Jacquelyn Dole Sherrill

Sergeant Jacquelyn "Jackie" Dole Sherrill was a police officer shot and killed on December 31, 1984.

Jackie Dole was born in California in 1951 and moved to Hattiesburg at an early age. She became Hattiesburg's first female officer when she joined the Hattiesburg Police Department in 1974. In 1975 she married Sgt. Charles R. Sherrill, whom she met while a student at USM. In September 1983 she was promoted to sergeant and detective, becoming the first woman in the Hattiesburg police department to do so.

On December 31, 1984, four officers, including Jackie Sherrill, were serving an arrest warrant for Noah Wheeler on East Side Avenue. Three officers went to the front door while Sherrill went to the back door. As the officers began talking to Wheeler he became aggitated and threatened the officers, then charged out of his house and attacked them. In the struggle Wheeler managed to take one of the officer's guns and began firing. Sherrill heard the shots and rushed to the front of the house. As she approached Wheeler fired another shot and struck Sherrill in the chest. She was rushed to Forrest General Hospital but was declared dead upon arrival.

Noah Wheeler was convicted of capital murder on May 4, 1986 and sentenced to death by lethal injection. In July of 1989 the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the death penalty, saying there was reasonable doubt that Wheeler knew Sherrill was an officer since she was not in uniform, though she was visibly displaying a gun holster and badge on her belt.

The Jackie Dole Sherrill Community Center is named after her.