Three men, including a newly graduated Columbus High School student, have been charged with a gang-related execution of a 19-year-old last week in Lowndes County.
Three to five men, who are thought to have had affiliations with both the Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords gangs, broke into a home at 850 Harrison Road at about 3:15 a.m. Friday and shot 19-year-old William Deshun Stallings once in the back of the head while he was asleep on a friend”s couch, according to the Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office.
The men then entered another bedroom and robbed his friend”s mother, Shirley Love, before fleeing down Harrison Road toward Highway 50, according to a witness.
Stallings, a former New Hope student who lived on Hospital Drive in Columbus, was airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, where he died later that day.
So far, Lowndes County investigators have charged these three men with capital murder: Quinton Deangelo Harris, 19, of 1008 22nd St. S., Alexander Demonta Brown, 18, of 225 Taylor St. and Kahlid Rashawn Roby, 18, of 109 Poplar St. Investigators say that the three suspects have had ties to the Gangster Disciples.
Both Harris and Brown were taken into custody at Brown”s residence Monday. Roby was also taken into custody that day at his residence. Their bonds were expected to be set today.
Saturday, the day after the killing, Brown was accepting his Columbus certificate of graduation in a cap-and-gown ceremony at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville.
LCSO Chief Deputy Greg Wright said a handgun — possibly the weapon used to kill Stallings — was found, along with ammunition and two long-barreled weapons, during the execution of five search warrants since Friday.
“(Investigators) have been working on this pretty much non-stop,” Wright said of the investigation, which is ongoing.
Lead Investigator Eli Perrigin is taking some of the evidence to the Jackson crime lab for testing today, Wright said.
All three defendants have a history of arrests, and Roby and Brown were on probation at the time of their arrests.
The deadly shooting Friday was possibly connected to a drive-by shooting in Lowndes County early Thursday and a shots-fired report in East Columbus, Wright said.
In the drive-by shooting, what is thought to have been multiple suspects opened fire on 1171 Tabernacle Road at about 1 a.m. Thursday, riddling the house and vehicles with bullets. Three people were inside at the time — a couple and their son — although no one was injured.
Columbus police responded to the shots-fired call in East Columbus that same night, although no suspects were found and no one was injured.
Columbus-Lowndes Metro Narcotics Agent John Duke said the Gangster Disciples usually stick to Columbus” south side, while the Vice Lords are in the north side, although the lines have become blurred in recent years as gang rivalry has faded.
This dispute, Duke said, may have been between rival cells in one of the gangs.
“If one gets into it with another, it can cause a small conflict among the cells,” he added.
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