Officer Responding To Fatal Shooting Shockingly Finds Out Victim Was Her Own Son

A Mississippi police officer responding to a report of a shooting over the weekend was shocked to find her own son lying dead in the middle of the street with a gunshot wound to the head.

At around 2 am on Sunday, Jan. 2, Officer Laquandia Cooley, with the Hazlehurst Police Department, was working the night shift when she received an alert about a body on Larkin Street.

The 42-year-old officer did not know that she was about to walk into her worst nightmare.

"We initially responded to the call not knowing, when I made it over there, the person was going to be my son that was laying there," Officer Laquandia Cooley told NBC affiliate WLBT.

By the time Cooley responded to the scene, her son, Charles Stewart Jr, had already succumbed to his injuries. The 20-year-old victim was shot in the head and was found lying in a pool of his own blood in the middle of the street.

"As we get out, I look and I was like, 'This is my son, this is my son,'" Cooley said. "So I literally just go into a breakdown, you know? Like, why? Who would do this to my son?"

"I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing. I was seeing my own son laying there on the ground dead. It was pretty much a panic. It was just, it was too much," Cooley said.

The devastated mother then called her son's father, Charles Stewart, telling him: 'someone killed our baby.'

Charles said his son was a good person who got along with everyone, adding that he does not know who would do that to his baby.

"It’s traumatizing for the whole family. We’re just trying to cope day to day," he said. "Just trying to figure out why this happened and who could have did this."

Stewart Jr. is survived by his parents, an older sister, who had just turned 22 last week, and a 17-year-old brother.

"I’m lost," the victim’s sister, Destinequa Hilliard, wrote in a Facebook post.

"How can anybody live after losing a sibling. I’m trying to be the strong one but I’m getting weak I’ll never be able to see my brother again who ever did this is wrong why lord why."

Confirming the incident, Police Chief Darian Murray said the case will be handed over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation because it involves an officer’s family member.

It remained unclear what led to the shooting or whether an arrest had been made.