JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
A Jackson City Councilman led a protest Saturday outside the convenience store where police fatally shot a knife wielding man. Kenneth Stokes and about a dozen others held signs outside the Jasco gas station on the corner of Woodrow Wilson Avenue and Martin Luther King Junior Drive. They want the store to close.
Thursday evening police got a call that 47 year old Connell Lindsey was harassing the store owner with a knife. Assistant Chief Lee Vance said the responding officer directed the man twice to drop the knife, then fatally shot him when he lunged at the store owner.
Stokes told a different story involving the Jasco store owner armed with a baseball bat, often harassing and threatening patrons.
"You can not exist in the community, harassing people calling them names, cursing them out, shortchanging them and then want to use a bat on them. That can't be tolerated," said Councilman Stokes.
The store clerk declined to comment. WLBT cameras caught many people frequenting Jasco during the protest. Those customers told WLBT they have never had a problem there.
The officer involved in the shooting has been put on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, which is standard procedure.
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