A Mother Searches for Answers

Two Jackson County sheriff’s deputies are on administrative leave and one 23-year-old man is dead following an officer involved shooting in St. Martin this morning. News 25’s Kristen Durand was on the scene today as the mother of the man shot searched for answers.
Sherry Bowman begs for answers after finding out her son, 23-year-old Christian Bowman, is dead following an officer involved shooting at a Ramada hotel in St. Martin. “All I know is that I see my son’s blood on this door now and he’s going to Jackson for three days. I didn’t even get to see him, kiss him, nothing before they took my baby.”
This all happened nearly one year after losing another son to cancer and just one day after hearing from Christian on Mother’s Day. “When he answered the phone, he said, ‘hey beautiful.’ That’s the last words that my son said to me.”
According to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, deputies were responding to a call of possible drug activity shortly after 1 a.m. They were met with Bowman who they say was aggressively combative toward the officer, but a long-time friend of Bowman, who does not want to be identified, tells News 25 he was in the room at the time and tells a different story. He admits that after a night of partying and no sleep for several days, the two men were asleep in the room and Christian was incoherent and dazed when the officers arrived. “He said, ‘get out of the way’ and he shot him and he shot him point blank and he murdered him in cold blood and he didn’t have no weapon, he didn’t have nothing. He didn’t do nothing to deserve that,” said the witness.
He says he remembers pleading with the officers to spare Christian’s life. “’Please, please, stop hurting him. Please, he’s not resisting and he’s not trying to get away, he’s not trying to do nothing.’ The cop took his pistol out and commenced to beating him in the face with it.”
Sheriff Mike Ezell said, “We deeply regret this happened but I can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.”
Right now, as Christian’s body is in Jackson pending an autopsy, all Sherry Bowman has left of her son is the few personal belongings she was able to grab from the hotel room. What’s worse is how is she going to explain Christian’s death to his five-year-old son? “We can’t tell him who did it. How do you tell your grandson that an officer of the law killed his daddy? Can’t do it because he would never trust them” said Sherry Bowman.