Mississippi shooting kills 6, suspect detained
WASHINGTON, D.C.: A gunman killed six people in Mississippi on Friday, prompting United States President Joe Biden to call again for tightened gun restrictions only days after he pleaded for action following a deadly university shooting.
Police in the southern American state said a man shot and killed a person at a store in the small town of Arkabutla, then went to a nearby house and killed a woman, according to local media.
CNN later reported, citing the county sheriff, that the woman was his ex-wife.
Police then tracked down his vehicle to a home later determined to belong to the suspect, and found two more men killed nearby, Sheriff Brad Lance told CNN.
The fifth and sixth person, a man and a woman, were found shot and killed in a neighboring house, and were possibly related to the suspect, who was detained as he attempted to flee, Lance said.
The Tate County Sheriff’s Office identified the alleged shooter in a Facebook post as 52-year-old Richard Dale Crum, saying he was in custody and charged with firstdegree murder.
In a tweeted statement, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he had been briefed on the incident.
“At this time, we believe he acted alone. His motive is not known,” he said.
“Please pray for the victims of this tragic violence and their families at this time,” he added.
The case was taken on by the sheriff of Tate County, where Arkabutla is located, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Friday’s deadly shooting comes days after a man, also with no known motive, attacked a university campus in the northern state of Michigan, killing three people.
“Enough,” Biden said in a statement on Friday night, echoing the same exasperated sentiment he expressed after the Michigan shooting.
“We are 48 days into the year and our nation has already suffered at least 73 mass shootings. Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. Gun violence is an epidemic, and Congress must act now,” the president said.
Last month, two deadly mass shootings also occurred in less than a week, both in California and involving the Asian American community.
“We need —need — common sense gun law reforms,” Biden said on Friday night.
His calls for Congress to reinstate a national ban on assault rifles, which existed from 1994 to 2004, has run up against opposition from Republicans, who are staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms and have had a narrow majority in the House of Representatives since January.
There were an estimated 44,000 gun-related deaths in the US last year, about half of them murder cases, accidents and self-defense, and half of them suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive database.