A Tunica County man is in custody on a variety of charges relating to a fake profile page on the social media site Facebook.

A fictitious Facebook page using the name and images of Tunica County Sheriff K.C. Hamp has been reportedly linked to Calvert Staten, 25, of Tunica. Staten was allegedly using the page to “create harrassment and fear upon the citizens of Tunica County.”

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BY John Howell

Reprinted with permission

from The Panolian

BATESVILLE – District Attorney John Champion said that the shooting that killed 15-year-old Roderick Bobo Friday night after the football game between North Panola and Rosa Fort High Schools came during a shootout between two rival groups on school grounds between the high school building and the principal’s residence.

“It was quite a busy night Friday night in Sardis,” Champion said, speaking, along with Panola Sheriff Dennis Darby,  at a Monday news conference attended by area media representatives and public officials.

“There were multiple, multiple shots fired,” the district attorney said. “There were actually two separate shootings,” he continued, on the high school grounds. “You had the initial confrontation where the shots were fired and then some probably minute to two minutes later—there was a second set of shots fired,” Champion said, describing it as a “gunfight.”

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Starting in 2009, revenue to the town of Tunica from gaming taxes has declined by nearly $1 million, a 30 percent reduction over the course of five budget years.

Town officials have slotted $2.25 million into revenue projections for the coming year, down from $3.2 million for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2009.

In the same period, however, sales taxes collected in the town of Tunica and rebated from the state have increased slightly and are on target to just miss $500,000 collected in FY 2013, depending on sales through the end of September.

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A local food pantry that once gave away canned goods only has expanded its outreach dramatically in the interim to now serve over 600 people per month.

The once-small program was begun over 20 years ago by Odessa Grant and members of the St. Peter A.M.E. Church of Tunica. First Presbyterian Church in Tunica also got involved early on, then stepped in when Mrs. Grant was unable to continue.

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