Volleyball player from Georgia injured in shooting

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Posted 6:39AM on Tuesday, January 28, 2003

ITTA BENA, MISSISSIPPI - A nightclub security guard was jailed Monday following a shooting at the Delta nightspot that left one man dead and three wounded, including two Mississippi Valley State University athletes. Basketball player Michael Archie of Greenwood and volleyball player Danielle France of Decatur Ga., were wounded about 1 a.m. Sunday at the Club Focus on U.S. 82 in Lefore County. Archie, 20, was hit in the side by a stray bullet as he tried to leave the club, authorities said. The bullet caused a spinal cord injury that has apparently paralyzed Archie from the waist down, according to his mother, Carol Archie. Archie, a starter on the Mississippi Valley basketball team, was in fair condition in intensive care at University Medical Center in Jackson on Monday. ``Right now the doctors are saying he will not walk again,'' Carol Archie said. A volley of gunshots were fired inside the nightclub after a fight broke out, Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks said. Banks said Alonzo Hemphill, 27, reportedly forced his way into the club at gunpoint. Hemphill was hit by at least four bullets and died after allegedly firing at least two gunshots toward the dance floor, Banks said. No gun has been recovered. ``We have witnesses who verified Hemphill did have a gun,'' Banks said. Sheriff's deputies arrested club security guard Johnny King, 35, on a murder charge, Banks said. King was ordered held without bond. France, 19, and Toland Hudson, 25, of Itta Bena, were near the dance floor when the shooting occurred, Banks said. France, who was hit in the shoulder, was treated at Greenwood Leflore Hospital and released. Hudson remained in the Greenwood hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound in a hip. No one is certain who fired the bullets that hit the three wounded men, Banks said. ``There's no way for us to tell who shot whom until we get some ballistics done from the State Crime Lab,'' he said. King told investigators he was responding to gunfire outside the club when Hemphill walked in with a gun in his hand, Banks said. That's when Hemphill was first shot, Banks said. King told authorities he fired five more times as Hemphill tried to flee the club, the sheriff said. ``King said somebody knocked him down, and when he was falling down, his finger was still on the trigger of the gun,'' Banks said. The shooting occurred hours after Mississippi Valley State's 87-68 home win against Prairie View A&M University. Archie scored 11 points in that game. Carol Archie said news of the shooting was hard to believe. ``It's just something to see a child play in a basketball game and two hours later to see him on a stretcher,'' she said. Archie is the team's third leading scorer, averaging 11.2 points per game for Mississippi Valley (5-10, 4-2 Southwestern Athletic Conference) ranking him 19th in the SWAC in scoring. Archie has started 10 of the Delta Devils' 15 games. Mississippi Valley State basketball coach Lafayette Stribling said Monday referred questions about the shooting to the university's president.