Retired Warren County sheriff’s deputy found shot in Gulfport after their Vicksburg home was ransacked

A retired law enforcement officer was found shot in Gulfport after their Vicksburg home was ransacked

On Wednesday afternoon around 3 p.m., a neighbor became concerned when they were unable to reach their friend, retired law enforcement officer Mike Ouzts.

The neighbor went to the residence a few houses over. Upon arrival, they noticed the door inside the garage to the home appeared to have been forcibly opened.

Police were called to the scene and then investigators with the VPD showed up. The resident of the home was nowhere to be found and his vehicle, a white GMC Sierra, was also missing.

Investigators inside the garage of the home. Photo by David Day

Sources have revealed to the Vicksburg Daily News the house was ransacked. Items in the home had been pillaged and arranged in a strange way, a TV was reported to have been in the floor and a safe was also reportedly missing.

The homeowner had not been heard from since Tuesday.

Around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, WLOX in Gulfport reported a person was found behind Grace Temple Baptist Church with two gunshot wounds. While seriously injured, that individual was alive. Numerous sources have confirmed that person is Mike Ouzts.

Mike Ouzts in uniform. (Facebook photo)

An additional source has reported that a SWAT team was in the area where the truck belonging to the retired law officer was found and one person has been taken into custody.

Thursday evening the Gonzales, Louisiana police department arrested eight people after a manhunt. At least two of those individuals were wanted in connection with the Vicksburg break-in at Ouzts’s home and his suspected shooting.

The Vicksburg Daily News will stay with this story and provide more details as they become available. The VPD has yet to report anything on the story.