A lone gunman killed six folks in a rural Mississippi city on Friday, together with his ex-wife, in a “collection of shootings,” officers stated.
A suspect is in custody, in keeping with the Tate County Sheriff’s Workplace, and was recognized as 52-year-old Richard Dale Crum of Arkabulta, Mississippi. The sheriff’s workplace stated in a press release Crum was charged with first diploma homicide and being held with out bail on the Tate County Jail.
The spree started at about 11 a.m. Friday when Crum opened fireplace exterior a comfort retailer, killing a person who was sitting in a pickup truck parked exterior, Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance stated.
As deputies had been working the crime scene, a 911 name got here in about one other taking pictures in a house just a few miles away, Lance stated. There, deputies discovered Crum’s ex-wife fatally shot, and her present husband injured.
Deputies arrested Crum close to his house, the place exterior in addition they discovered two slain workmen — one within the street and one other inside an SUV. In one other close by home, Crum’s stepfather and the sister of the stepfather had been discovered killed by gunshots.
Lance stated Crum had a shotgun and two handguns.
“Everyone has crime, and on occasion now we have violent crime, however actually nothing of this magnitude,” Lance advised the Related Press. “With out having the ability to say what triggered this, that’s the scary half.”
Lance stated after Crum killed the primary sufferer, 59-year-old Eugene Boyce, he chased Boyce’s brother by means of a wooded space earlier than the brother escaped unhurt.
Deputy Tate County Coroner Ernie Lentz recognized the others killed as Debra Crum, 60; Charles Manuel, 76; John Rorie, 59; George McCain, 78; and Lynda McCain, 78.
Norma Washington, who stated she was Boyce’s aunt, advised the Related Press that Boyce and his brother, Doug, had been on the town cleansing up a property they inherited from their deceased uncle.
“I misplaced my brother, and now this one,” she stated.
It is unclear if Crum knew the Boyce brothers.
Gov. Tate Reeves stated authorities imagine the suspect acted alone.
“Please pray for the victims of this tragic violence and their households right now,” Reeves stated in a press release.
The shootings occurred in Arkabutla, in Tate County, a small, unincorporated neighborhood about 20 miles south of the Mississippi-Tennessee border on the south facet of Arkabutla Lake.
“I heard the gunshot from inside my home,” Ethan Money, who lives close to the shop, advised WREG-TV. “I had simply woken up and I look again right here, and I see dude strolling again right here with a shotgun.”
Money stated he went to the scene and located one one who had been shot. He stated he checked for a pulse however discovered none.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has been known as in to help with the investigation.
Contributing: The Related Press
