By By Sheila Blackmon/The Meridian Star
May 23, 2001
A 21-year-old Meridian woman said Tuesday she is considering legal action against the city of Livingston, Ala., after an incident in which she was shot by a Livingston police officer.
The shooting took place Sunday along Interstate 20/59 after Mignon Griffin and four friends were stopped by Livingston city police while on their way back to Meridian from a visit to an inmate in the Livingston jail.
While Livingston police declined to be interviewed on the shooting, Ashley Welborn, director of the Livingston Department of Safety, issued a press release.
According to the press release, the "discharged round struck one of the five suspects that was in the vehicle that was being stopped" at the 1-mile marker on Interstate 20/59 on the westbound side.
The Alabama Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting.
Griffin said she, the girlfriend and three other girls rode in a rented car from Meridian to the Livingston jail, where the other girls got out and began talking to the boyfriend through the chain-length fence.
She said the girlfriend handed a corrections officer a bag to give the inmate. When the women left, police followed them to Cuba, Ala., she said, where they were pulled over at about 2:30 or 3 p.m. on Interstate 20/59.
Griffin said she doesn't know which officer fired the shot. She said about four police officers were there and "the man over them."
She said the other women were arrested and one of the women who was there told her later the girlfriend "put marijuana in the bag" she gave the corrections officer. Griffin said she was told the bag held some cigarettes, a letter and a lotion bottle containing the marijuana.
The bullet entered through her neck and came out her back, she said. She was transported to Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, where she remained until Tuesday. Most of the bullet was removed. Griffin said she has a follow-up appointment next week.
Sheila Blackmon is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. Call her at 693-1551, ext. 3275, or e-mail her at sblackmon@themeridianstar.com.