Four gunmen opened fire at the home of a candidate running for the Mississippi House of Representatives just after midnight Saturday, police say.
Tamarra Grace Butler-Washington, who is running for Mississippi House District 69, was in her home on Royal Oaks Drive in Jackson when the bullets came flying, WAPT reported, citing interim police Chief Joseph Wade. The brick walls of the house reportedly stopped some of the bullets, but when Butler-Washington attempted to look through a window, a bullet pierced through the glass and narrowly missed her as it flew through her bar, her garage and one of her campaign signs, the outlet continued.
“I instantly just fell out of the chair and began to crawl on the floor,” Butler-Washington told WAPT. (RELATED: ‘That Was My Instinct’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Grabbed Her Gun During ‘Swatting’ Incident)
“I just fell to the floor and began to crawl to the back of my house,” Tamarra Grace Butler-Washington said. https://t.co/eMC4LBnIhB
— WOKV News (@WOKVNews) August 7, 2023
WAPT shared footage from the neighborhood’s surveillance system showing the accused assailants and the bursts of gunfire coming from their firearms.
“Hearing it was terrifying, but seeing it, and all of the bullets, and all of the gunfire, it just sent chills down my spine. It’s a feeling that I’ve never felt,” Butler-Washington told the outlet.
“What really bothered me, to see that they were young men, you know, they were teenaged, they all looked young,” Butler-Washington continued, adding that she had no reason to believe she or her family would be a target.
“Today, still a little shaken, but I thank God that no one was hurt, I thank God that we were covered. My son slept through the entire ordeal, which is such a blessing, because things of such nature, it traumatizes children, it traumatizes adults,” she told the outlet.
Butler-Washington, a Democrat, is vying for the seat being vacated by Democratic state Rep. Alyce Clark. Butler-Washington replaced the late Sen. Alice Harden, her aunt, who had served in the Mississippi senate for nearly 25 years.