AP: Eight People Including Sheriff's Deputy Killed In Mississippi

Authorities in Mississippi say a suspect is in custody after eight people were killed in a shooting, including a sheriff's deputy. They say suspect Cory Godbolt apparently got into a dispute with his wife and in-laws and was arrested in a house-to-house shooting rampage Saturday night in rural Lincoln County.

According to the Daily Leader, the Lincoln County deputy went to a home on Lee Drive in Bogue Chitto for a resident wanting the suspect removed from the property. 

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.

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 was identified as 36-year-old William Durr. The identities of the other victims were not immediately released.

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."

Vincent Mitchell, Godbolt's stepfather-in-law, told The Associated Press the shooting "all stemmed from domestic violence."

Mitchell says three family members were killed at his home. "I'm devastated. It don't seem like it's real," he said.

He says Godbolt came to his home Saturday to talk with his wife about taking their two children, and Godbolt appeared to be leaving after a sheriff's deputy was called to the house. But "then he reached into his back pocket. He started shooting."

Mitchell says his wife, Barbara Mitchell, was killed along with her daughter, Toccarra May, and the wife's sister, Brenda May. Mitchell says he and the suspect's wife escaped.

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.