On the evening of Saturday, August 13, 2005, Crystal Springs Police Officer Timothy Lee Webster, 32, was killed after a vehicle stop on Jackson Street. Webster, a U.S. Army veteran who had been with the Crystal Springs Police Department for two months, chased a male occupant who fled on foot to Kendall Lane. During a struggle the suspect, identified as Christopher Bridges, gained control of Webster’s service weapon and fired one shot that struck Webster above his bullet-resistant vest; the wound proved fatal.

Bridges fled the scene but was captured the next day. Authorities later arrested Bridges’ mother and another woman on charges of aiding a fugitive for helping to conceal him. Bridges was tried in Copiah County on a capital murder charge; after a jury convicted him he pleaded guilty on October 4, 2007, and received life in prison without parole to avoid a possible death sentence.

If anyone knew Officer Webster or has information about the events that night, please come forward.