Jackson County sheriff’s officials said a recent shooting was gang-related, but it turned out to be fueled by a disagreement between two rival rap groups, an investigator said.

“From what we’ve been able to determine, they have no formal affiliation with any local or national street gang,” Jackson County Investigator Jason Pharez told the Sun Herald. “This is basically two competing rap groups, if you will. None of them claim gang affiliation and we can’t find any definite proof there was any underlying criminal activity.”

The April 18 shooting led to eight arrests — five of whom were former football standouts at St. Martin High School .

The Sun Herald reached to find out more about the case after reviewing court papers where the attorneys for the alleged offenders say they are not gang members.

Instead, the suspects are members or friends of two rival rap groups — one known as Fu Fam and the other called Ban Runna Gang, aka BRG.

The shooting happened, Pharez said, after the rappers got into an argument over lyrics in some of the music when they met up to try to hash it out.

The shooting started, the investigator said, after some of the members instigated an argument that escalated until shots were fired from different vehicles.

“All of these guys went to school together and most played football or basketball together,” Pharez said. “They had hung out with each other ….before this.”

The shooting happened near McClellan Road off Washington Avenue in St. Martin.

Two of the suspects, Jimon Dixon and Quincy Brown, were shot and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Those arrested and their charges are:

• Dixon, 21, of Pascagoula, and a former football player at St. Martin High School, charged with armed carjacking, aggravated assault and shooting into a motor vehicle.
• Tyler Polk, 22, of Biloxi, and a former St. Martin quarterback who now plays college football in Arkansas, charged with aggravated assault and shooting into motor vehicle.
• Jayce Franklin, 20, of St. James Parish in Louisiana, and a former St. Martin football and basketball player, charged with aggravated assault and shooting into a motor vehicle.
• Jo’Vawn ‘Ham’ McGee, 19, of Gulfport, and a former star running back at St. Martin, charged with aggravated assault and shooting into a motor vehicle.
• Keni “Ham” Williams, 19, of Biloxi, and a former star running back at St. Martin, charged aggravated assault and shooting into a motor vehicle.
• Quincy Brown, 20, of Pascagoula, charged with aggravated assault, armed carjacking and shooting at a motor vehicle.
• Cedric Porter, 20, of Ocean Springs,charged with aggravated assault and shooting into a motor vehicle.
• Jalin Stallworth, 20, of Moss Point, charged with aggravated assault and shooting at a motor vehicle. He was previously arrested on charge of aggravated assault in Moss Point.

Since the shooting and arrests that followed, members of the group, BRG, have created a new video that addresses their arrests.

Margaret Baker is an investigative reporter whose search for truth exposed corrupt sheriffs, a police chief and various jailers and led to the first prosecution of a federal hate crime for the murder of a transgendered person. She worked on the Sun Herald’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Hurricane Katrina team. When she pursues a big story, she is relentless.

North Carolina man charged for bringing assault weapon, body armor to Coast Guard site

Updated: 1:46 PM EST Jan 11, 2020

A North Carolina man has been charged with trying to bring an assault weapon, body armor and hollow-point bullets into a U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in New Jersey.Dustin A. Peters, 25, of Wilmington, went to the facility in Cape May to attend a graduation ceremony o Thursday, authorities said. The bullets were found during a routine vehicle search, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. Authorities later found the assault weapon, a handgun, body armor and many rounds of ammunition, the statement said.Click the video player above to see headlines from WXII 12 News.The Coast Guard said it did not consider Peters a threat to the center or the local community. The FBI was assisting in the case.
Peters was charged with a variety of weapons and other offenses. He was being held Friday at the Cape May County Jail pending a court hearing. It was not immediately clear if he was represented by an attorney.

Federal Labor MP Michael Danby charged taxpayers almost $15,000 for flights and other expenses linked to six trips to sunny Queensland with his wife over several years, Fairfax Media can reveal.

On three of those trips – with expenditure totalling nearly $7500 – Mr Danby conducted no parliamentary business at all but still used public money for flights, Commonwealth limousines and taxis.

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MP attacks journalist using taxpayer money

MP attacks journalist using taxpayer money

Labor MP Michael Danby takes out two ads criticising the ABC, singling out Sophie McNeill’s coverage of Israel and Palestine.

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MP attacks journalist using taxpayer money

Labor MP Michael Danby takes out two ads criticising the ABC, singling out Sophie McNeill’s coverage of Israel and Palestine.

The Labor MP, who holds the marginal inner-city seat of Melbourne Ports, said he reimbursed the Commonwealth last year for those three trips after auditing his own expenses.

On another three trips to the Gold Coast, which remain on the public purse, Mr Danby cited official business such as attending union functions, meeting a former Queensland Labor colleague and addressing a community group. The trips lasted four to six days, and Mr Danby paid for the accommodation and meals on all of them. Taxpayers paid for Mr Danby’s wife, lawyer Amanda Mendes Da Costa, to accompany him, which a spokesman said was in accordance with the rules.

In October 2009, Mr Danby flew to Brisbane with his wife for an opening ceremony and meetings with Con Sciacca, a former Labor MP voted out of Parliament five years earlier. Six days later, they flew out of the Gold Coast back to Melbourne. The total cost of transport was $2275.20.

The following year, he swapped Melbourne’s winter for a work-free week on the Gold Coast with family, at a cost of $1989.33. Mr Danby’s office said those charges have now been repaid.

Mr Danby said his February 2011 Gold Coast sojourn was primarily to meet again with Mr Sciacca, and also to attend the Australian Workers Union’s 125th anniversary party in Broadbeach, where he remained for four days. He returned to the Gold Coast six months later to speak at a Jewish community dinner and protest the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, also on the taxpayers’ dollar.

In July 2012, Mr Danby spent a week in Cairns, charging taxpayers $3363.96 for flights, cars and his wife’s travel. He returned to the Gold Coast in January 2015, spending another $2000. Neither of these trips involved any parliamentary business and Mr Danby says he has now reimbursed the public for them.

He said the taxpayer charges resulted from errors made by his office, because he used the same booking agent for personal and business travel. But the errors remained on the system for up to seven years, until Mr Danby was spooked by the expenses scandal that brought down former health minister Sussan Ley in January 2017.

“Politicians had been castigated for incorrect use of travel and, like a lot of MPs, Michael wanted to be satisfied that the processes in his own office were faultless,” a spokesman explained. He said Mr Danby’s wife travelled with him in accordance with the rules.

Mr Danby is a backbencher from Melbourne and has never held a senior role during his 20 years in federal Parliament. He was briefly parliamentary secretary for the arts during Kevin Rudd’s 2013 resurrection, and also served in shadow parliamentary secretary roles from 2013 to 2016. He is a key ally of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and major player in the Victorian ALP’s Right faction.

It appears Mr Danby’s Queensland travel ceased after the Gold Coast trip of January 2015. In July of that year, the former Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop was publicly shamed and later forced to step down as Speaker after it was revealed she took a taxpayer-funded helicopter flight to a party fundraiser.

However, as recently as September, Mr Danby used $4574 of taxpayers’ money to design and book two advertisements in the Australian Jewish News criticising the work of ABC journalist Sophie McNeill. Mr Shorten was reportedly “deeply unimpressed” about the MP’s actions.

It was also revealed Mr Danby took a week’s sick leave shortly after the 2016 election, while Parliament was sitting, and spent the time travelling in Israel. His wife, Ms Da Costa, was recently appointed to a lucrative taxpayer-funded role on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. There is no suggestion Ms Da Costa’s appointment was influenced by Mr Danby’s position.