INDIANOLA, Miss. — A shooting outside a Mississippi nightclub left three people dead and more than a dozen injured over the weekend, authorities said.
The shooting happened in the early morning hours Sunday outside Club Lit on Church Street in Indianola.
“This street was full of people from both sides just out trying to enjoy themselves and have a good time, and this is what happened,” said Charles Modley, President of the Sunflower County NAACP.
Killed were Areon Butler, of Indianola; and Cameron Lee Butts and Marquette Baites, of Greenville, county Coroner Heather Burton said. All three were 19.
Mayor Ken Featherstone said a total of 16 people were struck by bullets. Several victims were taken to a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi.
“Please keep the families of the deceased and injured in your prayers. The City of Indianola plans to hold a candlelight vigil in honor of those who were killed and/or injured,” Featherstone said in a statement.
Modley said one of the victims graduated with his daughter at Gentry High School in May 2024. He said his daughter is taking the news hard.
No arrests have been made, and no motive is known for the shooting, Featherstone said.
Woman accused of shooting Church’s Chicken worker to stay in jail Indianola Police Chief Chief Ronald Sampson said the shooting stemmed from an argument between two individuals outside Club Lit on Church street.
Sampson said the street was so crowded that two of his officers were at the corner of Church and Court setting up traffic barricades when bullets started flying.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is among the agencies handling the case.
Indianola, a city of 9,100, is in Mississippi’s largely rural Delta region about 130 miles south of Memphis.
Monday, shell casings, bullet fragments and even one live round could still be found near the scene.
There is growing concern of how this kind of gun violence will impact this Delta town’s growth.
“This is a small city,” Modley said. “Trying to get economic development here and things of that nature. and no economic development want to come here if you’re having crime in your city of this magnitude.”
Others said it’s past time for the community to end the violence.
“We got to stop turning our head we got to stop ignoring stuff and we got to speak up and talk. We got to say something cause if we don’t we gonna lose all our babies,” said Indianola resident Nancy Roscoe.
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