A Lowndes County sheriff’s deputy shot a 27-year-old man Monday morning after responding to a home burglary call just south of Columbus Air Force Base.
Lowndes County Chief Deputy Greg Wright declined to name the deputy while the case is being handled by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, but said 911 dispatchers received a call at 9:17 a.m. of a burglary in progress at 115 Renee Circle. While on the phone with dispatchers, the caller reported the subject left the scene and was walking toward Mike Parra Road.
When the deputy arrived, he encountered Steven Craig McKee, of 1038 Mike Parra Road, and a brief chase ensued. When the deputy confronted McKee, he advised dispatchers that McKee was armed with a knife.
“There was a confrontation with the deputy,” Wright said. “After repeated warnings and requests (for McKee) to drop the weapon, the subject came at the officer. The officer discharged his weapon twice, and the subject was taken into custody.”
At that time, Wright said this morning, the deputy shot McKee twice, and he was taken into custody and transported via ambulance to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, where he remains today following surgery.
The deputy involved in the confrontation was not injured.
However, when officers searched McKee’s home, they found blood on the floor and a mixed breed Labrador Retriever-German Shepherd, which had been stabbed at least 14 times. The dog was taken to the Columbus-Lowndes Humane Society, where it underwent surgery and is expected to survive.
The dog belongs to a member of McKee’s family, according to Wright.
“We’re looking at the prospect that he’s the one responsible for stabbing the dog,” Wright said.
Wright said McKee will be charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, felony possession of a weapon and burglary of a dwelling. The dwelling McKee is charged with burglarizing belongs to his sister, Wright said. Additional charges of animal cruelty may be filed.
Monday’s incident is not McKee’s first run-in with Lowndes County deputies. Wright said a similar incident occurred in August 2009, when McKee confronted a deputy with a knife and was found guilty in Lowndes County Circuit Court and sentenced to one year in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, followed by five years of post-release supervision.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this individual was seriously set on the intent of injuring someone or something, if not killing them,” Wright said of Monday’s incident.
Jon Kalahar, MBI spokesman, also declined to release the name of the sheriff’s deputy involved in the shooting since it is an “open investigation.”
An MBI lieutenant was scheduled to interview McKee at the hospital today, as part of the investigation, Kalahar said.
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