A Mississippi grand jury has indicted a former Capitol Police officer and a current one who is on leave without pay for manslaughter in the 2022 shooting death of 25-year-old Jaylen Lewis, court documents filed in March show.
Steven Randolph Frederick, Jr., and Michael Rhinewalt acted “willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously, without malice, without authority of law and not in necessary self-defense,” when they shot Lewis during a traffic stop, the true bill document alleges.
‘Did You Identify Yourself?’
NBC News reported in Feb. 2023 that Jaylen Lewis’ sister, Alexus Lewis, got a call from a friend the night of Sept. 25, 2022, telling her that her brother’s vehicle had been shot at. He had been driving with an unnamed female passenger who survived the incident.
When she arrived at the scene, EMTs had already taken her brother away in an ambulance. He died the next day at the hospital.
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Jaylen Lewis, a 25-year-old father of two, died after a 2022 police shooting in Jackson, Miss. Photo courtesy Jaylen Lewis family / Change.org ” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?fit=780%2C519&ssl=1″ onerror=”if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === ‘function’) newspackHandleImageError(this);” src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=780%2C519&ssl=1″ alt=”Man holding children standing in front of a yellow wall” class=”wp-image-332576″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2.jpg?w=2000&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaylen_Lewis_courtesy_Lewis_family2-1024×682.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w” sizes=”(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px”>Jaylen Lewis, a 25-year-old father of two, died after a 2022 police shooting in Jackson, Miss. Photo courtesy Jaylen Lewis family / Change.org
Arkela Lewis, Jaylen Lewis’ mother, told WAPT on Sept. 29, 2022, that because of a lack of transparency from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety about the events of that night, she remained in the dark about what exactly happened to her son. “I just want to know what happened. I want to know, were the lights pulled on when you pulled my baby over? What was he doing?” she said.
“Did you identify yourself as a police officer? Did you give my son a
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