MCCOMB – A security guard shot and killed a knife-wielding man from Kokomo who attacked two of his relatives at the McComb Social Security office this morning, prompting the facility to go on lockdown and close for the rest of the day amid a heavy police presence.
Branen Austin Carter reportedly entered the office around 11 and stabbed his mother, Lee Anna Turnage, and grandmother Ann Carter.
Carter and Turnage were taken to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, where they were listed in stable condition. Turnage was being transferred to another hospital, but which one is not known.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Robert Sperling said the attack occurred in the lobby of the building off of Parklane Road.
Pike County Sheriff Kenny Cotton said officers on the scene told him that the attacker was from Marion County.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office in January 2017 had arrested Carter, who was 20 at the time, and charged him with statutory rape and sexual battery. He pleaded guilty in May 2017 to a reduced charge of simply assault, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence.
Two witnesses who were in the office during the attack told a family member that a white male in the lobby of the building got into an argument with a woman, apparently his mother, and stabbed her. He also reportedly stabbed another woman before a security guard shot the man.
Police, including some officers armed with long guns, descended on the office around 11 a.m.
Ambulances took at least three people away from the building.
Law enforcement officers blocking the entrance to the facility could be heard telling numerous people trying to go to the office that it would likely remain closed for the rest of the day.
The Federal Protective Service, McComb Police Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are investigating the matter.
