Mississippi woman shot in head during police chase, lawsuit says

The two vehicles then left the highway and returned to downtown Jackson, Walker said. On a residential street, Rogue opened fire again and two officers fired at the car, Walker said. Walker testified he then saw “numerous objects coming out of the passenger side window.” Walker said he had no idea what the objects were.

Investigators then searched for the items and found a homeowner who told them she saw a group of armed men walking away with the items, Walker said.

Jordan, the driver of the mobster car and a friend of Harris, provided varying accounts of how the chase began, the route it took and where shots were fired. Jordan, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, recounted his experience in a letter and phone call from the Hinds County Jail, where he has been incarcerated for more than a year while awaiting trial.

Jordan said he didn't have a gun and didn't throw anything from the car.

He said he considered driving to the police station after Harris was shot but feared being shot there. He said he did not drive to the hospital because he was worried the slopes and potholes in the road would worsen his friend's injuries. “I was scared and trying to drive home,” Jordan said.

In a June interview, Public Safety Commissioner Tyndall said he was not surprised Jordan claimed he was unarmed.

“I don't think he can deny that he was actually running from law enforcement and pursuing them,” Tyndall said. “I think his actions speak for themselves and we'll see what the evidence reveals.”

Police and Jordan also have very different versions of how the chase ended.

Walker testified that officers followed Rogue to the intersection of Lamar and Adair streets, where the car hit a curb and came to a stop. Jordan fled from the car and police chased him. Jordan then turned to Walker, “holding a long black object in his left hand” and something else in his right hand. “That's when I returned fire on him as he ran away,” Walker said.

Jordan dropped what he was holding, and Walker said he stopped shooting. Walker testified that the items Jordan dropped turned out to be a black cell phone and a bag of marijuana. Walker said police found no gun in the car. “There was another passenger in the vehicle that we didn't know was hit by a bullet,” Walker said. Police called an ambulance, he said.

Jordan was not hit by a bullet, but he said police beat him, but he couldn't remember what happened afterward; he said he woke up in jail days later. Public defenders who represented him at various times last year did not respond to requests for comment.

Witness Vivica Johnson told NBC News in April that she and a friend were sitting on a porch at the corner of Lamar and Adair streets that night when they saw Capitol Police officers approaching Chased a car and shot at it. When the driver got out of the car with his hands up, officers shot him, Johnson said. The man fell to the ground and officers began beating him, she said.

“After they kicked him and beat him, they walked over to the car where he jumped out and that's when they realized it was a woman who had been shot in the head,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she heard an officer exclaim “Oh my God, oh my God” after spotting the woman in the car.

NBC News asked Capitol Police and the city of Jackson for radio traffic recordings and dispatch logs, but the request was denied.

Johnson said she didn't hear Jordan say anything before they arrested him, when she said Jordan yelled, “Help me.”

Tyndall said in June that he was unaware of the assault charges. He said conflicting versions of what happened would be addressed in the criminal justice system.

“We have a subject in this case, now a defendant, claiming one thing, a witness saying one thing, a police officer,” Tyndall said in response to questions from NBC News based on the accounts of Jordan, Walker and Johnson. Say another thing.” He said the details would “be reviewed in court.”