A Sunflower County, Miss., woman could lose custody rights to her children nearly a year after an Indianola police officer shot her then-11-year-old son, Aderrien Murry, in the chest at the family’s home in May 2023. In court filings, Sunflower County Prosecuting Attorney Gwendolyn Jimison cited the shooting while accusing Nakala Murry of neglecting her three children.
“To have to even think of losing her kids at this point over something that is not her fault is just unbelievable. It’s outlandish,” Nakala Murry’s attorney Carlos Moore told the Mississippi Free Press on Thursday.
I assumed she was losing custody as a result of the difficulties of caring for his medical needs as a single parent. But no, it’s because they say she failed to protect her kids from her abuser. Yet when she called for help, what happened? It’s the experience of most abused women that there is no help. And worse, that the systems designed to help do more harm. That’s certainly the case here.
Plus putting the kid in foster care is liable to expose him to more abuse and neglect. We are in hell, truly.