U.S. Army drill sergeant Jessica Mitchell was found dead in a vehicle Friday. Mitchell suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
What We Know:
- Thirty-year-old Jessica Mitchell was on holiday leave when authorities found her fatally shot in a car in San Antonio, Texas. According to NBC News, she was found by firefighters responding to a vehicle collision around 2:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
- Mitchell was a mother to a 10-year-old son, says a report from USA Today. Francesca Toby, a friend of Mitchel, said, “She was a beautiful, beautiful woman. She had a son, and he’s without his mom, and I just want to give my prayers to her family, to her son, to her son’s father.” Mitchell lost her brother Justice in 2017 when he was just 18 years old. Mayo Mitchell, Jessica’s father, said she was fifth-generation military.
- Journalist Morgan Burrell tweeted about the shooting. Burrell posted pictures of Mitchell in uniform, smiling.
On New Year’s Day around 2:30 a.m., first responders went to what they thought was a car crash on the North Side. Instead, a team of firefighters discovered a shooting victim. The family of U.S. Army Drill Sgt. Jessica Mitchell says it was their sweet young soldier shot & killed. pic.twitter.com/W8y9fpqdja
— Morgan Burrell (@Morgan_Burrell) January 2, 2021
- Mitchell was pronounced dead at University Hospital San Antonio. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division and the San Antonio Police Department began investigating the incident. Mithcell was a dental specialist. She was assigned to the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence. She has severed since August 2019. Prior to service, she worked at a dental clinic.
- According to sister Ashley Mitchell, Jessica posted on social media about the New Year, just hours before her body was found. “Why would anybody want to do this?” Ashley said, “Why do people do such heinous acts of crime for no reason?”
Mitchell’s shooting is amid multiple missing person cases and violent acts, such as the most recent high profile case of Vanessa Guillen in Texas. The investigation of the shooting is ongoing.
