Two jailed after shots fired into residence and sheriff’s vehicle
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David Wesley Courtney
Daniel Edward Pierce
By RUSSELL TURNER
Herald Editor
Two Greene County men are in jail facing a variety of charges after one of them fired a gun into the other’s residence and the other shot a police cruiser responding to the disturbance.
Greene County Sheriff Stanley McLeod said it was a miracle nobody was injured or killed in the Monday morning incident, including himself.
“It is hard to imagine a situation more reckless than this one,” said McLeod. “I am honestly just amazed nobody was seriously hurt or even killed.”
McLeod said his office received an emergency call from Neely resident David Wesley Courtney around 6 a.m. Monday saying he was at the residence of
Daniel Edward Pierce at Silver Dollar Circle, where he said a female acquaintance and her children were being held against their will. McLeod, who was just a couple of miles from the Pierce residence when the call was dispatched, was the first to respond.
McLeod said Courtney had told dispatchers if officers did not respond to the scene quickly, he was going to take matters into his own hands and go into the house to find the woman and children.
“I was on the scene pretty quickly, but by the time I arrived shots had been fired into the residence with the second one busting out the glass in the front storm door of the mobile home,” McLeod said. “I was unaware at the time that a shot had been fired and did not have my blue lights on. When I stepped out of the vehicle he (Pierce) shoved a gun out the hole in the glass door and fired off a shot that struck my vehicle in the front grill and hood.”
McLeod said he used the intercom on his cruiser to call out to Pierce, who came out of the house with his hands in the air. A woman and three children, ages 10-16, were inside the residence, but McLeod said they were not being held against their will.
Pierce told McLeod that Courtney had just fired two shots into his home and that he fired his weapon because he believed the sheriff was Courtney returning to continue the attack on the residence.
Moments later McLeod said he saw Courtney drive past the residence and leave Silver Dollar Circle and head toward Leakesville on Miss. 63.
“As quickly as I could make sure that nobody in the house was injured, I got into my vehicle and began pursuit of Courtney,” McLeod said. “I was trying to catch up to him, but it turned out the shot Pierce fired had hit my radiator and caused my vehicle to run hot.”
“I got a warrant for Courtney’s arrest and we picked him up at his residence later in the day.”
Courtney, 58, of 149 Courtney Drive, was booked into the Greene County Jail Monday afternoon on a felony charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. McLeod said Courtney denies firing any shots.
Pierce, 39, was also arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and malicious mischief.
McLeod said he confiscated the .9-mm handgun Pierce had fired. He said ballistics tests will be done to determine the caliber of the gun used to shoot into the residence.
“It’s crazy,” McLeod added. “A man calls police to say he is concerned about the welfare of a woman and her children and then goes to the residence where they are staying and fires a weapon into it.”
“Then the homeowner, a convicted felon who isn’t supposed to have a weapon of that type, blindly fires a weapon at a vehicle, not knowing who he is shooting at. Once again, it is a miracle nobody was killed.”
Both men were in Greene County Justice Court Tuesday afternoon for initial appearances on their charges. Courtney was placed under a $5,000 bond a
