Charles Thomas, owner of Charles Thomas Towing Inc., prepares to tow a 1992 maroon Cadillac DeVille Tuesday after it was identified as belonging to a homicide suspect.(Jenny Sevcik The Vicksburg Post)

[10/29/03]A suspect has been identified in a Monday homicide that apparently occurred as three children watched.

A warrant and nationwide alerts have been issued for Terence Dontae Truitt, 21, also known as Terence Mozley Truitt.

Warren County Sheriff’s Department investigators believe Truitt, who lived in Forest Hill Apartments Unit 232, entered Unit 234 and fired a gun, killing Darrell Dwayne Kemper, 27.

Kemper had reportedly recently moved from Jackson into the apartment with his girlfriend. She was away, but three of her children, up to age 9, were present as the shots were fired.

Tuesday, deputies arrested Columbus Palmer, 22, 505 Dabney Ave., at about 6:45 a.m. at a business on U.S. 61 South, Sheriff Martin Pace said. Palmer was charged as an accessory and was being held without bond in the Warren County Jail this morning.

He is believed to have been inside the apartment when Truitt shot Kemper, who died at the scene, Pace said.

Truitt’s car, a maroon Cadillac DeVille, was found at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of Keystone Ministries Store, 2320 Washington St., when it was spotted by a Vicksburg police officer.

Pace said Palmer and Truitt left the Fisher Ferry Road apartment complex together after the shooting Monday afternoon.

An autopsy showed Kemper died from internal bleeding caused by two bullet wounds, Warren County Coroner John Thomason said.

At the 98-apartment complex, just outside the Vicksburg city limits, a neighbor said Truitt’s home had been broken into a few days before the shooting.

Then on Monday, another neighbor said she heard a person described as Truitt yell, “Don’t steal from me,” before firing shots in Kemper’s apartment.

Andy Arthur, the maintenance manager at the apartments, said he repaired the door at Truitt’s apartment after the break-in.

“I guess (Truitt) thought this guy did it,” Arthur said.

There was also a shooting reported at the complex in January of this year.