Vicksburg Patrolmen Joseph Head, left, and Willie Edwards search Kansas City, Kan., murder suspect Joseph Dodds after he was arrested at his mother’s home on Wilbert Lane Monday. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[03/20/01] A Kansas City, Kan., teen wanted for killing a store clerk there was arrested at his mother’s Vicksburg home Monday morning.

Deputy Chief of Police Jack Dowe said authorities here were notified on March 7 that Joseph Dodds, 18, might be headed to Vicksburg.

Dowe said officers had been watching Dodds’ mother’s home at 350 Wilbert Lane.

Around 10 a.m. Patrolman Willie Edwards was driving by the house off of U.S. 61 South when he spotted Dodds’ gray Oldsmobile Cutlass.

“I saw the car, and then I called for backup,” Edwards said.

Edwards said he and other officers approached the house and found Dodds and another man in the car preparing to leave.

Dodds surrendered to police without resisting, Edwards said.

He is accused of robbing a grocery store in Kansas City on March 6 and then killing a store clerk, Sgt. Beverly Prentiss said.

“We were notified the day after the crime took place that he could be headed this way to a family member’s house,” Prentiss said.

It is not known whether Dodds ever lived in Vicksburg or how Kansas City authorities connected him to the robbery and homicide, Prentiss said. Authorities in Kansas were not available.

Dodds waived extradition on the murder and armed robbery charge later Monday and was being held in the Warren County Jail until Kansas authorities pick him up, which could be Tuesday, Prentiss said.