Suspect planned ‘suicide by cop’ Eight slain in shooting

AUTHORITIES in Mississippi said a suspect was in custody yesterday after eight people were killed in a shooting, including a sheriff’s deputy.

Willie Cory Godbolt, 35, was taken into custody early on Sunday morning, according to local newspaper the Daily Leader.

He was reportedly holding a 16-year-old hostage at the time, though the teen was released unharmed, Fox News reported.

Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said the shootings occurred at three separate homes on Saturday night in rural Lincoln County about 109km south of the capital, Jackson.

Mr Strain said investigators were gathering evidence at all three locations.

He said charges had not yet been filed against Godbolt and that it would be “premature” to discuss a motive.

However, the suspect himself gave some insight into the events that led to the shootings.

“I ain’t fit to live, not after what I done,” Godbolt told The Clarion- Ledger after his arrest.

The newspaper recorded video of the suspect talking as he sat with hands cuffed behind his back on a roadside surrounded by law enforcement officers. WILLIE CORY GODBOLT

Godbolt (pictured) 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,” the suspect said on the video.

“Somebody called the officer, people that didn’t even live at the house. They intervened.

“They cost him his life,” the suspect added, apparently in reference to the slain deputy. “I’m sorry.” The suspect also 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.”