A lone gunman killed six people, including his ex-wife and stepfather on Friday, at several locations in a small rural community in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues as to what motivated the shocking fury. Armed with a rifle and two handguns, 52-year-old Richard Dale Crum opened fire at about 11 a.m. 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, Tate County Sheriff Brad Lane said. Officers were working at the crime scene when a second 911 call alerted authorities of another shooting a few miles away. Upon arriving at a home, they found a woman, whom the sheriff identified as Crum’s ex-wife, shot dead and her current husband injured. Lane said deputies caught up with Crum outside his own home and arrested him. Behind the residence, they found two handymen shot dead: one in the street, another in an SUV. Inside a nearby house, they discovered the bodies of Crum’s stepfather and his stepfather’s sister. “Everyone has crimes, and we have violent crimes from time to time, but certainly nothing of this magnitude,” Lane said in an interview. He added, “Without being able to tell what triggered this, that’s the scary part.” It wasn’t immediately known whether Crum had an attorney who could speak for him. The initial murder charge was in 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 Crum attacked, Lane said, and escaped unharmed. “I heard the shooting from inside my house,” Ethan Cash, who lives near the store, told WREG-TV. “I just woke up and I look back here, and I see a guy coming back here with a shotgun.” Cash said he went to the scene and found a person who had been shot. He said he checked her pulse but he couldn’t find any. It is the birthplace of famous actor James Earl Jones, and nearby Arkabutla Lake is a popular fishing and leisure destination. page. A short time later, a second post on the page said the lockdown had been lifted and “all students and staff are safe”. April Wade, who lives in Arkabutla and grew up in Coldwater, said both are small communities where most people know each other, “but if you don’t know, you know someone who knows someone.” Speaking from a local tire store in the afternoon, Wade said she and her husband knew about the shootings but hadn’t yet heard the names of the suspect or victims. “I think it’s crazy,” Wade said. “You don’t expect something like this to happen so close to home.” The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were providing assistance to the sheriff’s department and state investigators. Lane said one of their top priorities was determining a motive. The sheriff, who has lived in the area his entire life and served in law enforcement for 25 years, said he could not recall any previous problems with Crum. killings in the United States since January 23, which has seen the latest of six in a three-week period, according to an Associated Press/USA Today database. It defines a mass killing as the death of four or more people, not including the perpetrator. ___Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. AP reporters Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia contributed.
A lone gunman killed six people, including his ex-wife and stepfather on Friday, in multiple locations in a small rural community in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues as to what motivated the shocking fury.
Armed with a rifle and two handguns, 52-year-old Richard Dale Crum opened fire at about 11:00 a.m. 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. in Tate County. Sheriff Brad Lane said.
Cops were working the crime scene when a second 911 call alerted authorities of another shooting a few miles away. After arriving at a home, they found a woman, whom the sheriff identified as Crum’s ex-wife, shot and killed and her current husband injured.
Lane said deputies caught up with Crum outside his home and arrested him. Behind the residence, they found two handymen shot dead: one in the street, another in an SUV. Inside a nearby house, they discovered the bodies of Crum’s stepfather and his stepfather’s sister.
“Everyone has crimes, and we have violent crimes from time to time, but certainly nothing of this magnitude,” Lane said in an interview. She added, “Without being able to tell what triggered this, that’s the scary part.”
Crum, 52, was jailed without bail on a single count of capital murder, and Lane said detectives were working to bring further charges. It was not immediately known whether Crum had an attorney who could speak for him.
The initial murder charge was in 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 Crum attacked, Lane said, and escaped unharmed.
“I heard the shooting from inside my house,” Ethan Cash, who lives near the store, told WREG-TV. “I just woke up and I look back, and I see a guy coming back here with a shotgun.”
Cash said he went to the scene and found a person who had been shot. He said he checked her pulse but found none.
The killings stunned residents of Arkabutla, home to 285 people and located about 30 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. It is the birthplace of famous actor James Earl Jones, and nearby Arkabutla Lake is a popular fishing and leisure destination.
An elementary school and a high school in nearby Coldwater were both locked down while the suspect was wanted, according to Coldwater Elementary School’s 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”.
April Wade, who lives in Arkabutla and grew up in Coldwater, said both are small communities where most people know each other, “but if you don’t, you know someone who knows someone.”
Speaking from a local tire store in the afternoon, Wade said she and her husband knew about the shootings but had not yet heard the names of the suspect or the victims.
“I think it’s crazy,” Wade said. “You don’t expect something like this to happen so close to home.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were providing assistance to the sheriff’s department and state investigators. Lane said one of their top priorities was determining a motive.
The sheriff, who has lived in the area his entire life and served in law enforcement for 25 years, said he could not remember any previous problems with Crum.
The shootings are the first mass killings in the United States since January 23, which saw the latest of six in a three-week period, according to an Associated Press/USA Today database. Defines mass homicide as four or more people dead, not including the perpetrator.
___
Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. AP reporters Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia contributed.
