[10/28/02]The 22-year-old Warren County resident reported shot by a deputy sheriff died Sunday, the Mississippi Highway Patrol is investigating and, regardless of its findings, District Attorney Gil Martin said the case will likely get a grand jury review.

Jimmie Taylor II, who lived at 4808 Halls Ferry Road, was shot near his home about 11 p.m. Saturday and died at 7 p.m. Sunday at River Region Medical Center where he was also an employee.

Taylor sustained a single gunshot wound to his stomach, said Warren County Coroner John Thomason, who said the required autopsy will be tonight at Mississippi Mortuary in Pearl.

Taylor’s 17-year-old brother was also injured and taken to the hospital. A hospital spokesman said he was treated and released.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace continued to decline to identify the deputy, but did say the deputy has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Interviews by the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol were continuing today. As many as 50 witnesses, most of them students, are being interviewed, according to one source.

Speaking this morning at the home on Halls Ferry she shared with her two sons, Claudia Taylor described Jimmie Taylor as a quiet young man with 5- and 15-month-old daughters who was trying to get his life together.

“He loved his daughters. He loved his family and wouldn’t want us to hurt,” she said.

He was a housekeeper in the hospital emergency room and was maturing, in part due to the recent death of his grandmother, his mother said.

“He loved his grandmother very much, and dealing with that loss made him not afraid to die,” Taylor said. “He let me know that he wasn’t scared of death.”

Claudia Taylor would not comment on the events of Saturday, saying that she did not want to interfere with the investigation. Witnesses Saturday said the two brothers had become upset after a deputy sheriff pushed their mother.

Pace said two deputies were dispatched to the address, responding to a complaint that a large crowd had gathered outside the home and vehicles were blocking the road.

“The deputies became separated and a disturbance ensued,” Pace said. “One of the deputies became involved in a confrontation with several individuals, and a round was fired from what we believe was his weapon.”

He said the deputy had been knocked on the ground when his Glock 9-mm pistol, the standard sidearm for most law enforcement, discharged. Pace said the deputy was injured and taken to the hospital, but would not say how he was injured.

Pace also said two people from what witnesses called a party at the Taylor house were detained Saturday night following the shooting, but were later released.

Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol spokesman Warren Strain said no charges have been filed. “It’s early on in the investigation,” Strain said. “It’s really too early to say anything.”

District Attorney Martin said that usually with an officer-involved shooting, the case would be turned over to the district attorney after the investigation is complete and then reviewed by the grand jury.

“That doesn’t mean anything; good, bad or indifferent,” Martin said.

A grand jury is meeting this week. The next is scheduled for January.