Carthage police have identified the man found dead of an apparent gunshot wound in an alley near the intersection of Central and Garrison on Tuesday evening as 30-year-old John C. Morgan, Carthage.
Carthage Police Spokesman Chad Dininger said Wednesday morning that a suspect has been taken into custody, but that person’s identity won’t be released until formal charges are filed by the Jasper County Prosecutor’s Office.
Dininger said late Tuesday evening that Morgan was found dead in the alley just west of the 100 block of North Garrison Avenue between the Arvest Bank and Daisy Courts apartments.
Dininger said at 11:30 p.m. that officers were canvassing the neighborhood looking for leads and talking to people to find potential witnesses to the crime.
“At this point we believe this to be an isolated incident with isolated individuals,” Dininger said. “It doesn’t appear that there is any danger to anyone else, it’s definitely isolated to this one event.”
Dininger said the call came into 911 dispatchers at 8:54 p.m. Tuesday from someone at 115 N. Garrison Avenue about a gunshot in the vicinity. Police arrived to find a 30-year-old man lying in the alley behind the Daisy Court apartments.
“He was pronounced dead on scene from an apparent gunshot wound,” Dininger said. “We did recover a handgun at the scene.”
Dininger said as of 11:30 p.m. officers were speaking to a number of witnesses, but no one was officially in police custody and no suspects had been identified.
“We are still trying to track down some potential witnesses, but other than that, yes, we think we are in contact with everyone involved,” Dininger said. “We’re working it as a homicide. It’s early on, we’re still gathering witness information, doing a neighborhood canvas, collecting evidence and processing the scene. Right now it’s too early to determine the stories at this point as far as what caused this.”
