By The Associated Press

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — An Academy Award-winning actor is among those calling for an end to violence in a southwest Mississippi city.
Larry Hooper, principal of the ninth grade school in the Natchez-Adams school district, says Jamie Foxx made the 17-second video after talking to the mother of an 18-year-old shooting victim.

Jamie Foxx (Photo by John Salangsang/Invision/AP)

The Natchez Democrat reports that Foxx says it’s his “sincere hope that we stop the killing in Natchez, Mississippi.”

Adams County and Natchez have seen at least 13 slayings this year, up from five in 2017. Police blame killings on a cycle of retaliatory violence.

Foxx won a best actor award for portraying Ray Charles in the 2004 film, “Ray.”

Hooper says he became friends with Foxx after Hooper and his daughter won a trip to Los Angeles and met Foxx.

___

Information from: The Natchez Democrat, http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/