JASPER COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) – George and Kerri Barnett said they were in the car with their two sons Monday night, headed to visit George’s mother, when Kerri saw a rhesus monkey crossing the street.
This sighting was just off Exit 118 on Interstate 59, about one mile from where a truck crashed last Tuesday and three monkeys escaped.
Questions connected to escaped monkeys remain unanswered.
The Barnetts said that from that initial spotting, their top concern was the community.
“You’re only doing what you need to do to protect your community and this whole county,” said George Barnett. “And then to hear people saying, you know, ‘You’re wrong, you’re going to hell,’ and all of this stuff, that kind of hurts.”
George Barnett said this was a road they traveled frequently.
“Just coming up to see mom,” he said. “Never thought we would be on a safari.”
He said he may not know everything about monkeys, but he does know they shouldn’t be in Mississippi.
“It was bigger than just shooting at a monkey,” George Barnett said. “It was taking into consideration all these people that live right there across that bridge.”
Kerri Barnett said she saw the monkey first.
“She said, ‘Babe, there’s a monkey,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, right,’” George Barnett said. “And I just casually glanced over, and it was a monkey crossing the street, almost like it owned the neighborhood.
“And it crossed over the road, and it sat right here on the side and crossed its arms.“
Barnett went three minutes up the road to his mother’s house to grab his gun and drop off his two sons.
He said when he returned, there was another man there who also saw the monkey.
The man told Barnett the monkey had run up a tree.
“When I saw it, it opened its mouth at me,” George Barnett said. “And I saw these long canines.
“And later that night, one of the guys that was down here to capture it said that’s their warning sign, like they’ll show you their teeth, and if you don’t leave then, then they’ll come after you.”
As all of this unfolded, Kerri Barnett waited in the car, unsure of what would come next.
“We’re used to hunting deer,” she said. “We’re used to hunting squirrel. But not a monkey.
“So, I immediately started praying because you never know.”
George Barnett said the monkey did not react to the first shot but ran about 30 yards away after he fired a second, 7-mm shot.
“And then the guys that were here from Maryland, they pulled up immediately after I shot because they got the call from 911,” he said. “And they jumped out with their rifles. So, I was like, ‘Were y’all going to shoot it?’ And he was like, ‘Yes.”
The Barnetts said one man went into the woods and carried the monkey out in a bag.
They were told to put their phones away.
Initially, only George Barnett was allowed to see the animal.
“I was like, ‘Hey, man, you know, it’s like 10 other people out here that want to see this thing,’ George Barnett said. ”Like this community needs closure.”
Now, the couple said they feel relieved, although they never want to hurt anything or anyone.
The community’s peace was a priority, they said.
“More peaceful now because our kids are up here maybe every other day, outside playing,” Kerri Barnett said. “This is the country. This is where they love to be. So, it’s more peace for me. “
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