[Editor’s note: This story first appeared in The Tunica Times in February 1995.]

Tunica Justice Court Judge R.T. Mottley, Jr. was an eyewitness to the pitched battle for the Japanese island Iwo Jima that began February 19, 1945. In 1995, Judge Mottley shared his memories of Iwo Jima with members of the Tunica Lions Club.

In 1945, Mottley was then Ensign R.T. Mottley, aboard the U.S.S. Cecil, one of a vast armada of ships that supported the Marine invasion. He remembers the preparations aboard the ship were intense.

Read more

For local police, the last phase of training with a new weapon was the worst.

After taking practice rounds at a target Monday with the new JPX Pepper Gun, four officers with the Tunica Police Department got a taste – literally – of its effects.

Sgt. Ronnie Jefferson, Sgt. Lonnie Snowden, Patrolman Jim Woolfolk and Detective Mike Nichols lightly swabbed their upper lips and noses with the syrupy liquid that the new gun emits and then put a tiny drop on their tongues. A moment later, the four were bending forward, spitting and coughing violently.

Read more

School lockdown precautionary

A local school was placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure on Jan. 15 following a discovery on campus.

A teacher at Tunica Middle School found a single round of ammunition in the boy’s bathroom just after noon and reported it to School Resource officers. Officers called in additional law enforcement and began a search of facilities with K9s and metal detectors. No weapons were recovered on the scene.

Read more

The county Board meeting on January 15 opened with five appointments on topics ranging from youth intervention to the way the coroner surrenders bodies to local funeral homes.

Housing director Mardis Jones first presented information he had gathered on the cost of building a three bedroom, two bath house for a local family. That family was approved for a $25,000 housing rehab grant, Jones had said at a prior meeting, but the grant is not sufficient to cover the extensive repairs needed for the home. Supervisors have also considering purchasing a mobile or modular home for the family instead of building.

Read more