A murder suspect shot a police detective who was interviewing him at police headquarters in Mississippi's capital city, then shot himself, state authorities said Friday.

Police had previously not disclosed who fired the shot that killed the suspect, 23-year-old Jeremy Powell. Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said Friday that Powell shot Detective Eric Smith before killing himself. 

The state agency took over the investigation from the Jackson Police Department. 

The men died in a third-floor room Thursday where Smith was interrogating Powell after his arrest. Powell had been arrested in connection with the stabbing death earlier this week of a 20-year-old Jackson man. 

Greg Jenson / The Clarion-Ledger via AP

Jackson, Miss. Assistant Chief Lee Vance, center left, comforts Chief Rebecca Coleman, center right, on Thursday after detective Eric Smith was shot and killed inside the Jackson Police Department. A suspect was also killed.

Autopsies were to be performed Friday, said Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart. 

City and state officials continued to mourn the death of Smith, a detective who had led the investigation of a number of high-profile murder cases in Mississippi's largest city. Smith, 40, was described as a tall and fit officer who had been with the department since 1995. 

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. and Jackson Police Chief Rebecca Coleman asked for a moment of silence at noon Friday. 

"Let us all come together as a city to mourn the loss of this exceptional member of the Jackson Police Department family," Johnson said in a statement. "Though we will never know the full measure of sorrow experienced by the family of Detective Smith, we can let them know that we stand with them during this difficult time." 

Gov. Phil Bryant, a former Hinds County sheriff's deputy, also noted Smith's passing at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Mississippi Highway Patrol. 

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 4, 2013 8:31 PM EDT

The four-year-old boy of a sheriff’s deputy in northern Michigan accidentally shot and killed himself with a handgun at the family’s home over the weekend, state police said Monday.

Authorities believe Michael Easter was playing with the firearm when he shot himself one time on Saturday in Liberty Township, said First Lt. Michael Krumm of the state police. Police have sent evidence to a forensic lab for analysis but don’t think there was any criminal intent at play.

“At this point there is nothing that’s leading us to believe that this is anything more than a tragic accident,” Krumm said.

The handgun was believed to be registered to the boy’s father, Mark Easter, Krumm said, adding that he had yet to receive confirmation. But it was not Easter’s service weapon, he said.

Easter was on his way to work when his wife called and told him what happened, Jackson County Sheriff Steve Rand told mlive.com. The boy was pronounced dead at a local medical center.

“This just serves as a reminder that we need to be vigilant when it comes to keeping our children safe,” Rand said.

Cammy Rose, the cousin of Easter’s wife, told NBC affiliate wilx.com: “Mark's a good guy. I know this wasn't intentional."

"My heart is broken for my cousin," she said. "He was definitely taken from this world too early."

A week ago, a 4-year-old Houston boy fatally shot himself with his father's stolen handgun while his dad slept. 

A small, single-engine plane en route to a Federal Aviation Administration safety conference crashed into a house in a Jackson, Miss., neighborhood late Tuesday, killing all three people aboard, authorities said. A resident of the home escaped with minor injuries.

The Piper PA-32 had just taken off from the city’s Hawkins Field Airport when it began to falter. A police officer who saw the plane go down said it was sputtering, and the plane's owner told The Associated Press it struck several trees as it went down. The three people in the plane were said to be pilots.

The crash happened in west Jackson, just south of the city’s zoo, just after 5 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET) Tuesday. The house is located on Marcus L. Butler Drive south of W. Capitol Street, NBC affiliate WLBT reported.

Dramatic aerial pictures of the scene were aired by WLBT.

Large flames and black smoke rose about 50 feet from the house that was hit, which is in a neighborhood of single-family homes surrounded by big magnolia and oak trees, according to witnesses.

Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart confirmed to the AP that three people died in the crash. She said dental records or DNA would be needed to confirm their identities.

The plane was owned by Roger and Michele Latham, from Superior Pallet Company in Flowood, Miss., both of whom showed up at the crash site, along with their daughter, Emily Latham. Michele Latham said all three men on board were pilots. 

Emily Latham noted that her father was supposed to have been on board but changed his plans. "He went hunting," she told AP. "Thank God."

Rogelio V. Solis / AP

Fire fighters re-enter a west Jackson, Miss., home where authorities say a small plane carrying three people Tuesday evening.

"We had three great men who lost their lives," Roger Latham said. "I just want to wake up in a while and say, 'This didn't happen.'"

Authorities did not confirm the identities of any of the victims.

The plane had just departed Hawkins Field Airport headed for Raymond, Miss., for an FAA safety conference, just 25 miles away.

Latham said his plane had been parked in a hangar for a month and they wanted to take it out for a short flight before he flew it to Gulf Shores, Ala., for Thanksgiving. Latham said he had owned the plane for 2 1/2 years and described it as being in mint condition.

The plane took off at 5:10 p.m. and shortly after, the pilot asked for permission to return to the airport, according to a news release issued by the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority. The plane was unable to return and crashed.

Latham said a Jackson police officer who was about a block away when the plane was coming down told him "it was spitting and sputtering and ... starving for fuel."

