The Latest: Funeral held for slain Mississippi trooper

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. – The Latest on funerals of law enforcement officers in Mississippi (all times local):

6:45 p.m.

Colleagues are remembering a slain Mississippi trooper as a brave man who loved family and enjoyed laughing at jokes.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports about 1,000 people attended a funeral Thursday in Corinth for 32-year-old Kenneth “Josh” Smith, a corporal in the Mississippi Highway Patrol. He was shot to death while off duty early Sunday, and a man is charged with capital murder.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant urged mourners to take care of Smith’s widow and their two children.

A Highway Patrol colleague, Cpl. Gary Stanton, said the patrol uniform gave Smith “authority,” but Smith already had courage.

Smith’s was the third funeral for a Mississippi law enforcement officer in two days. The others Wednesday and Thursday were for Brookhaven police officers shot to death on duty early Saturday.

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1:10 p.m.

A south Mississippi police chief says a mortally wounded officer called out with his dying breath: “Brookhaven, I’m going down” after he was shot over the weekend.

Brookhaven Chief Kenneth Collins spoke Thursday at the funeral of 31-year-old Cpl. Zach Moak. It was the second funeral in as many days for police officers killed on duty in the city of 12,000.

Moak and 35-year-old officer James White were shot to death early Saturday while responding to reports of shots fired at a home. Collins says Moak was shot while trying to save White and sent his final words by police radio.

A funeral for another law enforcement officer was being held Thursday in north Mississippi. A 32-year-old state trooper, Kenneth “Josh” Smith, was shot to death early Sunday while off-duty.