iStock/Thinkstock(JACKSON, Miss.) — Investigators have yet to determine what triggered a 35-year-old man to allegedly kill a sheriff’s deputy and seven other people in a shooting rampage in rural Mississippi over Memorial Day weekend.
The suspect, Willie Corey Godbolt, was apprehended Sunday after the shootings, which took place overnight Saturday. The preliminary investigation indicates that Godbolt was either related to or an acquaintance of the victims, police said.
Godbolt remains hospitalized at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where he’s receiving treatment for a gunshot wound, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain told ABC News.
Godbolt reportedly told The Clarion-Ledger at the scene of his arrest that he had attempted to commit “suicide by cop.”
“I ain’t fit to live, not after what I done,” Godbolt told the paper while handcuffed.
Godbolt faces preliminary charges, including one count of capital murder and seven counts of first-degree murder, but those charges could evolve in the coming days. He has yet to be formally charged, as he remains in the hospital. Strain told ABC News that he didn’t anticipate that Godbolt would leave the hospital Monday.
It’s unclear whether Godbolt has obtained a lawyer.
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