Source: screenshot / mississippifreepress
A Mother’s Worst Nightmare
It just gets worse and worse…
In an incident that has gripped the community of Indianola, Mississippi, Nakala Murry faces the unimaginable: potentially losing custody of her three children because a cop shot her 11-year-old son Aderrien Murry. Sgt. Greg Capers only lost his paycheck for the life-threatening incompetence last year. Nakala almost lost her son from a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs, and now the state is trying to take her whole family.
The Incident That Changed Everything
BOSSIP has been covering this disturbing turn of events since last spring. With each new update, not only has shooting a child been deemed as a “simple accident,” but also not worth a charge.
Victim and youngest son, Aderrien, called 911 for help against his sister’s father. His mother, Murry, instructed him to call his grandmother. After previous domestic disputes with Murry’s ex, he thought they needed more help and called 911. The boy did everything right, but he barely survived the night.
Tragically, Sgt. Greg Capers of the Indianola Police Department arrived and shot Aderrien in the chest. The boy reportedly followed the cop’s directions to come out with raised hands. Capers still fired on the child, leaving him bleeding from the chest and nearly killing him in his mother’s arms.
If you’re familiar with how many #BlackLivesMatter cases go, can you guess what happens next? A grand jury found no criminal conduct by Capers and filed no charges against him.
The Murry family’s last resort for justice was a $5 million excessive force lawsuit against the city and police.
Adding Insult to Injury
In a shocking twist, Sunflower County officials have accused Nakala Murry of neglecting her children because of the incident.
According to NPR, the filing comes from an anonymous witness. The alleged witness claims Aderrien Murry’s shooting was a “result of the mother and boyfriend domestic violence that [has] been happening for years.”
This decision, sparking a legal battle for custody, has left the family and supporters outraged.
NPR also states that Carlos Moore, the attorney representing the Murry family, views this as retaliation for Murry’s ongoing lawsuit against the City of Indianola over the shooting.
A Community Disheveled
As Nakala prepares to defend her right to her children in Sunflower County Youth Court, the incident has reignited discussions about police accountability and the systemic challenges Black single mothers face in the justice system. It also highlights that institutionalized racism is so deeply entrenched that Black people in positions of power often carry out the cruelty on their own community.
A similar example would be the murder of Tyre Nichols, a Black man murdered at the hands of a majority Black police squadron. After horrific footage of the deadly beating went public, the District Attorney dropped 30 more cases involving those five cops.
The Murry family’s $5 million lawsuit against the city and police department stands as a testament to their determination to seek justice and reform. Meanwhile, their ongoing GoFundMe campaign for Aderrien’s medical costs and recovery raised less than 10% of its goal.
Pushing Forward
Thankfully, Aderrien is a survivor. As the Murry family awaits key decisions from the court, their story has become a rallying cry for those demanding change in how law enforcement interacts with the communities they serve and how families like Murry’s are treated in the aftermath of tragedy.
