Picture from the Jasper County Sheriff's Department shows one of the escaped monkeys.

Two of the monkeys that escaped from an overturned truck on a southeastern Mississippi highway last week have been shot dead and one remains on the loose, per officials and media reports.

The rhesus monkeys escaped on Tuesday, Oct. 28 after a truck picked them up from the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, then overturned in Mississippi on Interstate 59, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department shared last week.

Jessica Bond Ferguson, 35, told USA TODAY she shot one of the monkeys on Sunday morning, Nov. 2 in Heidelberg, Mississippi. She was half asleep that morning when her son let her know the family's dogs were barking, seemingly at nothing – no passersby and no garbage trucks that normally send them into barking spells.

Her son then looked out the window and said he saw something running in the yard, chasing her smaller dog, Bond Ferguson told USA TODAY on Nov. 4. He told her it was a monkey.

After calling the police to send someone, she worried about the monkey getting away and harming someone.

"I don't want him to get ahold of my child or anybody else's child and harm them, attack them, kill them, infect them," said Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging from ages 3 to 16. "It's no telling what they really might do to you."

A second monkey was fatally shot on Monday, Nov. 3 when someone spotted it crossing the highway about a mile away from the original crash scene, multiple media outlets including the Associated Press and NOLA.com reported.

'You could see his teeth'

Once Bond Ferguson's son told her about the monkey in the yard on Nov. 2, she went outside and called the police, backing her vehicle out of her driveway and out to the road to make it easier for authorities to find her home once they arrived. Officials told her not to get close to the animal as she waited.

She saw the monkey jump from a bin to the railing next to her neighbor's home.

"He was opening his mouth and stuff," Bond Ferguson said, describing the monkey's movements. "Like you could see his teeth and stuff."

As the monkey made its way closer to Bond Ferguson's porch, she made the decision to shoot the animal. Her first shot was too far away, so she missed. She then tried again, this time shooting from in front of her truck.

"My hands were shaking," she said, noting that she wasn't sure how the monkey would react to her second attempt at shooting the animal. "Will he jump down and come run to me? I was panicking."

Her second bullet struck the monkey, sending the animal falling back onto her porch. According to Bond Ferguson, a local game warden recovered the animal.

The situation has been frustrating, she said. No officials have checked on her family or offered to disinfect the area, so she did it herself, she said.

Bond Ferguson recalled being alone outside the night before the shooting when she heard something "strange" in the bushes. She said it almost sounded like monkeys communicating with each other or playing. It's a scary thought knowing there was a monkey in her yard after all, she said.

"My five kids probably wouldn't have had no mother," she said. "They could've woke up Sunday morning to a different story ... to not having a mother at all."

One monkey still on the loose

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said in a press release on Nov. 4 that of the 21 monkeys that were being transported, eight escaped once the truck overturned. Among the eight escapees, five were recovered at the crash site, two are deceased and one remains on the loose.

Tulane University told USA TODAY on Nov. 3 that the school does not own the monkeys, and that a separate agency was transporting the monkeys from the university when the truck overturned.

Research company PreLabs LLC confirmed to the AP and WDAM 7 that it owns the monkeys involved. The organization said the monkeys were not infected with COVID-19, hepatitis or herpes as previously reported.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said Nov. 2 in a Facebook post that a homeowner found one of the monkeys on their property, presumably in reference to Bond Ferguson's encounter, but provided no other details.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of the crash.

Confusion about the health risks posed by escaped monkeys

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department shared a series of updates the day of the highway incident on Oct. 28.

The sheriff’s department incorrectly stated that the 40-pound monkeys carry hepatitis C, herpes and COVID, then shared confirmation from Tulane University that the monkeys are not infectious. The sheriff's department added that it got its incorrect information about health risks from the truck driver.

Bond Ferguson said news of the overturned truck carrying the monkeys spread quickly in Heidelberg, a small town about 92 miles southeast of Jackson. Phones were buzzing with messages about "infected monkeys" on the loose after the truck flipped over, she said.

The monkey she shot had a tattoo with letters and numbers on it, said Bond Ferguson, who has two dogs, a cat and a rabbit. When asked what she wants to see going forward, she wants to see officials find the remaining monkey on the loose. She also wants to see animals treated better.

She posted about the shooting on social media and that's when she found out earlier reports of the monkeys being infectious were not true.

Bond Ferguson said if the monkeys are not infectious, she doesn't understand why the driver didn't collect the animals, or why officials or those who own the monkeys couldn't track them in some way.

"It was like they left it on us to take care of it," she said.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks asks that residents who spot the remaining monkey call 1-800-237-6278.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'You could see his teeth': Woman recalls shooting escaped Mississippi monkey

Reporting by Saleen Martin, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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