VHS freshman Heather Pritchard hugs her mother, Lisa Pritchard, following a shooting that left one man dead and a student charged with capital murder. “This is what you watch on TV,” Heather Pritchard said. “This is not supposed to happen in Vicksburg.”(Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

[9/11/03] An ongoing feud between two 20-year-olds was believed this morning to have been the cause of a fatal shooting near Vicksburg High School Wednesday afternoon.

O’Dare Lee Earl Mims, 2807 Arcadia St., died at 3:30 at River Region Medical Center, about an hour after being shot in the chest near field houses at Memorial Stadium.

Walter Jefferson, 202 Cain Ridge Road, was in the Warren County Jail without bond, charged with capital murder. If convicted, he could be executed.

“We’ve heard rumors that there was an ongoing feud between the boys,” Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon of the Vicksburg Police Department said this morning. “I don’t think it was drug-related.”

The shooting at the stadium, across the street from the main classroom buildings, immediately grabbed the school community of 1,100 students, many of whom were headed to the stadium for extracurricular activities when the shot from the handgun rang out.

Anna Melancon, a sophomore, heard the shot, but said she thought it was a firecracker.

Even when she saw a person on the ground, she “thought it was a joke,” she said.

But reality quickly set in.

“I don’t want to go to school here,” said the student manager for the softball team who plays trombone in the school band. “You know, you never think something like this is going to happen here.”

Mims, who previously had attended Vicksburg High School, was employed by a Vicksburg roofer and had been enrolled at Hinds Community College in Utica, a cousin said.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said this morning that the arrest of Jefferson, a junior at VHS, came just 6 minutes after the initial report of the shooting. He was stopped by a deputy at Mission 66 and Main Street, where Vicksburg Police took over.

School officials and police said Jefferson’s arrest came quickly because students gave accurate descriptions.

Some of the students were around the stadium because grounds there are used for overflow parking from the school.

Football practice was delayed, but coach Alonzo Stevens said the team gathered just to talk.

“All those kids were coming off of that hill, and you know a bullet has no name,” he said.

“To think that my kids were where they were supposed to be and doing what they were supposed to be doing is very scary.”

Superintendent James Price, whose administration has focused on discipline since he took office July 1, was visibly shaken when he arrived at the stadium.

“This is truly senseless,” he said. “We cannot have children who come to school with issues that result in this level of violence.”

Mims’ family and friends gathered at his home late Wednesday afternoon.

“He loved everybody,” said Catina Stamps, one of his sisters. “If you went to a party, he was the one who made the party.”

Mims and his girlfriend of three years, Kartina Stevens, were expecting their first child in December.

“And he was really looking forward to that,” Stamps said.

She said her brother loved basketball and especially liked caring for his four pit bull dogs.

W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home is handling arrangements for O’Dare Mims.

Walter Jefferson is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.