MS Officer Wounded in Rifle Ambush, Suspect in Custody

A Jackson, MS, police officer was shot and wounded Thursday while he and other officers were inspecting an abandoned car that reportedly drove away from a traffic stop.

Police say the suspect opened fire on the officers from the porch of a vacant house. One officer was hit. The officers returned fire, WAPT reports.

Officer Alan Mayes was wounded in the attack. He was rushed to the University of Mississippi Medical Center for surgery, according to Jackson Police Department Chief James Davis. Mayes is reportedly in stable condition.

“I thank God that (Mayes) is alive today. Because the driver door where he was sitting, the passenger door he was sitting in, received about 30 gunshots from an assault rifle,” Davis said.

The suspect, Nathaniel Garner, surrendered Thursday night at a church. Garner was accompanied by his mother, a pastor and an attorney, police officials said.