Mississippi preacher shoots one of last lab monkeys that escaped a truck crash

George Barnett, a pastor and avid hunter, shot the rhesus monkey out of a tree in Vossburg, Mississippi, on his way to visit his mother on Monday.

George Barnett’s work as a small-town pastor means folks probably won’t challenge him when he tells of the day he picked up a hunting rifle and took aim at an escaped rhesus monkey in rural Mississippi.

What started as a routine visit to his mom’s house in Vossburg on Monday is now the latest chapter in the not-so-tall tale that captivated much of the state, after a transport of research primates overturned in Jasper County just before Halloween.

Barnett’s wife spotted the runaway monkey as a blur of fur crossing near a highway exit ramp late Monday afternoon. Once in the woods, it scampered into a tree and flashed its teeth. Barnett, 45, grabbed his rifle and fired twice, he said, sending the animal crashing to the ground.

Jasper County Sheriff's Department “As soon as I saw it, the only thing I thought about was, ‘What if this thing attacks one of those people that I grew up with, or my children?’” Barnett said.

The monkey was one of three escapees from last week’s accident, when a truck crashed while carrying 21 primates from the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center near New Orleans.