[1/9/03]His funeral will be Saturday, but local and state officials remain silent about the death of an Edwards man apparently shot by a Copiah County deputy sheriff.

Meanwhile, a witness who saw Robert Lee before he died said he saw the 57-year-old run into a wooded area, followed by a deputy.

Ernest O’Quinn, who also didn’t want to say much about the case, said, “There was a call to 911 because Lee had set a fire too close to the side of the road. A sheriff’s deputy came out; I don’t know if he meant to arrest Lee or not, but Lee ran into the woods.”

O’Quinn said he heard shots fired minutes after the deputy ran into the woods behind Lee.

“It was several shots, about four or five shots altogether,” he said. There was no indication whether Lee was armed, whether there were other witnesses or precisely where the shooting took place other than a rural Copiah roadside near the Hinds County line Saturday about noon.

Copiah County Coroner Phil Howard has said Lee received one lethal wound and confirmed he received another non-lethal wound. Howard would not say where the wounds were on Lee’s body, but added an autopsy was performed.

Col. Jim Box, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations, confirmed earlier this week that Lee died about noon, apparently at the scene.

O’Quinn said he did not know the name of the sheriff’s deputy involved in the shooting.

The Copiah County Sheriff’s Department has provided no information and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations has also remained silent.

“It is our policy not to release information of a case that is under investigation,” Warren Strain, Mississippi Highway Patrol public affairs officer, said.

Maggie Hill, Lee’s girlfriend, said the Copiah County Sheriff’s Department wouldn’t speak to her or to Lee’s family.

“They won’t give us anything, nothing,” she said.

Box said information gathered during the investigation would be turned over to Alexander Martin, the district attorney in Claiborne County and elected for the 22nd Circuit Court District.

“He didn’t bother anybody. He wasn’t a violent man,” Hill said of Lee, who will be buried Saturday at the Chapel Hill M.B. Church in Bolton.

Visitation will be Saturday from 1 until 8 p.m. at People’s Funeral Home in Jackson.