8 dead in Mississippi shooting rampage, suspect in custody

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. -- A man who apparently got into a dispute with his wife and in-laws was arrested in a house-to-house shooting rampage in rural Mississippi that left eight people dead, including a sheriff's deputy.

Authorities told CBS affiliate WJTV that the suspect is 35-year-old Willie Cory Godbolt of Bogue Chitto.

The shootings took place at three homes Saturday night -- two in Brookhaven and one in Bogue Chitto -- about 70 miles south of Jackson, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said. The rampage began after authorities got a call about a domestic dispute, investigators said.

The dead included two boys, and Godbolt was being treated for a gunshot wound at a hospital, authorities said. They did not say how he was wounded.

A reporter with The Clarion Ledger, Therese Apel‏, was at the scene during the arrest. She posted images and video footage of Godbolt's arrest to Twitter.

"I ain't fit to live, not after what I done," a handcuffed Godbolt told The Clarion-Ledger.

Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said charges had yet to be filed and it was too soon to say what the motive was. Authorities gave no details on the relationship between Godbolt and the victims.

However, Godbolt himself shed some light on what happened in a video interview with the newspaper as he sat with his hands cuffed behind his back on the side of a road.

Godbolt said he was talking with his wife and members of her family when somebody called authorities.

"I was having a conversation with her stepdaddy and her mama and her, my wife, about me taking my children home," he said. "Somebody called the officer, people that didn't even live at the house. That's what they do. They intervene."

"They cost him his life," he said, apparently referring to the deputy. "I'm sorry."

The slain deputy, William Durr, 36, had served two years in the sheriff's department and previously worked as a Brookhaven police officer. Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said Durr was married and had an 11-year-old son.

Off duty, he was a ventriloquist who took his puppets to schools and churches and performed for children.

"He had a heart of gold," Rushing told The Daily Leader. "He loved doing anything with kids. He would go out of his way to help anybody."

The Oxford Police Department posted an image of Durr on Twitter, alongside the message: "RIP Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy William Durr."

Godbolt said he did not intend for police to capture him alive. "My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran out of bullets," he said. "Suicide by cop was my intention."

The stepfather-in-law, Vincent Mitchell, told The Associated Press that Godbolt's wife and their two children had been staying at his Bogue Chitto home for about three weeks after she left her husband because of domestic violence.

When the sheriff's deputy arrived at the house, Godbolt looked as if he were about to leave, then reached into his back pocket, pulled a gun and opened fire, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he escaped along with Godbolt's wife. But he said three family members were killed in his home: his wife, her sister and one of the wife's daughters.

"I'm devastated. It don't seem like it's real," Mitchell said outside his yellow frame house, in a community of modest houses, trailer homes and small churches set among thick woods.

After fleeing his in-laws' house, Godbolt killed four more people at two other homes, authorities said. At least seven hours elapsed between the first shootings and Godbolt's arrest near the final crime scene in a subdivision of ranch houses in Brookhaven, a few miles from Bogue Chitto.

"It breaks everybody's heart," said Garrett Smith, a 19-year-old college student who went to high school with one of the victims. "Everybody knows everybody for the most part."

Governor Phil Bryant asked the community to pray for the victims in the shooting.

"I ask all Mississippians to join Deborah and me in praying for those lost in Lincoln County. Every day, the men and women who wear the badge make some measure of sacrifice to protect and serve their communities," Bryant said in a Facebook post. 

"Too often, we lose one of our finest. I thank the law enforcement agencies involved for their hard work. May the peace of the Almighty wash over those hurting after this senseless tragedy," he said.

Lt. Governor Tate Reeves issued a statement on Twitter, offering his condolences to victims.

"Our prayers are with the relatives of the victims and Deputy Durr," he wrote. "And thank you to those who wear the badge and face danger each day."

In:
• Mississippi