Mississippi deputy is wounded during gunfire exchange with a man suspected in an earlier killing

MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi sheriff’s deputy was shot and wounded Friday during an exchange of gunfire with a man who was suspected of killing another person hours earlier, the state Department of Public Safety said.

The man accused in the killing and in the wounding of the Lauderdale County deputy was arrested, and the deputy was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, the department said in a statement.

Sheriff Billy Sollie told news outlets that Terrell Adam Melillo, 25, was charged in the shooting death of Johnathan Ray Parker, 31. Sollie said a 27-year-old woman who was in the home with Parker was also shot and wounded, and she was taken to a hospital.

The Lauderdale County jail docket showed Melillo was charged with one count of murder and one count of aggravated domestic violence, as of Friday evening. The docket did not show whether he is represented by an attorney.

Coroner Clayton Cobler said one person died after being shot several times late Thursday or early Friday at a home in Meridian.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is examining the shooting of the deputy, as it does with all shootings involving law enforcement officers in the state.