sister of a man wanted in the Christmas Day slaying of Zedrick Maurice Warner at a family gathering in Jackson said Tuesday her family fears retaliation.
Police say they believe 31-year-old Saheed Davis shot Warner, 39, who was the brother-in-law of Davis’ girlfriend, multiple times outside a relative’s house on Roosevelt Street Christmas evening. Police had issued an arrest warrant for Davis but had not captured him as of late Tuesday.“The word on the street is (Warner’s associates) are going to kill our father,” said Davis’ sister, Shanna Ratliff. “I don’t know why. He had nothing to do with it.”Warner’s widow, LaToya Warner, said she, her children and her family watched Christmas night as Davis gunned down her husband. She said the two had gotten into an argument.“Instead of Saheed handling the situation like a man, he reverted to being a coward,” she told The Clarion-Ledger the day after Warner’s death. “He killed him stone cold.”Ratliff said there has been an ongoing feud between Warner and her brother, though she doesn’t know what started it. Ratliff also said she spoke to her brother the night of the fatal shooting.“Saheed told me Maurice came up into the house and slapped him. He slapped my brother in front of the family,” she said. “I feel for (Warner’s) family, but I don’t think his wife should be calling my brother a coward. To me, he handled the situation like he was supposed to handle it. He handled it like a man. Knowing Maurice’s background, it was kill or be killed.”Warner was a reputed member of the Wood Street Players street gang -though his family denies it - and was a co-defendant in a high-profile 2006 murder trial in which he was accused of killing Carey “Little Man” Bias in 2003. Warner and his fellow defendants - Vidal Sullivan and Anthony Staffney - were acquitted after a key witness changed his testimony. LaToya Warner said she and her husband had moved past that “trying time.”Warner also was a protege of Mayor Frank Melton, who said he first met Warner when Warner was a teenager.During a news conference Tuesday on crime in Jackson, the mayor referred to Warner’s homicide. He said Warner had sold drugs but that he didn’t believe Warner had been dealing in recent years.Warner was never charged in Hinds County with a drug offense.“Hell, no. He was not a drug dealer. He worked,” Marlon Warner, who works in the mayor’s office, said of his brother. “He had his lawn-care business and he did side jobs. He always made sure he made money to take care of his kids.”
Melton also said he is leaning on Jackson police to arrest Davis.“I not only want him, I want the person who is harboring him,” Melton said.The mayor would not say who he thought was shielding Davis from arrest.Deputy Chief Gerald Jones said investigators did not know whether someone is hiding Davis or whether he is moving around the area to avoid capture.The Police Department has requested assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, Jones said.