The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1907-12-11
POLICEMAN MCCORMICK KILLED.
Shot in the Engstrom Addition Last
Night by Negro He Had
Arrested.

Night Police man R. E. McCor-
mick, of this city, was killed early
last night in the Engstrom Addi-
Ntion, negro section of the city,
just east of Rose Hill Cemetery,
by a negro he had gone to arrest.
The negro who did the shooting is
said to 60 BY the name of Coot
Ortman or Artman, and came to
town from the Railroad Camp of
the Great Northern Railroad,
somewhere in the neighborhood
of Smiths Ferry.
According to the best informa-
tion current this morning, Coot
Ortman, who is young negro
about % or "a, came to town to
carry back bright mulatto
woman named Pearl Handy, who
is alleged to be the paramour of
a white man on Pearl River, and
who had been temporarily entic-
ed to Brookhaven by a nergo
named Ed. Jones. Jones learned
the mission of Ortman early in
the night and found him with the
woman in a house in the Engstrom
Addition. When Jones interpos-
ed objection to his carrying the
woman off, he raised a rough
house" and threatened to shoot
him. Ed. Jones then came to
town after an officer, found Police
man McCormoick and explained
the situation and requested him to
60 out and arrest Ortman. He
went along with Jones and found
Ortman and the woman coming
out of the house of a negro woman
named Lucy James. Policeman
Mccormick arrested Ortman just
outside the door and told him he
must go to Jail, the negro saying
all right and offering no resist
ance. but he did not disarm him,
and the next instant Ortman had
jerked out pistol, fired one
chamber into the policeman's
breast and ran.
Policeman Mccormick, mortal.
ly wounded by the bullet which
passed through or near his heart,
fired three or four shots at the
retreating negro, then turned and
fell at the gate near the stems.
This is the account of the shoot
ing given at the jail this morning
by Ed. Jones and Pearl Handy.
Up to the hour The Leaders,
forms closed at - O'Clock Coot
Ortman had escaped arrest and no
satisfactory clue gained of his
whereabouts. Very soon after
the killing last night Sheriff APP
-pleWhite, with a posse, was scour-
ing every place where there was
any hope of locating him, and the
Sheriff secured a special train and
went himself out to Smiths Ferry
in the hope of intercepting him,
but In vain.
On yesterday, F. B. Noodles
Hardware Store delivered a 80
Smith and Wesson special and
some cartridges to a negro on the
order of j. d. Holloway, a rail
road boss, who is engaged on the
Great Northern near Smith IS
Ferry, but whether this was the
same negro who shot Policeman
Mccormick is yet uncertain, as
the names do not correspond.
Policeman Mccormick had been
on the BrookhaVen night force
about three years, and was known
as a man who tried to do his Off
cial duty faithfully. He came
here from the vicinity of Union
Church, Jefferson county, and
leaves a wife and five or six chill.
dren, who have the profound sym
pathy of the whole community in
their sudden bereavement.
The lesson of this sad tragedy
and others occurring daily in
various parts of the country is.
that officers cannot afford to take
undue chances when they 60 to
arrest armed negroes.