the rest of law enforcement in this state and country. Though few, the officers that are serving under the shield of Yazoo City and its police department are dedicated officers that are working tirelessly to keep our citizens and communities safe - giving 150% to do so.

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