Vivian Payne, who lives about six blocks from the crash site, said she heard a loud bang.

"It shook the walls of my house," Payne said as she stood among ambulances, police cars and fire trucks, their lights flashing in the chilly night air.

The National Transportation Safety Board along with the FAA will be investigating the cause of the crash.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson are lifers, condemned at 14 to spend their lives in prison without the possibility of parole for their involvement in separate murders. Their backers say their sentences are cruel and unusual, leaving them without the second chance the young are so often given. They hope the U.S. Supreme Court agrees.

Next Tuesday, the court will hear arguments in their cases and its ruling could have far-reaching effects. More than 2,200 people nationwide have been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles -- defined as 17 or younger -- according to the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., a civil rights group that represents Miller and Jackson.

The group hopes the companion cases will be another victory for juvenile criminals, who have found some relief before the Supreme Court over the past seven years. In 2005, the court abolished executions for juvenile offenders. Then, two years ago, the court ruled that it is unconstitutional to impose life sentences on juveniles convicted of crimes that do not involve homicide.

Lawyers for Miller, now 23, and Jackson, now 26, contend that juveniles are works in progress and will argue that forensic evidence shows adolescent brains are not fully developed. “Condemning an immature, vulnerable, and not-yet-fully-formed adolescent to life in prison – no matter the crime – is constitutionally a disproportionate punishment,” they say in their petition to the court. The Equal Justice Initiative declined to discuss the case because of the pending hearing.

Kim Taylor-Thompson, a professor of clinical law at the New York University School of Law, has studied juvenile offenders for nearly a decade and agrees with the group. "No one is excusing the fact of what happened," she said. "What we are saying is: Did these two young men engage in thought processes that would make us say today they're the type of individuals who can never be rehabilitated, never change and be locked up to never see the light of day?

Clyde Stancil / The Decatur Daily

Colby Smith, 18, left, and Evan Miller, 17, were convicted of killing Miller's neighbor.

“We believe that they deserve a second look.”

Supporters of life without parole for juveniles say judges should be allowed to give certain criminals, regardless of their age, harsh sentences when their crimes are egregious.

Thomas R. McCarthy, who filed a brief with the Supreme Court on behalf of the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Lifers, said sentences such as those handed to Miller and Jackson are "relatively rare and imposed only on teenagers who commit extremely heinous murders." 

There have been a dozen friend-of-the-court briefs filed in support of Miller and Jackson, and as many filed against them.

Miller was a troubled teen living in a trailer park in Alabama in 2003 when he and a 16-year-old friend, Colby Smith, fought with a drunken neighbor and bludgeoned 52-year-old Cole Cannon with a baseball bat. They set his home on fire, leaving the man to die in the blaze. 

arkansas.gov

Kuntrell Jackson was convicted of taking part in a murder during the robbery of a video store. Another youth shot the clerk.

Cannon's daughter, Candy Cheatham, said she is convinced Miller is still a ruthless killer. She said she has a seat reserved at Tuesday's hearing.

"My father had nine broken ribs and blunt-force trauma to his head," Cheatham told msnbc.com. "We could not have an open casket at his funeral because of the condition of his body -- it was charred."

"Evan Miller knew what he was doing,” she said. “He had no remorse and he has no remorse until this day. There is no indication that I have seen a change in the man that killed my father. He deserves to be locked away until his last day."

The Equal Justice Initiative declined to make Miller and Jackson available for interviews ahead of the court hearing.

Jackson was walking through a housing project in Arkansas with two older boys in 1999 when they started talking about holding up a video store. When they arrived at the store, the other boys went in, but Jackson stayed outside by the door, his lawyers said. One of the older boys fatally shot the clerk before all three fled. Prosecutors said Jackson knew one of the other boys had a shotgun, and that Jackson was inside the shop at the time of the shooting, telling the clerk: "We ain't playin'."

Here are the stories of other lifers who believe they deserve a second chance:

Courtesy of Equal Justice Initiative

Quantel Lotts, age unknown at the time this photo was taken.

Quantel Lotts, Missouri
He stabbed his 17-year-old stepbrother in a scuffle in St. Louis in November 1999. Lotts, now 26, told The New York Times he wasn’t reconciled to his life term. “I understand that I deserve some punishment,” Lotts told the Times in a 2011 interview. “But to be put here for the rest of my life with no chance, I don’t think that’s a fair sentence.”

Ashley Jones, Alabama
She was 14 when she helped her boyfriend kill her grandfather and aunt in Birmingham by stabbing and shooting them and then setting them ablaze. Jones also tried to kill her sister, 10, prosecutors said. The Equal Justice Initiative says the now 22-year-old has turned her life around and is deserving of a chance at freedom.
 
T.J. Tremble, Michigan
Tremble, then 14, rode his bike to an elderly couple's home in Au Gres, Mich., in 1997, shot the two in the head as they slept and stole their car. In an interview in 2005 with a reporter for the  Bay City (Mich.) Times, Tremble, now 29, said he deserved redemption.

