One dead in Vicksburg Sunday morning shooting

Warren County sheriff’s investigators are continuing their probe into an early morning shooting Sunday that claimed the life of one Vicksburg man and wounded three others, Sheriff Martin Pace said.

“We have interviewed and detained several people in connection with the shooting but no formal charges have been filed,” Pace said Monday. “We will be meeting with the district attorney this morning, and I expect to file formal charges sometime today. There are more people involved than the ones we have detained, and we expect more arrests.”

Deputy Warren County coroner Kelda Bailess said Jerome Rankin, 22, of Vicksburg, was pronounced dead at 4:25 p.m. Sunday at UMMC.

She said Rankin’s body was taken to the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson for an autopsy. Pace said the other three victims remain at University of Mississippi Medical Center. Their conditions were unknown at this time, he said.

The shooting occurred about 2:15 a.m. Sunday during a gathering in the parking lot at the Kangaroo Express at the corner of U.S. 80 and Mississippi 27. The convenience store is in the county at the right-hand corner of the intersection of 80 and 27.

“There was a gathering of people who went to the Kangaroo after several nightclubs in Vicksburg closed,” Pace said. “An argument began and several shots were fired by several people. All of the wounded people were adults age 20 to 27.”

He said when deputies arrived at the scene they found one of the wounded victims still in the convenience store parking lot. He was taken to Merit Health River Region Medical Center by ambulance. The other victims were taken to River Region by private vehicles. All were later transferred to University of Mississippi Medical Center, Pace said.