Father jailed in son’s shooting death

Published 12:34 pm Friday, May 27, 2011

An ongoing argument between a father and son Thursday resulted in the shooting death of the son and his father’s being charged in the homicide.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said Winifred Gene Allen, 64, 2255 Freetown Road Lot 1, was arrested Thursday evening in the death of his son, Gerald Wayne “Jerry” Allen, 36, 1626 Broadhill Drive, Vicksburg, at a home on Dillon Ridge Road.

Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said Gerald Allen was pronounced dead at the scene with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest. Pace said Winifred Allen was being held without bond in the Warren County Jail pending an initial appearance today in justice court.

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The shooting occurred at about 5:22 p.m. Thursday while Winifred Allen was visiting friends on Dillon Ridge, Pace said.

He said Allen and his son were arguing earlier in the day and had exchanged several text messages during the day. He said Winifred Allen was sitting outside with his friends when Gerald Allen drove up.

“As he stepped from his vehicle, he took three to four steps and Winifred stood up and began firing multiple shots from a 9 mm handgun,” Pace said.

He said sheriff’s deputies responding to a 911 call about a shooting on Dillon Ridge found Gerald Allen on the ground. When deputies asked about the shooting, Pace said, witnesses reportedly identified Winifred Allen as the shooter. Pace said deputies retrieved a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used in the shooting.

He said the case remains under investigation.

Gerald Allen’s death was the third shooting death in four days in Warren County and the third homicide in the county this year.

Richard A. Selby, 62, died Tuesday at his home at 4747 Bovina Cutoff Road from a gunshot wound to the chest, and Justin Tornero, 26, of Houston, died Monday from a gunshot wound to the neck that occurred in a hotel room at the Econo Lodge, 3959 E. Clay St.

Authorities have classified both of those shootings as accidents, though Daniel O’Neil Dodd, 28, Tornero’s roommate and co-worker at International Security Agency, was charged by Vicksburg police with manslaughter by culpable negligence.

District Attorney Ricky Smith said the charges against Dodd will be presented to the Warren County grand jury that meets July 25. Dodd, who is from Tyler, Texas, is out of jail on $32,000 bond.

In the two earlier killings:

• Timothy Wayne Harmon, 25, 3400 U.S. 80 Lot 4, was killed on Jan. 6. Jeremy Blake Bowlin, 18, the son of Harmon’s girlfriend, is charged with murder in Harmon’s death. He remains in the Warren County Jail without bond.

• Alicia Michelle Vega, 32, 100 Jones Road Lot 19, was killed on May 2. Her 14-year-old stepdaughter, Tyla Denise Vega, is charged with murder in her death and remains in the Warren County Jail without bond.