One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway was shot and killed early Sunday by a mother who said she feared for the safety of her children.

Jessica Bond Ferguson said her 16-year-old son alerted her early Sunday that he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Miss.

That’s when Bond Ferguson said she got out of her bed, grabbed her firearm and cellphone and stepped outside, where she saw the monkey about 18 metres away.

The Mississippi mother, who has five children ranging in age from four to 16, said she and other residents had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases, so she fired her gun.

“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson told The Associated P

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