Shootout in gun shop over $25 kills 2, sheriff says
PICAYUNE, Miss. -- A gun shop owner and his 17-year-old son died in a shootout over a $25 service charge, and another man and his 29-year-old son are hospitalized, Mississippi authorities said.
Investigators don't know whether the customers or the owners started the shooting Saturday afternoon at McLemore Gun Shop near Picayune, and want to figure out just what happened before filing any charges, Pearl River County Sheriff David Allison told the Sun Herald.
He identified the owner and his son as Jason McLemore, 44, and Jacob McLemore, 17, WLOX-TV reported Sunday.
Michael McCool, 29, allegedly shot both with a 40-caliber pistol, he told the station.
He said McCool was in intensive care at University Hospital in New Orleans, and his father, Andy McCool, 52, was at Forrest General Hospital in Mississippi.
Andy McCool apparently was hit in the back, but investigators don't know how he was injured, WLOX reported.
Neither Allison nor Chief Deputy Shane Tucker was available for comment when The Associated Press called for an update Sunday.
The McCools came to pick up a gun and got angry because there was a $25 service charge even though the gun had not been fixed, Allison told CBS affiliate WJTV.
He said Jason McLemore's wife was at the shop, and called her husband in to clear up the dispute.
"We believe there might have been some pushing and shoving," Tucker told the Sun Herald.
McLemore's wife was not injured.