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Officer-involved shooting victim was a convicted sex offender

11-13-2014 Mississippi:

"We were coming outside last night and the cop that was standing over there told us to get back in. And then about 10, 15 minutes later a cop came banging on the door and told us we needed to get our kids, that there was a man over there who had a gun to his head, and SWAT was coming in, and they needed us to get our kids and get out," says Jessica Grant.

Grant lives next door to the home where 42-year old Mark Bartlett was fatally shot by a Pearl Police Officer Friday night. The officer had to use deadly force to subdue Bartlett.

Bartlett was shot in the chest after posing a threat to his wife and the officers who responded to the domestic disturbance call earlier in the evening. A bullet hole is visible in a window of the home.

The incident took place at the Highlands Mobile Home Park in Pearl.

Grant says her children play outside quite a bit, running from yard to yard. She lives in the home with her husband, children, her friend Crystal Farrar, and Farrar's children. They were forced to leave the area until the threat was gone.



"They had this whole side blocked off. They had that whole side blocked off. We were evacuated," Farrar says.

A man who lives in the mobile home on the other side of Bartlett's home, says, Bartlett had come over earlier in the evening. But he appeared to have gotten upset over a a text he had received.

The neighbor says Bartlett went home looking angry. Some time later, the neighbor tells us, he heard officers commanding Bartlett to put the gun down.

Police say he did not listen, and appeared to pose a threat. That's when he was shot.

The unexpected violence in the otherwise peaceful and friendly neighborhood has moms and dads holding their children a little closer.

"Every morning when I walked my kids to school, (Bartlett) would always (say) good morning, how are you and all of this. I've never seen any violence over there. You don't know what anybody's going to do these days," Grant says.

The couple has two children, ages 18 and four. It's unclear whether the children were inside the mobile home when the shot was fired.

WLBT/WDBD has learned that Bartlett was a convicted sex offender. He was convicted of possession of child pornography in July 2002. ..Source.. by Cheryl Lasseter

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