Associated Press
CLARKSDALE – A man believed to have shot a northwest Mississippi police officer point-blank in the face and a man believed to have joined him in an earlier robbery were being questioned Sunday by police, Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett said.
Luckett said the first man’s father brought him to the police station Sunday afternoon.
Officers with a search warrant found “telling evidence” at the family’s home earlier Sunday, he said.
The officer, Cpl. Derrick Couch, was in critical condition at the area’s top trauma center, Regional One Health in Memphis, Tennessee, nursing supervisor Vivian Crawford said Sunday.
Couch is on a ventilator, has lost one eye, and the bullet remains lodged in his brain, Luckett said.
He said the shooting occurred about four blocks from a convenience store that two men in masks had just robbed Saturday night. The store and City Hall are at opposite ends of the same block, facing different directions, Luckett said.
He said video from a nearby law office shows Crouch getting out of his car, apparently to question the man.
“I’ve seen the video. It’s harrowing,” he said. “As soon as the officer approached him, he just swung around and, bam!”
