Police: Brawl near Moss Point church involved 20+ teens, left two injured via gunshot

MOSS POINT, Miss. (WLOX) – Moss Point Police Chief Brandon Ashley said two teenagers were shot around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning at the corner of Magnolia Street and Davis Street.

Chief Ashley said the shooting happened during a brawl involving a large group of teens.

The chief said some of the bullets hit a nearby church.

“With the amount of shots fired, we’re lucky we don’t have multiple homicides,” Ashley said.

Police stopped four cars speeding away from the scene. Investigators have at least 11 teens — all between the ages of 15 and 17 — detained for questioning and 11 cellphones to process. Over 20 juveniles were involved.

The two teens who were injured were shot in the legs. Their injuries are considered non-life threatening.

45 shell casings were recovered at the corner of the church’s parking lot. Police believe at least four different weapons were fired, including a high-powered rifle using 5.56 ammunition.

“It’s a miracle we don’t have anyone dead,” Chief Ashley said.

The city of Moss Point has a weekday curfew of 10 p.m. Chief Ashley says on top of the 20 teens being out past curfew, none of them were from Moss Point.

“Not one,” he said. “And that kind of questions why are they in Moss Point doing this and why they ended up here. Not one of them actually lives here.”

“The question is when it becomes 10, 11 o’clock at night, the parents ought to be wondering, ‘Where is my child?’ If they aren’t in the house, they ought to be concerned about that,” said Mayor Billy Knight. “It’s one of those things that if the parents don’t know where they are, these are the kinds of things that happen.”