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Mississippi couple recounts shooting incident with an escaped monkey

admin - Latest News - November 5, 2025
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One of three monkeys that escaped from an overturned truck on a Mississippi highway was shot after a couple spotted it and tracked into a forest near Vossburg, Miss. George Barnett and his wife recounted the episode on video as a group tasked with tracking down the monkeys later showed up to secure its remains.



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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 5, 2025, 12:34 PM ESTBy Bracey HarrisGeorge Barnett’s work as a small-town pastor means folks probably won’t challenge him when he tells of the day he picked up a hunting rifle and took aim at an escaped rhesus monkey in rural Mississippi.What started as a routine visit to his mom’s house in Vossburg on Monday is now the latest chapter in the not-so-tall tale that captivated much of the state, after a transport of research primates overturned in Jasper County just before Halloween. Barnett’s wife spotted the runaway monkey as a blur of fur crossing near a highway exit ramp late Monday afternoon. Once in the woods, it scampered into a tree and flashed its teeth. Barnett, 45, grabbed his rifle and fired twice, he said, sending the animal crashing to the ground. “As soon as I saw it, the only thing I thought about was, ‘What if this thing attacks one of those people that I grew up with, or my children,’” Barnett said.George and Kerri Barnett.Courtesy George BarnettThe monkey was one of three escapees from last week’s accident, when a truck crashed while carrying 21 primates from the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center near New Orleans. Barnett was the second Mississippi resident to take the monkey business into their own hands. On Sunday, Jessica Bond Ferguson opened fire after her 16-year-old son saw a monkey outside their home near Heidelberg, killing the animal. “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” she told The Associated Press.That leaves one runaway still missing, according to the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, which warned that it may be aggressive. Residents’ fears were partly driven by incorrect information that circulated just after the crash, when the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office warned that the monkeys carried diseases, including Covid, hepatitis C and herpes. Authorities killed five of the monkeys near the crash scene based on those concerns, which turned out to be false, Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson said.He confirmed the latest monkey shooting on Monday. Tulane clarified after the crash that the monkeys “had not been exposed to any infectious agents” and sent a team to assist. Thirteen of the monkeys reached their planned destination last week, according to the university. Animals rights organizations, like PETA, said the accident highlighted the plight of animals used in research and called for more transparency, including the release of the monkeys’ veterinary records.On Monday, PreLabs, a biomedical research company, said the monkeys were theirs.“We are cooperating with authorities and reviewing all safety procedures to ensure the continued wellbeing of both the animals and the community,” the statement said.The company did not respond to questions from NBC News.On Oct. 28, a truck carrying rhesus monkeys from Tulane University crashed in Mississippi.Jasper County Sheriff’s DepartmentKristen Moore, director of wildlife for the Hattiesburg Zoo, said she understands the worries, but she hopes the public will heed officials’ advice to stay clear of the last monkey. The primates, native to Asia, generally prefer running away over attacking.And for those wondering, they’re typically herbivores. So, pets should be OK.“If you have a cat, they’re not going to chase that,” she said.Barnett initially thought his wife, Kerri, was joking when she pointed out the furry creature running across the road shortly after 4 p.m. Monday. They had just taken the exit to his mother’s house, with their two young sons in the car.“Babe, there’s one of those monkeys,” he recalled Kerri saying.She was right. “This monkey was just walking across the street,” Barnett said. “Almost like he owned the neighborhood.”One day earlier, Barnett was getting ready for church when he heard about Ferguson’s story.Now, he was dialing 911 to report his own sighting in Vossburg, about 100 miles east of the state’s capital.“We just saw one of the monkeys right off Exit 118,” he told the dispatcher, according to a recording obtained by NBC News. “It’s sitting on the side of the road right off the exit.”Barnett’s 7- and 8-year-old boys in the backseat became hysterical. Normally they love playing outside at their grandmother’s, but they’d been staying indoors the past few days while the primates were on the loose.Barnett dropped his children off at his mom’s, grabbed a rifle and headed back.He walked into the woods, where the monkey had taken refuge in a tree.An experienced squirrel and deer hunter, he estimates the animal was 35 to 40 pounds. (Generally, the monkeys are 17 to 20 pounds, Moore said.) After he took two shots, the monkey dropped to the ground and took off, he said. Barnett didn’t chase after it.George Barnett, shown with his wife, Kerri, said he usually hunts squirrel and deer. Courtesy of George BarnettTwo men in a white truck who Barnett believes were with a transport company soon arrived. They tried to track the monkey based on a trail of blood, then got an assist from a drone that could detect the animal’s body heat, Kerri said. It was dark by the time a worker emerged with the deceased primate.Kerri documented the night on Facebook Live. The videos drew some pushback interspersed with praise, but Barnett believes he made the right choice. Most critics weren’t locals.“They’re not close around here, so they don’t have that fear,” he said.Meanwhile, he said he’s heard from congregants at his church in Buckatunna, about 40 miles away, who were excited about his adventure. He’s anticipating some questions at Wednesday night’s Bible study. Back in Heidelberg, a short distance from the accident site, Mayor Robert Barnett (no relation to George) said online jokes about the apocalypse have been circulating among the town’s roughly 600 residents. Crews in protective equipment have been spotted on the area’s highways. The mayor noted lightly there’s no quarantine in effect — he doesn’t want locals to be afraid or visitors to stay away.“I hated it happened in this type of way,” he said, “but at least people know about Heidelberg right now.” Bracey HarrisBracey Harris is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Jackson, Mississippi.
