Vicksburg Fire Department medical personnel and volunteers, above, move Warren County Deputy Sheriff Mike Hollingsworth to an ambulance as witnesses comfort one another after the deputy was struck by a speeding vehicle on U.S. 80 Monday.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[2/10/04]The driver of a car that struck a Warren County deputy sheriff Monday was expected to be charged today with aggravated assault on a police officer.

Deputy Sheriff Mike Hollingsworth, 38, remained at University Medical Center this morning listed in critical, but stable condition. Reports were that his injuries were extensive and that he has not regained consciousness since being struck while directing a funeral procession into the entrance of Green Acres Memorial Park on U.S. 80.

“At this point, I’m not calling it an accident,” said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace as the investigation started. “I’m calling it an incident.”

Sources identified the driver as Robert Vaughn, 23, of Vicksburg, his name confirmed through fingerprints. The driver had no identification and has not cooperated with investigators, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, which is handling the case.

Hollingsworth and Vaughn were both initially taken to River Region Medical Center. While Hollingsworth was transferred to the state’s only Level One trauma center, Vaughn was treated and released to the custody of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol and taken to the Hinds County Detention Center.

“This is the most serious injury that has occurred to a deputy since I’ve been in office,” said Pace, who has been sheriff since 1996.

Vaughn’s initial appearance in a Warren County court was expected today. Hollingsworth was on a state highway outside Vicksburg when hit and, because he is law officer, the state has taken over the case.

Records show Vaughn is on probation from a 1999 felony charge of shooting into an occupied dwelling and is under the supervision of Jack Hollingsworth, who is a parole officer and is Mike Hollingsworth’s father. Vaughn is also currently charged with a Sept. 16, 2003, armed robbery, and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department was the arresting agency.

The entrance to Green Acres is about 200 yards east of Glenwood Funeral Home and the deputy was attempting to halt traffic as mourners made the short trip on the two-lane highway.

Family members in the procession said Hollingsworth was motioning to stop the brown Buick sedan. It was eastbound and struck him after it sped around the procession, they said. The deputy flew over the hood of a pickup truck that was turning into the cemetery.

“It was horrible,” said Lorraine Ghrigsby, who was still shaking an hour later. “I thought, Surely, God, he’s going to stop,'” she said of the driver.

Other witnesses stood by and cried.

The Rev. Gene Jacks, also attending the funeral, said the Buick went into the left-hand lane and then veered back into the right-hand lane. “He must have put it on the floor because his tires were spinning,” Jacks said.

After hitting Hollingsworth, the Buick veered between the patrol car parked sideways in the highway and the pickup. Neither vehicle was hit.

Kevin Jones, the first person to reach Hollingsworth, said the deputy’s head and shoulders showed injuries and he was having a hard time breathing. Jones, trained as a first responder by Nissan, said Hollingsworth was unconscious and remained unconscious as he was taken from the scene.

Ghrigsby said the driver of the Buick made no attempt to stop. She and other witnesses said the sedan spun out of control after striking the deputy, then came to rest in a nearby ravine. Justine Boler, a passenger in the pickup at the cemetery entrance, said the driver was able to walk out of the ravine and spoke before collapsing.

“He came out of the hole talking about running away,” Boler said.

Other witnesses said that two teenage boys there told the driver that he wasn’t going anywhere. They said that the driver collapsed on the ground and remained conscious, but said nothing else.

Authorities said Vaughn was combative at the hospital and had to be sedated. They said he refused to give his name or voluntarily give fingerprints.

Hollingsworth, a 10-year veteran of law enforcement, has been with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department since August 2002. Before then, he was a parole officer with the Mississippi Department of Corrections and had been with the Clinton Police Department. He is married and has two children, a 16-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter.

If convicted of assault on a police officer, Vaughn could be sentenced to 30 years in prison.