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The teen, Mielun Butler, was booked in jail on July 1 after he
was arrested in connection to a killing at a south Jackson
apartment complex. By the morning of July 3, a video circulating
on social media showed an unidentified person kicking his limp
and bloodied body while he lay on the floor.
At a Monday press conference, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones
confirmed the authenticity of the video. He told Mississippi
Today on Thursday that he placed a detention officer on
administrative leave with pay this week. Jones said he would not
share the officer’s name because the incident remains under
investigation.
In October, Jones ceded operational control of the jail to
Wendell France, a court-appointed federal receiver. The federal
judge overseeing the court case, Carlton Reeves, will hold a
hearing on Friday to discuss conditions at the jail.
Jones said he believed the incident could be gang-related but
did not offer details.
“I think it’s no secret that some of the violence that we have
been witnessing in our community has eventually spilled over
into the jail,” he said. “We believe there may be a strong
connection.”
Jones could not say how many assaults have occurred at the jail.
Butler’s death occurred the same day that a Hinds County
Chancery Court judge ordered the sheriff’s office to turn over
jail death records that it had withheld from the Southern
Poverty Law Center, which requested those records more than a
year ago under the state’s public records law.
Butler was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Melvin
Edwards on June 13 in the 32-year-old’s home at the Pine Ridge
Garden Apartments, which are known for deadly violence. He was
the second man arrested and charged in connection to Edwards’
death.
At Butler’s initial appearance on July 2, Municipal Court Judge
Jeffery Reynolds set a $1 million bond, an amount the judge
acknowledged the teenager could not post.
By July 3, Butler was dead. In a video posted on Facebook, a
person wearing black sandals stomps on Butler’s body as someone
orders Butler to say, ‘Long live Melvin.’”
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