PRIME SUSPECT

Mom Who Shot Escaped Monkey Dead Claims She Was Protecting Kids

The monkey had been one of a cartload to escape when the truck they were in overturned on the interstate.

A Mississippi mother and professional chef says she shot and killed an escaped Rhesus monkey to protect her kids. Jessica Bond Ferguson, 35, opened fire on the primate after hearing that it could have been vicious or carrying diseases. Her 16-year-old son told the mom-of-five that he had seen it running around outside their home. The slain simian had made its break for freedom after the truck it and 21 others were being transported in overturned on Interstate 59 near Heidelberg. She fired twice from 60 feet on Sunday, November 2, saying it was “what any other mother would do to protect her children.” “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell,” she told the Associated Press. Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed one of the escaped animals had been found and taken by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. Of the 21, five had already been killed in the ensuing hunt and three remained at large before the shooting. Another 13 stayed at the scene and later reached their destination. Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, where they’d been housed, later said they were not infectious.