A well-known Mississippi model and beauty business owner has been intentionally run over by her ex-boyfriend on Saturday as she crossed a street.
Brittany Rhea Phillips, 26, was pronounced dead at around 8 p.m. just after being plowed down on Riviera Road by 30-year-old James Heath Kitchens.
Kitchens was a Tupelo police officer until May 2020, local reports said. He was arrested and charged with manslaughter.
Investigators believe the incident was “domestic violence-related” but no further details were disclosed so far.
“I don’t know if any of you ever met Brittany Rhea Phillips, but she was taken from us last night in a domestic violence event at her home in Starkville,” a photographer announced on Facebook.
The victim was a mother of two, a 7-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son. Kitchens is the father of the youngest child.
Phillips was a successful model in Mississippi and had an online boutique, Couturhea, and a beauty center named Beauty Perfected.