(Tribune News Service) — An Ingalls Shipbuilding employee was arrested on a murder charge Friday after an early-morning shooting killed his coworker and sent thousands across the sprawling naval shipyard into tense lockdown, authorities said.
Police described an urgent search that began when a worker discovered a shooting victim on an under-construction U.S. Navy ship. Officers swept industrial buildings, boats and warehouses to isolate the suspect among thousands of Ingalls workers. Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said officers detained a man they believe is the shooter by 9 a.m.
Pascagoula Police Chief Terry Scott called the shooting a tragic but isolated dispute that involved two friends.
“This was between the two young men,” he said.
Police rushed around 7:30 a.m. to the landmark shipyard in Pascagoula, where more than 10,000 people work to build boats for the Navy and Coast Guard. Ingalls warned of an active shooter and told employees to shelter in place for several hours as police combed the property.
Authorities identified the victim as Tahj Johnson, 27, of Prichard, Alabama. Jackson County Deputy Coroner James Prisock said Johnson died on the ship where he was working.
Police said the suspect is Curtis Demetries James Jr., an 25-year-old Ingalls employee from Mobile. He was being interviewed by detectives Friday morning but was later booked in the Jackson County jail and held without bond.
It is unclear how the shooter brought a gun to the shipyard, a secure facility where company policy prohibits weapons unless they are required for security duties. At a news conference on Friday, Ingalls Shipbuilding president Brian Blanchette said the company would “be working with the police department to look into this further.”
“I have no idea how he got on with a gun,” Scott said. The shooting
At least two shots were fired Friday morning on a Navy ship under construction near the water on the shipyard’s south side, police said.
An employee found Johnson dead and called 911. A few hundred people doing industrial work on the ship may have muffled the gunshots, and loud fans blew even as police cleared the ship of workers. Police said the suspect slipped away, apparently unnoticed. Scott said the man “mixed back in with the crowd and just tried to blend in.”
Police who arrived at Ingalls asked company leaders to give head counts and isolate workers in groups, according to Scott. He said police questioned employees who described what the suspect was wearing.
Police say James left the boat and went to a warehouse in the shipyard, where he was later detained. Scott said it took officers an hour and 27 minutes to find the suspect in a group of over 8,000 employees on duty.
Ingalls mourns shipbuilder
Blanchette said he was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy.
“It’s about the worst thing you can imagine to hear,” he said at the news conference. “This is not a day I would want to wish on anyone.”
Danny Hernandez, an Ingalls spokesperson, said the company was devastated by “the passing of a fellow shipbuilder.”
“We extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to the employee’s family and friends during this difficult time,” he said.
Little is known about the victim or suspect, but police said the they were painters at Ingalls. Scott said the two friends had argued earlier this week in Prichard. He would not say what the dispute was about.
Ingalls sent employees home with pay on Friday, and Blanchette said the company plans to offer grief counseling. It was the second fatal shooting at Ingalls Shipbuilding in recent decades: A shipyard worker there also killed a supervisor during a meeting in 2005.
The police said no one else was injured, and no ships were damaged. Ledbetter said authorities were searching all buildings James had been in. Scott said Friday afternoon that a dive team was still trying to find the gun.
It is unclear if anyone witnessed the shooting, and Pascagoula Police urged anyone with information to come forward.
Margaret Baker contributed reporting.
Correction: A previous version of this story had an incorrect spelling of the suspect’s name.
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Harrisburg LPD-30, a Flight II San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, was launched by Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., Oct. 5, 2024. (Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding)
