JACKSON, Miss. — An investigation into five shootings that occurred in Mississippi between 2021 and 2023 has concluded that law enforcement officers acted appropriately in using force, as stated by the state’s Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, on Monday.

According to Fitch, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation conducted a thorough review of each incident, and the findings were subsequently assessed by the Attorney General’s office. The incidents included a particularly tense confrontation involving an escaped inmate, Dylan Arrington, which took place on April 26, 2023.

On that date, Leake County Sheriff Randy Atkinson, along with three deputies, four agents from the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and a ranger from the National Park Service, were engaged in a standoff with Arrington. The 22-year-old had made his escape from Hinds County jail and subsequently barricaded himself inside a residence in the Conway area, located approximately 70 miles northeast of the jail. During the standoff, Arrington reportedly set the house ablaze while exchanging gunfire with officers, and his remains were later discovered in the wreckage.

Attorney General Fitch detailed the other four incidents, which included a shooting that occurred on November 17, 2021, in Waynesboro involving two officers from the Waynesboro Police Department. Another shooting on April 17, 2022, took place in Horn Lake, involving an agent from the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department. Additionally, on March 22, 2023, a detective from the Southaven Police Department was involved in a shooting, followed by another incident on May 23, 2023, where two deputies from the Marion County Sheriff’s Department were involved in a separate shooting in Columbia.