What Happened

At about 11 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, a Jackson County Sheriff's Office deputy responded to a disturbance call at the Reserve at Gulf Hills Apartments on Washington Avenue, in the St. Martin area near Ocean Springs, Mississippi, according to WLOX.

WLOX reported that the deputy had a brief foot pursuit with a woman, and the two exchanged gunfire. The deputy was taken to Ocean Springs Hospital, where he died. The woman also died. No other deputies were hurt, according to WLOX. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is investigating.

Deputy Michael Jimerson, 61, who began with the sheriff's office as a reserve deputy in 2010 and was hired full-time in 2014, was killed. Sheriff John Ledbetter said, "Deputy Jimerson was a valued member of our law enforcement family and a trusted friend to many. His loss is deeply felt," according to WLOX and Action News 5. He is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter and three grandchildren.

What is not public: where the deputy was hit, whether other units were already on scene, how long it took for help to reach him, what aid was given, and how he was transported. We are not assuming anything about the care he received.

The Lesson

This is a general principle, not a finding about this response.

A foot pursuit pulls an officer away from the patrol car, the partner and the trauma kit in the trunk. If an officer is hit at the end of a chase, the gear on his body and the words on his radio are what matter most in the first minutes. C-TECC's TECC Guidance puts the first priorities in Direct Threat Care as dealing with the threat, getting to safety, and "managing massive hemorrhage utilizing tourniquets."

The Joint Trauma System's Damage Control Resuscitation CPG states that "hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death on the battlefield." That is military guidance, and civilian law enforcement works under different conditions. The point still carries over: bleeding control has to start before the ambulance arrives, and it usually starts with whoever is closest.

Night calls at apartment complexes add their own problems. Building numbers can be hard to read, parking lots have more than one entrance, and responding units and EMS may not know which walkway a pursuit went down. A precise location on the radio is part of the medical response.

What Your Agency Should Do Now

  • Put a tourniquet on the duty belt or vest, not only in the car, so it is still with the officer at the end of a foot pursuit.
  • Pre-plan large apartment complexes in your area: gate codes, building maps and a named EMS staging point, shared with dispatch.
  • Run night drills that end with a wounded officer away from the car, and have the next arriving officers find, treat and move him.
  • Practice the radio call for an officer shot during a pursuit: last known direction, landmark and threat status.

Sources