On January 6, 1989, Verona, Mississippi Police Chief Billy Wilson Yant, 50, was shot and killed while preparing to serve a warrant for threatening phone calls. He had arranged to meet deputies from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at the suspect’s residence. When the suspect and his wife drove away, Chief Yant stopped their pickup in the parking lot of the Verona Christian Church. As he was exiting his patrol car, a passenger opened fire. Chief Yant returned fire after being wounded but collapsed; the assailant then stood over him and shot him a total of 13 times with a .30 caliber carbine rifle.

Both the male suspect and his wife were apprehended and charged with capital murder. The male suspect later died by suicide while in jail; the wife was deported to Laos. Chief Yant, a U.S. Air Force veteran, had served the Verona Police Department for 12 years and was survived by his wife, children, and a twin sister.

Does anyone have memories of Chief Yant or information about the events in Verona that day?