Escaped Murder Suspect Possibly Killed

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) – Police say they’re investigating whether a man shot and killed by a Mississippi homeowner is an escaped murder suspect.

Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong tells The Associated Press he believes the man who was killed by a gunshot to the head is Rafael McCloud, but he has not been positively identified.

Armstrong says police were called around 7 a.m. in northern Vicksburg, where a homeowner told police he had been attacked by a man who broke into his garage around 4 a.m.

The homeowner was stabbed in the shoulder in an hours-long struggle, and Armstrong says he eventually shot the intruder. Exactly what unfolded during the hours-long struggle wasn’t immediately clear.

The 34-year-old McCloud escaped the Warren County jail March 2 after holding a jail officer at knifepoint.