In brief: Family, friends mourn Mississippi man who died after fight with officer

QUITMAN, Miss. – A standing-room-only crowd of hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday in the Family Life Center Church in Quitman to remember the life of 39-year-old Jonathan Sanders.

Sanders, who had been driving a horse and buggy, died after a fight Wednesday with a Stonewall police officer in neighboring Lauderdale County. There is no consensus of what occurred that night.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is looking into the death.

WTOK-TV in Meridian reported family and friends described Sanders as unselfish and a man who loved everyone. Others called the funeral a time for reflection, mourning and celebration of Sanders’ life.

Man buries mother, then son’s body found

On the same day Kevin Johnson buried his mother, searchers found the body of his 34-year-old son who drowned while trying to save his grandmother from flash flooding that ravaged their tiny Appalachian community.

Scott Johnson’s body was found near the cemetery where his grandmother was buried.

Days of searching along a muddy, debris-strewn creek ended when Johnson’s body was located Friday evening in a pile of rubble pinned beneath a mobile home swept from its foundation in the devastated Flat Gap area in eastern Kentucky, Johnson County Coroner J.R. Frisby said Saturday.

Overlooking where the body was retrieved was the hillside cemetery where Scott Johnson’s grandmother, Willa Mae Pennington, was laid to rest.

“You could look from where we buried her and see right where he was at,” Kevin Johnson said. “He didn’t leave her after all.”

Four people were killed in the rushing floodwaters. Johnson had been the last person still missing, Kentucky State Police said.

Kevin Johnson last saw his son Scott wading through floodwater with his 74-year-old grandmother on his back.

Scott Johnson had already guided his father, uncle and sister to safety and had turned back to get his grandmother and a 13-year-old family friend.