HEIDELBERG, Miss. – In an incident that has stirred both local concern and debate, one of the monkeys that escaped after a truck accident on a Mississippi road was fatally shot by a homeowner early Sunday. The woman, Jessica Bond Ferguson, reported taking this action out of fear for her children’s safety.

Ferguson, who resides near Heidelberg, Mississippi, was alerted by her 16-year-old son early in the morning. He claimed to have seen a monkey roaming in their yard. Responding swiftly, Ferguson armed herself with a firearm and cellphone before heading outside. She soon spotted the monkey roughly 60 feet away from her.

Residents, including Ferguson, had been cautioned about the potential diseases carried by the escaped monkeys. This warning prompted her to take action. “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Ferguson explained to The Associated Press. As a mother of five children ranging from ages 4 to 16, she felt compelled to act decisively. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell,” she recounted.

Following the incident, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed via social media that a homeowner had encountered one of the monkeys that morning. However, they refrained from providing additional details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks has since taken custody of the monkey.

The Rhesus monkeys involved were previously housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. This facility regularly supplies primates for scientific research. Tulane University clarified in a statement that the monkeys were not owned by the university nor were they being transported by it at the time of the escape.

The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement, Tulane University said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.