JACKSON, Miss. — One law enforcement officer was killed and three were wounded early Saturday after a six-hour standoff at a rural Mississippi house ended when authorities stormed the house and the gunman inside opened fire, authorities said.
Also killed was the man suspected of firing on the officers.
The standoff started Friday afternoon when authorities responded to a domestic dispute call at the home in rural northeastern Mississippi, authorities said.
But the man, holed up in his home with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, refused to come out, sparking a six-hour standoff with officers outside, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain.
Strain said the man wasn’t shooting at officers before they entered the house, but they had tried to talk with him for six hours and had fundamentally exhausted negotiations.
The woman and child were rescued, said Strain. But the man was killed after he allegedly opened fire as tactical teams entered the home.
Killed were James Lee Tartt, 44, who was a Mississippi narcotics agent, and suspected gunman Charles Lee Lambert, who was 45. A high-powered rifle was recovered from the house.
Tartt’s family described him as a dedicated officer who had spent most of his career battling drugs.
“He was just a really good guy, and he wanted to make the world a better place. Ever since I’ve known him, he has always been the type who would do anything to make the world a better place,” said Julia Criss Tartt, the aunt of the slain officer.
Her husband, Don Tartt, who is the slain officer’s uncle, said Lee Tartt and his wife had just moved into a new house that the officer had been building for the last two years. They had married about a year ago.
The most seriously injured officer was in critical but stable condition at a hospital in Corinth. The other two were in fair condition.