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Nov. 5, 2025, 9:46 AM EST / Updated Nov. 5, 2025, 10:04 AM ESTBy Alexander SmithRussia’s Vladimir Putin ordered top officials on Wednesday to submit plans for the possible resumption of nuclear testing, a direct response to President Donald Trump’s surprise instruction for the United States to begin testing for the first time in more than 30 years.In a televised meeting with his Security Council in Moscow, Putin said that he had warned the U.S. and others that if they “conduct such tests, Russia would also be required to take appropriate retaliatory measures.”He told the foreign and defense ministries “to do everything possible to gather additional information on this matter, analyze it in the Security Council, and submit coordinated proposals on the possible commencement of preparations for nuclear weapons testing.”Putin plans for nuclear testing in response to Trump00:51Several of Putin’s top officials backed the need for resumed tests.“We must respond appropriately to Washington’s actions,” Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said, urging his government “to begin preparations for full-scale nuclear testing immediately.”Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the general staff, added, “If we do not take appropriate measures now, we will miss the opportunity to respond promptly to the United States’ actions, since preparation for nuclear tests, depending on their type, takes several months to several years.”Russian Ambassador in Washington Alexander Darchiev had sent a telegram to U.S. officials “to clarify these controversial statements by U.S. President Donald Trump,” Sergey Naryshkin, chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, told the council.But “representatives from both the White House and the U.S. State Department declined to comment,” he added, “stating that they would report the information to their superiors and contact the Russian side if it will be deemed necessary to provide clarification.”The Security Council meeting was supposed to focus on transport security. However, Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin asked members to first comment on Washington’s announcement of renewed nuclear tests.NBC News has contacted the Pentagon and State Department for comment.The move comes after Trump announced last week that he had instructed the Defense Department to “immediately” start testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with other nations.The U.S. has not conducted a nuclear test since 1992, China and France last did so in 1996 and the Soviet Union in 1990.Trump’s order was widely criticized by nuclear scientists and nonproliferation experts, who said that Washington had little to gain from live drills, which would likely only embolden Moscow and Beijing.The U.S. has only one viable testing location, the former Nevada Nuclear Test Site near Las Vegas, which would take at least two years to get up and running, experts said.There has been little clarity from Trump and his team. Asked whether he planned to resume actual explosive nuclear tests underground, the president told reporters Friday, “You’ll find out very soon, but we’re going to do some testing, yeah.”He added: “Other countries do it. If they’re going to do it, we’re going to do it.”On Sunday, his energy secretary, Chris Wright, told Fox News that “these will be nonnuclear explosions” that would develop “sophisticated systems so that our replacement nuclear weapons are even better than the ones they were before.”Given the seemingly conflicting public statements from officials in Washington, Russia was “not entirely clear about the United States’ future actions and steps regarding the conduct or nonconduct of nuclear weapons tests,” Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu told the meeting.A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launches at Plesetsk testing field in northern Russia in footage released on Oct. 22.Russian Defense Ministry via AFP – Getty ImagesFor his part, Putin has often rattled the nuclear saber since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He has warned Western nations not to intervene in the conflict, suggesting he would not be afraid to use Moscow’s arsenals were they to do so.Last month, he said that Russia had conducted the first hourslong test of a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable cruise missile capable of evading U.S. missile defenses. In response, Trump said he had a nuclear submarine “right off their shores.”According to the Norwegian government, the missile, the the Burevestnik, was launched from Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago off the northern coast of Russia. Belousov referred to this site again on Wednesday.”The readiness of the forces and assets at the central test site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago allows for” nuclear tests to be implemented “within a short timeframe,” he said.Alexander SmithAlexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.Abigail Williams contributed.
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Sept. 22, 2025, 6:14 PM EDTBy Melanie Zanona, Julie Tsirkin and Dareh GregorianWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer this week to discuss funding the government as the specter of a shutdown looms, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.A time and a date have not yet been set. The meeting is expected to take place in Washington.Jeffries and Schumer, both of New York, had requested that the meeting take place ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline.Trump said over the weekend, “I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have any impact.”The Senate voted last week to block dueling Republican and Democratic proposals to keep the government funded past Sept. 30 on a short-term basis.A deal to avert a shutdown and give lawmakers more time to work out a longer-term deal has to be bipartisan to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats.The Democrats’ funding bill would extend Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.The Republican bill would fund the government at current spending levels through Nov. 21 but preserve cuts to previously appropriated spending that have incensed Democrats.The GOP bill fell 16 votes short of the 60 needed, while the Democratic bill fell 13 votes short.The House and the Senate are on recess this week, and Republican leaders have decided not to bring the House back until after the funding deadline.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., last week said the bill Democrats “put on the floor makes it very clear they are very unserious.”Schumer and other Democrats have noted that Trump has publicly called on Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., not to negotiate with Democrats over a funding bill.If there is a shutdown, mandatory services such as the Border Patrol, the Postal Service and Social Security will continue, but many federal workers will go unpaid.Melanie Zanona and Julie Tsirkin reported from Washington and Dareh Gregorian from New York.Melanie ZanonaMelanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Dareh GregorianDareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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