FBI investigates federal officer shot outside Mississippi hotel, allegedly by wanted fugitive

A 31-year-old fugitive Mississippi man allegedly shot and wounded a U.S. Marshal’s Service officer as federal, state and local law enforcement agents tried to serve him an arrest warrant in Gautier Tuesday morning.

Hancock County resident Joseph Dale Sonnier was wanted on state kidnapping charges when officers arrived at his hotel that morning, the FBI said in a news release. Gautier is on the state’s Gulf Coast, near the Alabama border, about 45 miles southwest of Mobile.

Gunfire erupted when officers arrived at the Siegel Select Hotel – an extended-stay apartment complex with weekly rates as low as $165 – the FBI said.

Sonnier allegedly shot first, striking one officer in the neck, Biloxi-based WLOX reported. He was taken to a hospital and has since been released.

A blurry smartphone video from a witness published by WLOX shows little of the encounter aside from a law enforcement vehicle parked diagonally in the lot and people running across the far end of the scene – but more than a dozen gunshots can be heard.

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“We were awoken by many loud gunshots,” neighbor Tammy Thorson told the outlet.

Sonnier was wanted on two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, armed robbery and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, according to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger.

New federal charges in connection with the officer’s shooting were pending, according to the FBI’s Jackson field office.

Mississippi’s Bureau of Investigation was handling the shooting and processing the scene while the FBI took over the investigation into the assault on a federal officer, authorities said.

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Further information, including a mugshot of Sonnier, was not immediately available.