Mississippi Police Donate Blood To Help Injured Officer

JACKSON, Miss. --

A Jackson police officer's condition was improving on Tuesday after being shot in the line of duty.

Police said Officer DeWayne Collier was shot twice in the side and once in the back of the head on Monday. Collier is being treated at University Medical Center.

On Tuesday, Collier's doctor said that he is now in serious condition, having been upgraded from critical condition. But the doctor said that Collier is not out of the woods yet. He will undergo more surgery on Wednesday.

Collier has been a JPD officer for six years.

JPD officers donated blood for Collier at Mississippi Blood Services on Lakeland Drive in Jackson on Tuesday.

Cornelius Black, 20, of Jackson, and Antonio Turner, 22, of Brandon, are each charged with aggravated assault of a police officer, armed carjacking, two counts of armed robbery of a business and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The incident began at about 11 a.m. on Monday, when Collier tried to pull over a gold Kia Spectrum believed to have been used during the armed robbery of Auto Title Loans earlier Monday morning, police said.

The Highway 80 business had been robbed by two armed men wearing masks, police said. No one was injured during the robbery, but the men did get away with cash.

When Collier tried to pull the car over, the driver sped off going west on Clinton Boulevard, police said. The car crashed into a ditch near the Clinton-Jackson city line.

Police said that at least one of the men got out of the car and fired shots at Collier. He was hit in the back of the head. When Collier got out of his cruiser, he was shot twice in the side, police said.

One of the men drove off in Collier's patrol car, which was found 20 minutes later in the area of Montgomery Drive and Fairchild Street. After a 90-minute manhunt, police arrested Turner and Black.

Both men have prior convictions, Mississippi Department of Corrections officials said.

Turner has car burglary and drug possession convictions, according to officials.

Black has been convicted of house burglary, officials said.

Black and Turner were being held without bond Tuesday at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond.

The public is asked to donate blood on Wednesday at Metro Center Mall on the lower level between Sears and Radio Shack between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Another blood drive will be held on Thursday at the Jackson Medical Mall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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