“It was quite a busy night Friday night in Sardis,” Champion said, speaking, with Panola Sheriff Dennis Darby,  at a Monday news conference attended by area media representatives and public officials.

“There were multiple, multiple shots fired,” the district attorney said. “There were actually two separate shootings,” he continued, on the high school grounds. “You had the initial confrontation where the shots were fired and then some probably minute to two minutes later—there was a second set of shots fired,” Champion said, describing it as a “gunfight.”

Shortly after the shooting at the school, “there was another shooting that occurred at a local club in Sardis,” Champion said. “We’re still looking to see if they are connected.”

After that, “on the Green Hill Elementary School grounds there was a subject located brandishing a firearm,” the district attorney said.

“It doesn’t get any more serious than what we’re looking at right now because our schools are supposed to be a haven for safety,” Champion continued. “There are too many people dying right now in this community.”

“It is our belief that those firearms were definitely at the game,” he added.

“We’re going to enlist every law enforcement agency that we can, …. to come in and be a heavy, heavy, heavy police presence in this whole county, because we are begining to see, unfortunately, an influx of gangs,” Champion said.

The district attorney acknowledged that the shooting stemmed from a Como /Sardis rivalry. “We’re still going to treat this more as a gang situation because there were two groups of young men out there that were armed on the North Panola campus that were shooting at each other. The only thing I can say is that, thank God that no innocent bystanders were killed.”

“I think when it all shakes out, there’s going to be some sort of correlation between all three instances,” Champion said, responding to a question about connections between the shootings and the armed man on the elementary school campus.

The officials said that two other people were struck by the school gunfire, one in the hand and one in the leg. Another victim was shot in the leg at the club shooting. Champion declined identifying the victims wounded by the gunfire.

Sheriff Dennis Darby said that four deputies were on duty during the Friday night game. Sardis Police Chief Chris Martin, in a separate interview, said that three city officers were also on duty there.

“I want to reiterate to the general public, you’ve been very, very generous with your information,” Darby said. “That’s what’s helping us with a lot of the cases. I ask  you to continue to do that, hopefully early enough to prevent serious consequences.”

Sheriff Darby said that during the last several years, arrests have been made of upper level gang members.

“We’re taking away their seniority,” he said, forcing leadership to younger members.

Officials said investigators are continuing to interview witnesses and also trying determine the source of the firearms used. Investigators made extensive use of video surveillance recovered from cameras placed at the high school, Champion said.

“What we’re seeing right now is an influx of gangs that we believe are affecting our kids here that are primarily based out of Clarksdale and out of the Delta, being Greenwood and Greenville,” the district attorney said, also acknowledging somewhat lesser influence from Memphis gangs. “In the last year, we’re beginning to see more structured organization than we have in the past.
Three were arrested and charged with capital murder including: Darius Dontae McNeil, 21; Quinterious Marshard Mabry, 17, 436 Taylor Rd., Como and Johnathan Jermaine Haynes, 21, 417 Dewberry Street, Sardis.

Charged with possessing a firearm on educational property are Tevin Derrell Mottley, 20, 316 Church Street Como and Cordaro Montez Orr, 26, 422 Fredrick Street, Sardis.
Jamal Ahmad Ellison, 19, and Joseph Lewis Yancey, 23, 86 Pepperbrook Lane, Southaven are both charged with aggravated assault.