On the evening of May 16, 2022, 49-year-old Jimmie Lee Pierce Jr. was sitting outside his home at Northwest Plaza Apartments on North West Street in Jackson when three people approached him intending to rob him. The group demanded his wallet; Pierce said he had nothing, and one of the assailants shot him twice in the chest. He was taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center but died of his injuries. Pierce was a Black male.

Investigators identified three suspects: 15-year-old LeAndrew Williams, 19-year-old Corey Hodge Jr., and 24-year-old Bonny Fields III, with Fields described as the uncle of Williams and Hodge. A family member reportedly recognized the vehicle involved and confronted the trio, and the three turned themselves in two days after the shooting. Authorities say Williams had become enraged after finding explicit text messages between his mother and Pierce, whom she was dating, and that anger allegedly motivated the confrontation and robbery attempt.

Williams and Hodge were charged with capital murder and denied bond at their initial appearance; Fields was charged as an accessory after the fact. Williams later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced in June 2025; the cases against Hodge and Fields remain pending. Anyone with information about Pierce or the shooting is asked to come forward.