Episode #74: What Happened at the Po' Folks.

In April 1996, a spring afternoon in South Jackson turned into a scene of terror the metro area has never forgotten. This week, Therese Apel and Sara Perkins-Ricks sit down with Charlie Smith, a former Jackson Police Department Crime Scene Investigator, who walks them through one of the most harrowing cases of his career, from the inside. On April 12, 1996, Larry Wayne Shoemake barricaded himself inside an abandoned Po' Folks restaurant at the Ellis Isle shopping center near Ellis Avenue and Interstate 20. From within the building he opened fire on people in and around the center, in a siege that stretched roughly 40 minutes to an hour and left more than 100 shots fired. Early reports counted one person killed and several others wounded by gunfire and flying glass, with later accounts describing an even higher toll. Shoemake ultimately died in the fire that consumed the restaurant. From the first shots to the smoke rising over the shopping center, Smith recounts the investigation as only the man who processed it can: what he saw, what he documented, and what it took to make sense of a day that captivated and terrified an entire community.   Produced by Daniel Anderson at Audio Alchemy Productions.