The head of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said Wednesday afternoon that authorities now have determined one of the two Bay St. Louis police officers gunned down in the line of duty that morning managed to discharge his firearm during an encounter with their killer.
The two officers, Bay St. Louis police Sgt. Steven Robin, 34, and Officer Branden Estorffe, 23, died after responding to a report of a welfare concern at Motel 6 on Highway 90.
The police officers got to the scene around 4:30 a.m. and parked near a brown Toyota Highlander occupied by the shooter, identified as Amy Brogdon Anderson, 43.
Robin and Estorffe spent about a half hour talking to Anderson in the SUV she was in with a child under the age of 10. The shooting started shortly after the police officers made a call to Child Protective Services.
Robin died at the scene, and Estorffe died a short time later.
Early on, MBI and MDPS commissioner Sean Tindell said Anderson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest in the driver's seat of her car.
Since then, Tindell said, investigators found that one of the police officer's service weapon discharged during the encounter.
Though it is believed that Anderson killed herself, Tindell said, authorities are awaiting the results of an autopsy and other evidence to confirm the woman committed suicide or otherwise.
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