Tashi Coleman

Thin Air podcast

Episode 6: QUINN COLSON

NARRATOR: In one way or another, everything kept on coming back to the sheriff. Both the old one and the new one. Hamp Beckett and his nephew, Quinn Colson. The more time we spent in Tibbehah County, the more we met people who compared the two. Both U.S. Army vets, Beckett served in the Korean War and Colson in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Beckett earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. Colson earned three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star as a U.S. Army Ranger. But Colson didn’t want to talk about that time with our producer, Jessica. We couldn’t tell if it was out of privacy or modesty, but that part of his life was off-limits.

QUINN COLSON: I joined up right out of high school. I thought of it more of a vocation than anything. This was a year or so before 9/11.

JESSICA: I understand you didn’t have much choice in your decision.

QUINN COLSON [LAUGHING]: True. My uncle pretty much gave me an ultimatum. At first, I thought I might play college ball like every other kid in Mississippi. But after my senior year, I was told the Army was my best option. Best thing could’ve happened to me.

JESSICA: How so?

QUINN COLSON: I needed a heavy dose of discipline. The Army gave that to me. And being a Ranger only solidified it.

JESSICA: Did you see much action?

QUINN COLSON: Mmm-hmm.

JESSICA: Could you tell me a little about that? When did you first see fighting?

QUINN COLSON: I’m sorry. But what exactly does that have to do with Brandon Taylor?

NARRATOR: Even though he wouldn’t talk about it, Colson’s Army record was easy to access. Like he said, he joined the Army in 1999. He went through basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, a base he’d return to many times as a member of the elite B Company, Third Battalion, 75th Regiment. We learned a Ranger doesn’t just volunteer once but three times. A Ranger must join the Army, sign up for Airborne School, and then go through the rigorous Ranger Indoctrination Program. That’s where the Ranger motto, Sua Sponte, comes from: Of their own accord. Rangers are known as those in the Army who lead the way, as they often have to clear the most heavily fortified areas in a war zone.

Colson was one of the first into Iraq, securing the Haditha Dam, a highly important target early in the war that the Iraqis threatened to destroy.

QUINN COLSON: Getting the tab was one of the proudest days of my life. They really put you through hell. It’s not just physical. It’s mental, too. We start off at Benning and end up down in the swamps of Florida. If you’re lucky enough to make it to that point, you haven’t slept for days. You do everything you can to keep your mind sharp, focused, on the maneuvers and mission.

JESSICA: Will you tell us about the Silver Star?

QUINN COLSON: I was only doing what I was trained to do.

JESSICA: And what’s that?

QUINN COLSON: Neutralize the enemy.

NARRATOR: A newspaper account in the Army Times offered a brief narrative of Sergeant Quinn Colson in Afghanistan in 2006. His company was on a nighttime mission in Nangarhar Province when they came under heavy fire immediately after being inserted by helicopter. Sergeant Colson exposed himself to “rigorous gunfire” as he scaled to the highest elevation to knock out enemy targets. The firefight lasted eight hours, until sunup, and Colson protected the lives of his entire company as he called in air strikes.

JESSICA: How many people have you killed?

QUINN COLSON: Over there or in Mississippi?

NARRATOR: Since returning to his home in Jericho, Mississippi, in 2010, Colson has killed several people. One firefight between himself and his deputies and a crew of escaped convicts left four people dead—including the chief and assistant chief of the Jericho Police Department. An inquest into the shooting determined Colson and his chief deputy, Lillie Virgil, killed the police officers—not the convicts—but also determined that the police officers tried to kill Colson first. Colson and Virgil were exonerated, but the violent action and whiff of scandal caused him to lose his second election. The man who won, Rusty Wise, was shot and killed while deer hunting just a few weeks after taking office. Sitting in the deer stand with him and also shot in the ambush—Quinn Colson. Despite a gunshot wound, Colson managed to survive a couple of days alone in the woods and kill his armed attackers. It’s significant, because Colson is known around here for once surviving a week lost in the woods when he was just ten years old. News stations from Memphis covered his disappearance, much as they would Brandon Taylor’s just seven years later. The difference is Quinn Colson lived through it. He’s lived through a lot.

We found several other justified shootings with known criminals, drug dealers, and bank robbers—the usual law enforcement stuff. Too many to focus on in this podcast. One was particularly interesting. Colson was involved in a shoot-out earlier this year with a man named Rick Wilcox, a Marine veteran turned interstate bank robber. While trying to rob a local gentleman’s club, Wilcox and his crew killed five bikers paid to protect it. And when Colson arrived on scene, they destroyed his truck with a grenade launcher. Colson and Virgil took Wilcox alive this time. We’d probably tell you about this incident anyway, as it made the national news, but what makes it even more interesting is this: Rick Wilcox had a young son named Brandon, named to honor an old friend of his ex-wife. You know her as Maggie Powers Colson.

So, it’s been less than a decade since Quinn Colson came home from two wars. In that time, his sheriff’s office has racked up an unusually high body count for a county of this size and attracted statewide attention for their arrests. Not everyone sees this as a good thing.

PASTOR TIM TRAYLOR: Are we better off with Quinn Colson as our sheriff? I guess it depends on who you ask. I will say Tibbehah County was a lot more quiet under Sheriff Beckett. Sheriff Beckett was a man who liked to keep the peace. It seems like Sheriff Colson is always on a search and destroy mission. That’s just what I’m hearing. But who am I to say?