A man shot six people multiple times in a small town in Mississippi, but it’s not clear why he did it. People think he did it by himself. Six people were shot and killed in different places on Friday, February 17, in a small town in rural Mississippi near the state line with Tennessee. One person has been accused of murder and has been caught by the police. Bailey Martin, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, told the Associated Press about the deaths in Arkabutla, Tate County.
Brad Lance, the county sheriff, told local media that the killings took place at a convenience store and two homes. Trucks from the sheriff’s office and Tate County search and rescue were parked in front of the store, which was blocked off by police with yellow tape. Katherine King, a manager at the Sheriff’s Department, said that 52-year-old Richard Dale Crum was taken into custody and charged with one count of murder with the death penalty.
The woman said that Crum was being held without bond and that more charges could be brought. At the time, nobody knew if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. The office of the governor confirmed that he had been told about the shootings. We think he did it by himself, Reeves said in a statement. He also said that no one knows what made him do what he did. Ethan Cash, who lives close to the store and told WREG-TV that he heard the gunshot from his home, said:
I had just woken up when I saw a man with a shotgun coming back this way. Cash said he went to the scene and found that one person had been shot. He said that when he checked for a pulse, he didn’t find one. According to the Facebook page for Coldwater Elementary School, both the elementary school and high school in nearby Coldwater were put on lockdown while the suspect was being looked for. After a short time, another post on the website said that the lockdown was over and that “all children and staff are safe.”
According to a database kept by the Associated Press and USA Today, this is the first mass murder in the US since January 23, when the last of six murders that happened over a three-week period took place. A mass murder is when at least four people are killed, not including the killer. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, its agents were helping the sheriff’s office and state investigators. Arkabutla is about 50 kilometers south of Memphis, Tennessee. The 2020 Census says that there are 285 people living there.
