Trice
By William Moore
Daily Journal
TUPELO – The Tupelo Police Department continues to search for a 28-year-old man wanted in connection with a shooting at a Motel 6 the day after Christmas.
Officials are searching for Norman Obryan Trice of Tupelo. He was living at the motel at 1500 McCullough Blvd. at the time of the shooting.
“We’ve had some sightings and have gotten some calls, but he is not in custody yet,” said Police Chief Bart Aguirre. “We have talked with his friends and family. We hope that they will encourage him to turn himself in.”
Around noon last Friday, a white male in his late 20s was shot once in the right thigh and transported to North Mississippi Medical Center. The man shot, whose name has not been released, had surgery later that day. He was released from the hospital Monday afternoon.
Investigators are still trying to determine the motive for the shooting, which took place in a second floor room on the north side of the motel.
Shortly before noon on Dec. 26, someone at the motel called 911 reporting shots fired. Officers arrived and found the victim, but were unable to locate the suspect. Police quickly surrounded the back side of the motel and armed officers cordoned off the area. Residents of the motel were evacuated from their rooms and sequestered in the lobby during the two-hour ordeal.
Police searched all of the rooms surrounding the second-floor crime scene. After the SWAT team stormed the first-floor rooms, armed officers began to search a vacant hotel just to the east and on the hill overlooking the Motel 6.
No weapon was recovered.
william.moore@journalinc.com