Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department, Picayune Police Department and Mississippi Highway Patrol responded to a three car accident on U.S. Highway 11 on Tuesday morning.

Two female shoplifting suspects going northbound on U.S. Hwy. 11 collided with two vehicles, said Chief Deputy Shane Tucker of Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department.

The two suspects identified as Alkeshia Monetta Jenkins, 110 Jasmine Dr., Nicholson and Monica Lynn Jenkins, 903 Charlotte Dr., Picayune, were fleeing the Family Dollar store on Mississippi Highway 43 after being accused of shoplifting, said Assistant to the Chief of Picayune Police Jeremy Magri.  

An unidentified juvenile was sitting unrestrained on the lap of one of the suspects when the accident occurred, Tucker said.

A sheriff’s deputy was heading southbound on U.S. Hwy. 11 responding to an unrelated incident at the post office when the suspect’s vehicle, heading northbound, almost collided with the deputy’s car. The deputy turned around and followed the suspects and saw them collide with a white sedan, Tucker said. The deputy was not aware of the suspects’ involvement with the shoplifting incident until after the accident occurred, Tucker said.

After colliding with the first vehicle, the suspects’ vehicle apparently glanced off the first vehicle and hit a green pickup truck and came to rest in an empty pasture. There were two adults in each of the other vehicles when they were struck by the suspect’s vehicle.

The six adults, including the two suspects, and the juvenile involved in the accident were transported to local hospitals, Tucker said.

Magri said the Picayune Police Department plans to charge the two women with shoplifting. Tucker said there is a “strong potential” that the sheriff’s department would charge the suspects with felony fleeing in the near future, but no arrests or charges had been made at press time.

Northbound and southbound traffic was rerouted through the BanCorp South parking lot.