Two Cleveland police officers have been placed on administrative leave until the suspicious death of Jermaine Williams on July 23 is resolved.

Being placed on administrative leave is protocol in this type of situation and does not denote guilt or innocence.

The Cleveland Police Department held a press conference this morning to address the countless calls and visits in reference to the incident.

Police Chief Charles “Buster” Bingham said that at 3:18 a.m. the morning of July 23, police officers responded to a call of individuals loitering in the street on the 700 block of Cross.

The officers who responded spoke to the individuals there.

During the conversations, a bag of suspected cocaine was found on top of one of the vehicles where the individuals were standing.

As is normal procedure, the officers asked for identification of everyone.

One particular individual gave the officers several false names.

Another person, later identified as Williams, came up and said he was “gonna call someone.”

He then grabbed the bag of suspected cocaine and ran. An officer pursued him and finally caught up with Williams at Lucy Seaberry Boulevard and Cross Street.

Williams would not comply and continued to resist the officer. The officer then deployed his TASER on Williams.

Even then, according to the read statement, he was still combative and actually tried to take the TASER from the officer.

A second officer then arrived and Williams received a second TASER deployment.

“He was still combative,” Bingham said.

Other officers made it to the scene at which time they had to physically pull Williams’ arms out from under him.

He was cuffed and officers noticed that he was having medical difficulties.

Emergency services were called and prior to their arrival, the officers themselves gave Williams’ medical attention.

He was taken to Bolivar Medical Center.

Bingham did not say whether or not Williams died at the scene, on the way to the hospital or at the hospital.

The chief did not say what happened to the bag of suspected cocaine, whether Williams ingested it or if it was recovered or not at the scene.

However, Bolivar County Coroner Dr. Nathaniel Brown said according to a preliminary autopsy report that Williams had cocaine in his urine and alcohol in his blood.

The cocaine/blood level is still pending the official autopsy report, which may take a month to receive.

The Cleveland Police Department then called in the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations to look into the incident which is also proper procedure.

Bingham said in cases of serious injury or death, their response will be to immediately call in an outside agency.

He also said his department has complied with all requests of the MBI and will continue to do so.

Bingham also said that while they understand the public’s interest in the case, they do not wish to release anymore information until the matter is concluded.

He added they did not want to impede the investigation.

Prior to the statement read by Bingham, members of the press were told they would not be allowed to ask questions at any time.

The press could, however, contact the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations for any future comments or information.

The MBI officer in charge of the investigation has yet to return phone calls made by The Bolivar Commercial since Friday.

While the names of the officers are known to The Bolivar Commercial, they could not be publicly verified at the press conference.

The Bolivar Commercial will continue to publish any and all new information pertaining to this case.