JASPER COUNTY, MS — A woman in rural Mississippi was forced to open fire on an aggressive monkey after it entered her yard early Saturday morning, following a truck crash that released several research primates from Tulane University.
Jessica, a resident living off Highway 503 near Heidelberg, recounted the tense encounter in a local news video. According to her account, her son heard unusual noises outside around 6:20 a.m. and initially thought a monkey might be in the yard. Jessica, alarmed, grabbed her firearm and cautiously went outside. She backed her truck up for protection and confirmed the animal was indeed a monkey—one of several that escaped from a truck wreck on I-59 near mile marker 117 the previous day.
Jessica reported firing two shots. “I shot at it the first time, and it just sat there. Then I shot again and that’s when it backed up,” she said. “He wasn’t scared of anything. He just stood there watching me.”
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department had previously warned residents not to approach the escaped monkeys, noting that they were aggressive and potentially carried serious diseases, including hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID. Authorities advised residents to call 911 if spotted.
Jessica contacted the authorities, and officials from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks arrived around 6:40 a.m. to remove the monkey from her property. One monkey remains unaccounted for as of the latest updates.
The monkeys were rhesus macaques weighing around 40 pounds each. According to Tulane University, while the animals belong to another entity, they were not believed to be infectious. Still, the truck driver transporting them informed law enforcement that PPE was required to handle the primates due to potential health risks.