Mississippi Man Shot After Reporting Cross Burning In Yard

A Mississippi sheriff says a man was beaten and shot two weeks after calling authorities to report a cross burning in his yard, and investigators are trying to determine whether the attack was prompted by people being upset that the man was visited by his mixed-race grandchildren.

Deputies were called to a disturbance Friday night in a rural community outside Raleigh. Craig Wilson, 45, had been shot in the stomach and beaten and was taken to University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said Smith County Sheriff Charlie Crumpton. He was in fair condition Tuesday, a hospital spokesman said.

Investigators heard numerous reports from relatives about what might have started a confrontation between Wilson and 37-year-old Jeff Daniels, Crumpton said. Among other things, the sheriff said investigators were checking whether it might have been connected to people being upset about visits from Wilson's mixed-race grandchildren. The children's mother — Craig Wilson's daughter — is white, and their father is black, the sheriff said.

[,,,]
Wilson's sister-in-law, Anita Wilson, told AP on Tuesday that she talked to Craig Wilson the night the cross was burned in the yard of the home he shares with Gaylene Daniels. Craig Wilson has three grandsons who are 4, 5 and 6 and a granddaughter who's 3, and Anita Wilson said the grandsons were visiting the couple and inside the home when the cross was burned. She said Craig Wilson told her that Jeff Daniels had yelled a racial epithet about children, saying they shouldn't be at the home.

Mississippi Man Shot After Reporting Cross Burning In Yard

See also: 

Mother: Jeff Daniels committed hate crime

The mother of Jeff Daniels said Tuesday she believes her son is guilty of a hate crime.

Daniels, 37, is free on $20,000 bond after being charged with aggravated assault for allegedly beating and shooting Craig Wilson last Friday.