Shooter Arrested on Scene

By Michael Brooks Staff Writer     Numerous 911 calls prompted Edna police to respond to the Cottonwood Apartments, located at 1400 N. Wells Street in Edna, last Monday night. The callers delivered varied reports of a domestic disturbance and of a man assaulting a woman. However, when police officers arrived, they found that the woman had been shot.     

“At around 10:15 p.m. we were dispatched to Cottonwood apartments,” said Edna police officer Nathan Besler. “Surprisingly, not one call that came in mentioned a shooting, so we showed up expecting it to be a fight. When we arrived on scene, witnesses told us the suspect was behind a building.”     

As Besler was trying to make sense of the situation, a woman ran toward him.   

 “As I headed that way, I started seeing blood droplets,” he said. “A female came running up to us, telling us she had been shot in the chest. Turned out she had  been shot in the neck where it meets the head.”     

According to law enforcement sources, the woman who was later identified as Jeanna Ennels of Edna was shot with a .22 caliber handgun. She was transported by PHI ‘Life Flight’ helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, where she was treated and released later in the week.     

“We told (Ennels) to get behind us. She did, but first she ID’ed the gun on the ground,” Besler continued. “The alleged shooter was compliant when he was taken in to custody.     

“Ennels was completely coherent but before the ambulance got there she was hyperventilating and almost went into shock.”     

The alleged shooter, 40-year-old Cassius Dwayne Clay of Edna, was arrested at the scene and, prior to his incarceration, was transported to Jackson County Hospital for minor wounds he had reportedly received during a scuffle with Ennels.      

“There was a dispute between a dating couple, Cassius Clay and Jeanna Ennels, and it ended in Clay shooting Ennels,” said Edna Police Captain Bruce McConathy. “Ennels was transported to a Houston hospital by Life Flight and is in stable condition.”    

“There was an earlier confrontation that carried over to later that night,” Besler added. “Clay had one hand really swollen and scraped up.”     Clay was arrested and charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Felon.      

He is currently being held at the Jackson County Detention Center. The aggravated assault charge carries a $75,000 bond and the unlawful possession charge has a $10,000 bond.      

Clay is a registered sex offender who reportedly was released from prison earlier this year.     

Besler was happy with the way things worked out.     

“I was really glad it was a .22 pistol. A bigger caliber and she wouldn’t have been here today,” he said. “It could have been a lot worse.”