Man killed, officer hurt in Walmart shootout

Details on the situation that led to the officer-involved shooting of Brent Means in the Iuka Walmart Sunday night are scarce.

Means, 34, was killed by police in an exchange of gunfire inside Walmart after he ran inside the store after a traffic pursuit, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

MBI Spokesman Warren Strain said two officers from the Iuka Police Department started following Means' vehicle around 6:10 p.m. Sunday.

After a pursuit that lasted about five minutes, Means pulled into the Walmart parking lot and entered the store, Strain said.

Authorities said the man opened fire. He said the officers returned fire, and Means was killed. One officer was taken to a hospital for a minor injury and has since been released.

Both authorities and Means' friends said he had a shotgun. Strain said no bystanders were injured in the incident.

The preliminary investigation shows a conservation officer inside the store may have also been involved in the shooting, Strain said.

But Sheena Burton, a lifelong friend of Means said that his father Howard Means and Brent Means' friend Doug Matney were able to get to Walmart just after the shooting occurred.

She said Matney told her his wife ran into Means at a gas station, and that for some reason he didn't want to get out and pay for his gas and he drove off. She called her husband, who called Howard Means, and the two went to Walmart.

"But that's not in Brent's nature. I've run it in my head over and over trying to figure it out. That was not the real Brent, someone would have had to have triggered something," Burton said. "Brent did not want anyone to fight, he wanted everyone to always get along, that was his main thing. He would always say you'll be here one day and gone tomorrow. He wanted everyone to always get along."

Matney said he doesn't know what happened with Means, but that he hopes the Walmart security footage will explain more about what happened to his friend.

Burton said Means had looked out for her since her husband Chad, a close friend of his, was killed in a car accident 2008.

"I have to pray, I got on my knees last night and prayed," she said. "There's a lot of grieving on me. I'm used to him texting or calling every day, or him being here every other day. He always said how much he loved me. It's really heartbreaking."

Means, a father of three, had been sober for several months, Burton said. For the last two years on his Facebook page, he had documented his battle with sobriety, his time in rehabilitation, and his growing faith.

"He was the best person you could ever meet. You looked at his Facebook, there was always some kind of church verse or pictures with his kids," Burton said.

Means was a logger, and he drove race cars, as did his father. On his race car, he had the name and phone number of his recovery center prominently displayed. From his social media and by Burton's account, he was proud of his progress and his faith.

Burton said she saw him as late as Saturday night and nothing seemed to be wrong. She said she doesn't believe there would be any reason he would have been drinking, either.

"They can do a blood test, but even if he would have been drinking, I still don't think alcohol would have done that. I've seen Brent drunk back in the days when we all ran together, and he was a happy drunk," she said.

Strain said the state medical examiner will perform an autopsy on Tuesday, and the MBI is looking into the incident, which is routine for officer-involved shootings.