A lone gunman killed six people, including his ex-wife and stepfather, on Friday at multiple locations in a tiny rural community in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues to what motivated the rampage.
The shootings all happened within the community of Arkabutla, the local television station NBC5 reported, citing the Tate county sheriff, Brad Lance. Lance identified the suspect in custody as Richard Dale Crum, according to the Associated Press.
The suspect was facing charges of first-degree murder, Lance added.
Armed with a shotgun and two handguns, the gunman opened fire at about 11am and killed a man in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck parked outside a convenience store in Arkabutla, near the Tennessee state line, according to Lance.
Deputies were working the crime scene when a second 911 call alerted authorities to another shooting a few miles away. After arriving at a home, they found a woman, whom the sheriff identified as the suspect’s ex-wife, shot dead and her current husband wounded.
Lance said deputies had caught up with Crum outside his own home and arrested him. Behind the residence they found two handymen killed by gunfire – one in the road, another in an SUV. Inside a neighboring home, they had discovered the bodies of the suspect’s stepfather and his stepfather’s sister.
Crum was jailed without bond on a single charge of capital murder, and Lance said investigators were working to bring additional charges. It was not immediately known if the suspect had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
That initial murder charge was for the killing of Chris Eugene Boyce, 59, the man who was shot outside the store. He had a Florida driver’s license in his wallet, the sheriff said. Boyce’s brother was in the truck with him and fled when the suspect attacked, Lance said, and he escaped unharmed.
Governor Tate Reeves’ office said he had been briefed on the shootings.
“Everybody has crime, and from time to time we have violent crime, but certainly nothing of this magnitude,” Lance said in an interview. He added: “Without being able to say what triggered this, that’s the scary part.”
Lane said the arrested suspect lived at one of the homes involved in the spree.
Reeves also said the state would make its “full resources … available to law enforcement … to investigate the situation”.
“I heard the gunshot from inside my house,” Ethan Cash, who lives near the store, told WREG-TV. “I had just woken up and I look back here, and I see dude walking back here with a shotgun.”
Cash said he went to the scene and found one person who had been shot. He said he checked for a pulse but found none.
An elementary school and a high school in nearby Coldwater both went on lockdown while the suspect was being sought, according to the Coldwater elementary school Facebook page. A short time later, a second post on the page said the lockdown had been lifted and “all students and staff are safe”.
Arkabutla’s population is less than 300, and the community – about 45 miles south of the Tennessee city of Memphis – is near a reservoir that is a popular spot for fishing and other recreation.
A resident identified as April Wade told the Associated Press that most people in Arkabutla knew each other. “But if you don’t”, she added, “you know somebody who knows somebody.”
Speaking from a local tire store in the afternoon, Wade said she and her husband were aware of the shootings but had not heard the names of the suspect or victims.
“I think it’s crazy,” Wade said. “You do not expect something like that to happen so close to home.”
Arkabutla is also the hometown of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award-winning actor James Earl Jones.
If Friday’s killings in Arkabutla are designated as a mass shooting, the number of these incidents in the US in 2023 as of Friday – the 48th day of the year – will increase to least 73, according to statistics curated by the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four people are wounded or killed, not counting any attackers.
Gloria Oladipo and Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting