A Mississippi police officer responded to a shooting incident over the weekend; little did she know she was about to walk into her worst nightmare. Officer Laquandia Cooley discovered that the victim was her own son.
She was one of the responding officers arriving on the scene of a shooting just blocks away from the Hazlehurst Police Department early Sunday morning.
“We initially responded to the call, not knowing when I made it over there, the person was going to be my son that was laying there,” Cooley, 42, told WBLT.
Her 20-year-old son, Charles Stewart Jr., was lying in the middle of the road suffering a fatal gunshot wound to the head. He had already been declared dead before Cooley arrived.
“As we get out, I look, and I was like, ‘This is my son, this is my son,'” she said. “So, I literally just go into a breakdown, you know? Like, why? Who would do this to my son?”
The victim’s father, Charles Stewart, described his son as a good person who didn’t bother anyone. He says Stewart got along with everyone, and he couldn’t believe his son was murdered.
“It’s traumatizing for the whole family,” he told the outlet. “We’re just trying to cope day to day. Just trying to figure out why this happened and who could have did this.”
Stewart’s death is currently under investigation, and the motive for the shooting remains unknown. Because the case involves an officer’s family member, it has been turned over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, according to Chief Darian Murray.
