Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Speaker's brother shoots wife, commits suicide

Edward McCoy, brother of House Speaker Billy McCoy, shot his wife and then killed himself in Thrasher, MS on April 26. The Daily Corinthian reported last week:

"Prentiss County Sheriff Randy Tolar said Edward McCoy, 72, of 59 County Road 1040 was found dead in his home of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His wife, 65-year-old Barbara McCoy, suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder and was transported to Magnolia Regional Health Center in Corinth where she was listed in critical but stable condition Tuesday.

Edward McCoy is a former Prentiss County Superintendent of Education, the brother of Mississippi Speaker of the House Billy McCoy and the father of current Prentiss County Board of Education member Jason McCoy. Barbara McCoy is the owner of Magnolia Frame Shop in Booneville.

Tolar said a 911 call came at 1:18 a.m. Tuesday reporting a woman had been shot in Thrasher. Deputies arrived within minutes and found Barbara McCoy wounded.

“She had managed to leave the shooting location and go to her son’s residence, which was nearby. Investigators determined she had been shot by her husband, Edward McCoy,” said Tolar.

Deputies and investigators went to the McCoy’s home and attempted to make contact with Edward McCoy by telephone, but were unsuccessful.

“Deputies then made entry into the house and discovered (Edward) McCoy in the bedroom floor with what appeared to be a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot,” said the sheriff.

Tolar said an autopsy on McCoy was scheduled for later Tuesday.

McCoy’s education career spanned 37 years, including two terms as Prentiss County Superintendent of Education in the 1990s." Article

Pray for Speaker McCoy, his family, and that his sister-in-law makes a complete recovery.

Note: More incompetence at the Clarion-Ledger. Here is the AP story reported last week in the "state" newspaper:

"THRASHER - Prentiss County authorities say a shooting in this community that left a man dead and his wife hospitalized in critical condition could have been a murder-suicide attempt.

Investigators said Edward McCoy, 72, shot his wife, Barbara McCoy, 65. She is in critical condition. He died of what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Sheriff Randy Tolar said deputies were called to the home Tuesday about 1:15 a.m. The woman was initially reported to be in critical but stable condition at the hospital
."

Notice anything left out? Here is the AP story that ran in other newspapers:

"ASSOCIATED PRESS (THRASHER) -- Prentiss County Sheriff Randy Tolar said it appears former Prentiss County School Superintendent Edward McCoy shot his wife before fatally shooting himself early Tuesday.

Tolar said deputies responding to a 9-1-1 call at 1:18 a.m. found Barbara McCoy, 65, shot in the shoulder. Tolar said the body of Edward McCoy, 72, was found on the bedroom floor with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Barbara McCoy was in stable but critical condition Wednesday at Magnolia Hospital in Corinth.

Edward McCoy, brother of Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy of Rienzi, served two terms as superintendent in the 1990s.
"

Pitiful.






23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ed McCoy had mental problems off and on for years. A tragic ending.

Paul Mitchell said...

Prayers to the family.

The Clarion Ledger is not a newspaper and has not been for years.

Anonymous said...

New poll topic: Is the C-L massively in the tank for any and all Democrats, no matter how incompetent or crooked, or are they just the most incompetent group in the world?

Evil or incompetent?: Vote now.

Paul Mitchell said...

Answer to above poll question, YES.

Anonymous said...

The Clarion Ledger is a terrible newspaper, but let's not pretend that it's MSNBC.

Sid Salter directed their political coverage for nearly a decade, for God's sake. I doubt even Haley Barbour had a problem with that.

Anonymous said...

So sorry to read of this. I hope she makes a full recovery, physically and mentally. What a terrible thing to have happen to you.

bill said...

The sign of a credible newspaper is when both sides accuse it of being against them. There are just as many liberals who think it's a right wing rag as conservatives who think it's a mouthpiece for the left. Either they're doing something right or they're doing everything wrong. Bill Billingsley

Anonymous said...

BB - obviously it's the latter ;-)

Clarification: Sid Salter was a good guy, as were Orley Hood and Marshall Ramsey. And that sportswriter.......

Anonymous said...

Always thought Orley just wrote feel good stuff..

Paul Mitchell said...

bill, I don't think that any credible person is claiming that the C-L is anything other than a surrogate Village Voice these days. And their sales tend to bolster that point, too.

Anonymous said...

The sign of a credible newspaper is when both sides accuse it of being against them.

Sorry Bill. That is a myth propagated by Agnew and Hampton in order to redirect the conversation away from their newspaper's glaring decline in quality reportage.

If the yin and yang of "both sides" agree on anything it is that the C-L is failing miserably in merely executing the basics of a reputable daily.

Kingfish said...

That is how Ladd and Hampton both think. If both sides criticize them, they are doing something right. Sometimes that is true. However sometimes it means they are all right.

Anonymous said...

Paul, Can you elaborate on why you think The Clarion Ledger is a "surrogate Village Voice"?

I guess The Clarion Ledger is probably to the left of Mississippi's political center. But 1) that's a pretty spacious category and 2) it still leaves it far to the right of publications like The Village Voice.

The CL regularly supports Republican candidates. In fact, as a previous commenter mentioned, it delegated its political coverage for most of the last 10 years to a reporter who was very friendly with Barbour and other GOP officials.

The most obvious problem with the CL has nothing to do with ideology...it's that it doesn't do much journalism anymore.

Benwa Abung said...

The CL regularly supports Republican candidates.

Thanks for the red herring. Are you swimming with the school or enjoying them with crackers?

Anonymous said...

KF, the AP updated its story to include the Billy McCoy reference on Thursday morning, per a Google search. It wasn't in the Wednesday version of the story that you copied and pasted above.

Anonymous said...

4:04 - Orley did write feel-good stuff, and he wrote it way better than most who work in that area. I kept hoping he'd be the southern John Grogan and come out with his own Marley & Me (I had read Grogan's newspaper articles about his dog when they were new, and felt a sense of deja vu when I read Orley Hood. Not that he was imitating anyone, but it conjured up similar reactions when I read his articles.

Anonymous said...

I don't get it. What in the world does this have to do with this man being the brother of the Speaker of the House? This is NOT news. It is a terrible tragedy. Leave the family alone! And for sure politics have nothing to do with this....... People seem to take pleasure in the tragedy of others!
SICK!!!

Anonymous said...

sad story for McCoys... but more proof that CL stands for Clarion-Liar!

Paul Mitchell said...

Anon 7:45, the ONLY reason this was picked up by the wire is because of who it was. His importance to the news is solely political.

Sorry.

Anonymous said...

The c-l is a tabloid with little if any substantive reporting. Instead it relies on hearsay and stories already developed by other news organizations. It's leadership is disfunctional.

Tim C. said...

This is a very sad story. No matter what your political beliefs are, it is always hard on any family when a loved one passes, especially in the manner that Mr. McCoy passed when he took his own life. It should be a cut and dry story though, where people leave their condolences for the family. I am shocked that most of the comments to this page is about how terrible the Clarion Ledger is as a newspaper. That is irrelevant in this case. I am not a fan of the reporting of the Clarion Ledger either, but this should not be the topic of conversation. I was like to say my condolences go out to the entire McCoy family and should be what everyone else comes to this post to do. Tim C.

Paul Mitchell said...

Tim, we all feel the same way for the family, but the way I read this post is that the Clarion Ledger produced an article with key information missing for the sole purpose of obscuring who this person was. Of course, without that information, this is NOT Mississippi news.

Anonymous said...

Thanks again Kingfish, for
keeping us informed. Very Sad.
PS
Enjoyed U last week, with Larry on wjnt !!!



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