Two suspects in shooting turn themselves in Monday

Published 5:47 pm Monday, October 14, 2013

DAILY LEADER / RACHEL EIDE / Law enforcement officers gather at the King's Daughters Medical Center emergency room Sunday afternoon to help with crowd control after a shooting victim was brought to the hospital by ambulance. The victim, who was an innocent bystander to a shooting at the corner of Monticello Street and Martin Luther King Drive, was later transferred to Jackson for treatment Sunday afternoon, but has since been released from the hospital.

DAILY LEADER / RACHEL EIDE / Law enforcement officers gather Sunday afternoon at the King’s Daughters Medical Center emergency room  to help with crowd control after a shooting victim was brought to the hospital.

Two suspects in the shooting death of a Brookhaven man turned themselves in Monday afternoon to the Brookhaven Police Department.

Darion Reese

David Jones Jr. and Kevin Collins, both of Brookhaven, are charged with shooting and killing Darion Reese, 24, who was pronounced dead at King’s Daughters Medical Center Sunday afternoon.

The shooting occurred around 1:24 p.m. Sunday in a grassy area on the northwest side of the corner of Monticello Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive next to a vacant building. The vicinity is known as Startown.

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An innocent driver on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Kimberly Simon, 39, was also shot during the exchange of gunfire. Simon was hit in the left shoulder by a stray bullet when she brought her car to a stop at the intersection.

David Jones Jr.

Simon, who was alone in the vehicle, was taken to King’s Daughters Medical Center and then evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Jackson.

Simon, also a resident of Brookhaven, was released from the hospital Sunday night and was with family Monday.

“She’s a little sore, but seems to be OK,” said Brookhaven Chief of Police, Bobby Bell, who talked with Simon on Monday.

According to witness interviews, both Collins and Jones and the deceased victim fired their guns during the incident, said Bell. At this time, it is unclear whose gun fired the

Kevin Collins

Kevin Collins

shot that hit Simon, however.

Witnesses also reported that Reese, and at least one of the suspects, had an ongoing altercation.

Collins and Jones, Jr. reportedly identified Reese as he stood in a yard on North Martin Luther King Drive. The two men then drove up to Reese and exited a silver or gray Grand Am, witnesses told police. After a short verbal exchange, gunfire broke out according to witness reports, said Bell.

After the shooting, Collins and Jones fled the scene in the vehicle, witnesses told police.

Upon Reese’s transport to King’s Daughters Medical Center, police and sheriff’s deputies had to be called for crowd control to help with the large group of family and friends of victims, who had gathered at the hospital in the shooting’s wake.

Kimberly Simon is a service member stationed in Columbus. She was visiting her family on Roger’s Circle Sunday.

Collins and Jones turned themselves in to police at 3 p.m. Monday.