NATCHEZ — A helicopter transported a suspected drug dealer to Jackson for medical treatment Wednesday after the suspect plummeted four stories from a hotel.

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said the suspect either jumped or fell off an outdoor staircase landing while trying to evade arrest.

The fall knocked the suspect, Kendrick Williams, 29, unconscious, and he remained unconscious until deputies left University Medical Center in Jackson Wednesday night.

Deputies received a tip at 8 a.m. Wednesday that Williams, 1246 Daisy St., was hiding out at a downtown hotel, Mayfield said.

The sheriff’s office was attempting to arrest Williams on a warrant for sale marijuana and two counts of sale of cocaine.

Mayfield said a hotel security guard let deputies into the room in which Williams was supposedly staying. Deputies found the room empty but with signs it was recently occupied.

Upon leaving the room and searching the outside staircase, Mayfield said, deputies noticed an unresponsive man lying in the grass. Deputies then identified the badly injured man as Williams.

“At first (deputies) didn’t know it was (Williams),” Mayfield said.

Deputies called emergency medical officials at the scene, and an ambulance drove Williams to Natchez Regional Medical Center, where he was reportedly stabilized before being airlifting to Jackson.

Williams apparently suffered several broken bones and a severe head injury, Mayfield said.

Williams seemed to have hit his head on a steel box possibly containing an electrical grid.

Deputies reported that they thought Williams jumped from the fourth-floor staircase platform since he landed a distance from the hotel wall on a patch of grass where he might have been aiming to land, Mayfield said.

He said investigators are working to learn how Williams might have known deputies arrived at the hotel to arrest him.

“We believe (Williams) was tipped off or warned that were approaching,” Mayfield said.

Williams likely knew deputies were looking to arrest him because they had previously stopped by his house twice with a warrant.

Williams was out on bond at the time of the incident for a previous charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Mayfield said the hotel room was registered under the name Cornelius Bradley. Mayfield would not release the name of the hotel where the incident occurred.