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Mississippi Bureau of Investigations officers work the scene where two Brookhaven Police Officers were shot and killed in Brookhaven, where a candlelight service was being organised. Photo: AP

Mississippi city mourns two police officers killed in shooting

Candlelight service organised outside the Brookhaven Police Department where the officers had worked is marked by flowers, teddy bears and balloons

Residents mourning two police officers shot and killed over the weekend in a Mississippi city left roses, balloons and other mementos in their honour Sunday, ahead of an evening prayer vigil planned in their memory.

A candlelight service for James White, 35, and Zach Moak, 31, was being organised outside the Brookhaven Police Department where the officers had worked.

There, every few minutes, people would pull up in cars, leaving flowers, teddy bears and balloons not far from where their patrol cars were parked. Each car was adorned with an American flag, wreaths and flowers.

Brookhaven patrolman Zach Moak, 31, was shot and killed following an early Saturday confrontation. Photo: AP

On the police department’s Facebook page, Chief Kenneth Collins called on area residents to turn out for a vigil later Sunday evening “and honour these young men who gave their lives” serving the city of more than 12,000 people located about 100km (62 miles) south of the state capital, Jackson.

White and Moak were killed early Saturday.

Warren Strain of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said Sunday that the shooting suspect, 25-year-old Marquis Flowers, was hospitalised after being wounded in the confrontation.

Strain said charges are pending against Flowers and that investigation is ongoing. He did not provide an update on Flowers’ medical condition.

Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins and Mayor Joe Cox talk during a news conference about the two police officers shot and killed in Brookhaven. Photo: AP

Strain had said previously that the officers were called to a house in Brookhaven at about 5am on Saturday for a report of shots fired. Following an exchange of gunfire that left both officers “mortally wounded”, the two were pronounced dead at a local hospital, Strain said.

He identified the weapon used as a handgun but would not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

The Brookhaven chief Collins called White and Moak, both residents of Lincoln County, “heroes”.

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