An 18-year-old murder suspect was killed inside a Mississippi jail, with disturbing video later showing him motionless and covered in blood on the floor.
Mielun Butler had been booked into the Hinds County Detention Center on July 1, charged with murder in the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Melvin Edwards at Jackson’s troubled Pine Ridge Garden Apartments the previous month.
Two days after his booking, on the morning of July 3, graphic footage began spreading on social media showing someone kicking Butler as he lay limp and bloodied on the floor of the Raymond facility.
A subsequent autopsy determined that Butler died from blunt force trauma to the head, with findings indicating he had been stomped to death, WAPT reported.
“It appeared he had shoe prints all over his head,” Hinds County Coroner Jeremiah Howard told Mississippi Today.
Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones verified that the graphic video was authentic and said an unnamed detention officer assigned to patrol when the killing occurred was placed on paid leave this week as the investigation continues.
Jones turned over day-to-day control of the jail in October to Wendell France, a federally appointed receiver. A federal judge is scheduled to hold a hearing Friday to review conditions inside the facility.
Butler’s death came on the same day a Hinds County Chancery Court judge directed the sheriff’s office to release jail death records that had been withheld from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The sheriff said he believed the teenager’s killing could be gang-related.
“I think it’s no secret that some of the violence that we have been witnessing in our community has eventually spilled over into the jail,” Jones said. “We believe there may be a strong connection.”
Butler was the second man arrested and charged in connection with Edwards’ death.
Municipal Court Judge Jeffery Reynolds ordered the 18-year-old held behind bars on a $1 million bond at his initial appearance on July 2.
With Post Wires
