Elephant Shot During Drive By In Mississippi

Random gun violence is a sad fact of life in many cities in the United States, but inside the circus, there’s an expectation of safety. Unfortunately, that expectation crumbled Tuesday morning when an elephant was hit during a drive by shooting in Tupelo, Mississippi.

The specific shooter has not yet been identified, but local police have reportedly identified a car of interest. They’re searching for either a white or silver Ford Explorer that was seen lingering in the area not long before the shots were fired.

Here’s what Ringling Brothers manager Rob Lang told The Guardian after the shooting…

“Never in the one hundred forty-three years of Ringling Brothers Circus has anything like this ever happened. So, a lot of disbelief, a lot of disappointment.”

The wounded elephant is a thirty-nine-year-old named Carol. The bullet entered her head between her ear and her skull, but luckily, the circus veterinarian expects her to make a full recovery within six to eight weeks. As for the possible motive, those close to the case haven’t offered any public theories, but it’s hard to imagine any of them could make any possible sense.

A reward of sixteen thousand dollars is currently being offered for information that leads to the conviction of the shooter. Anyone with knowledge is being encouraged to call the Tupelo Police at (662) 841-6491.

Here’s to hoping the lowlife who shot this elephant will be caught sooner rather than later. Until then, try to think about more happy memories involving animals.

Photo Credit: Denise Kappa / Shutterstock.com

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.