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GULFPORT -- A suspect in the murder of a Hattiesburg woman was taken into custody in the pre-dawn hours Monday after a standoff in a parking lot of Island View Casino, authorities said.
Anthony Rico Gipson, 35, was spotted shortly after 3 a.m. walking to a car in the casino’s east parking lot when agents with the U.S. Marshal’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and Gulfport police spotted him.
“When we approached him, he pulled out a gun and put it to his head,” said Justin Vickers, the marshal’s supervisory agent in charge of the Gulf Coast region. “After we negotiated with him, he eventually relinquished the weapon and was arrested without further incident.”
No injuries were reported, and casino officials reported no problems as a result of the 30-minute standoff.
Authorities started the search for Gipson late Sunday night after Hattiesburg police identified him as a suspect in the killing of 21-year-old Hattiesburg resident Brittany Morgan. She was found dead in her first-floor home at Towne Villa Apartments in the 1200 block of Beverly Hills Road at 8:36 p.m. Sunday, Hattiesburg police Sgt. Edward Murray said.
Murray said an autopsy would be necessary to determine the cause of death.
Gipson was identified as a suspect after Hattiesburg investigators interviewed Morgan’s friends and family members, Murray said. “At one time, they had dated,” Murray said. “I don’t know if the relationship was still carrying on.”
Police later learned that Gipson had two home addresses, one in Hattiesburg and the other in Gulfport. Information later was sent out to local law enforcement officials to be on the look out for Gipson in connection with the killing. Hattiesburg police told local marshals Gipson would be easy to spot because he was 6-foot-7 inches tall and 300 pounds.
Hattiesburg police already had obtained a warrant for Gipson’s arrest on the murder charge. Gipson, Vickers said, also had been arrested in the past in Gulfport, though the charge was not immediately known.
“Island View security and staff cooperated fully with the law enforcement team throughout the process, and we commend the officers for a swift and incident-free resolution to this situation,” John MacGeorge, director of security at Island View Casino, said in a statement released Monday.
Following Gipson’s arrest, Hattiesburg authorities took him into custody there.
The case remains under investigation.
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