"The whole problem is that people don't think we can change, that we can't be rehabbed. For lifers, they don't offer us anything. Absolutely nothing," said Tremble, an inmate at the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Freeland, Mich.

Asked whether he deserved a shot at parole, Tremble said: "I'm not the same person now that I was when I got to prison. I've matured. I do feel I could make a difference out there. The only thing is, I've got to get that chance."

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Tiffany Ellis Brewer says she refuses to live in fear since learning of the release of a man who gunned down her sister in 1993, fatally shooting his 20-year-old estranged wife in the head while her baby slept nearby.

“I want answers,” Brewer, from Pearl, Miss., told msnbc.com on Thursday. “I will not stop until I get them because something is seriously wrong with our system. No one saw this coming and the governor needs to answer for this.” 

In his last act in office, former Gov. Haley Barbour granted more than 200 pardons, clemency or early release for people convicted of crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery. Most of those people were already out of prison.

Among the convicted killers to be freed: David Glenn Gatlin -- the man who admitted to fatally shooting Brewer's sister, Tammy, and wounding her friend, Randy Walker, in July 1993.

"We were never notified that any of this was happening," Brewer said. "The last thing we heard was that Randy received a call saying that [Gatlin] had been denied parole. Next thing we know, he's released on Sunday. Now, we have no idea where he is." 

• Read: Some Barbour pardons lack key info, experts say

Gatlin and three other inmates had worked at the governor's mansion doing odd jobs under a program that rewarded good behavior.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2008, Barbour said releasing trusties who served at the governor's mansion was a tradition in Mississippi.

The last-minute act, however, has incensed some people in Mississippi. 

“The events since the news broke is having a tearing-down effect on victim's families," said David Ruth, the lead investigator in the Brewer case. "They have to retell their story every time, and I know news is news, but we also have to protect them. My hope is that [Gatlin] does not create any more problems for the family, because he has put them through enough."

'Demand answers'
State Attorney General Jim Hood on Wednesday claimed the pardons had violated the state Constitution. Hood told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson that the law requires a legal notice of plans to pardon to be published 30 days prior to the action. He said his office couldn't find such a record.

Meanwhile, a Mississippi judge has temporarily blocked the release of the 21 inmates, scheduling a hearing on Jan. 23 in Hinds County Circuit Court.

Brewer plans to closely follow its developments.

"I implore all the victim's families to stand up and demand answers," Brewer said, "Mississippi has always had a stigma ... and our former governor has made that much worse."

Barbour released a statement Wednesday evening, saying "my decision about clemency was based upon the recommendation of the Parole Board in more than 90 percent of the cases."

Barbour said in the statement 189 of the people he pardoned or gave clemency to had already been freed.

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Updated 8:40 p.m. ET: In response to criticism about the pardons, former Gov. Haley Barbour released a statement from his office Wednesday evening that said 189 of the more than 200 people pardoned were already out of prison.

"My decision about clemency was based upon the recommendation of the Parole Board in more than 90 percent of the cases," the statement said.

The statement, reported by WTVA of Tupelo, went on to say 13 of the 26 inmates released from custody cost the state a lot of money due to their medical expenses and can be returned to custody if they commit another crime.

Updated 8 p.m. ET:  Mississippi Circuit Judge Tomie Green has temporarily blocked the release of 21 inmates who'd been given pardons or medical release by Republican Haley Barbour in one of his final acts as governor.

Original story

JACKSON, Miss. -- The state attorney general on Wednesday moved to block the release of some inmates pardoned by Gov. Haley Barbour in his last days in office, claiming the move may have violated the state Constitution.

Attorney General Jim Hood said the law requires a legal notice of plans to pardon to be published 30 days prior to the action. He said his office couldn't find such a record.

“Unfortunately our research has revealed that Gov. Barbour violated the Constitution,” Hood told The Clarion-Ledger. “We’re seeking to stop the release of any prisoners.”

Hood told WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss. that he planned to file an injunction at Hinds County Circuit.

Read original story from WLBT.com

On his last day as Mississippi governor, Barbour, a Republican, surprised friends and foes by granting more than 200 pardons, clemency or early release for people convicted of crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery. His actions included 21 people convicted of murder, according to NBC News. 

Also included were four inmates who had worked at the governor's mansion doing odd jobs under a program that rewarded good behavior.

Among the pardoned was the brother of retired National Football League star quarterback Brett Favre. Earnest Scott Favre was convicted in 1996 of driving while intoxicated resulting in the death of his best friend. He was sentenced to a year of house arrest and two years probation.

'Seems very excessive'
While pardons by outgoing governors and presidents are not unusual, the number and the types of crimes stand out, said Marty Wiseman, a Mississippi State University political scientist and director of the school's John C. Stennis Institute of Government.

"That seems very excessive to me," Wiseman told The Associated Press. "I don't recall this many crimes that serious being pardoned by anybody."

Barbour has provided no public statement on the decisions. Former Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, also a Republican, has officially taken office as governor.

Until this month, Barbour had issued only five pardons and three indefinite suspended sentences in eight years as governor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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