A 52-year-old man armed with three guns went on a shooting rampage in a rural Mississippi county on Friday, killing six people, including his ex-wife, and shocking a community that had not seen such mass violence in more than two decades, the authorities said.

The man, Richard Dale Crum, of Arkabutla, Mississippi, who was in custody on Friday afternoon, began his killing spree around 11am (local time) when he drove to a convenience store in his hometown, which has about 290 residents, and fatally shot a man who appeared to have no connection to him, said Brad Lance, the Tate County sheriff.

“Literally within minutes of getting that call, another call comes in,” Sheriff Lance said in an interview. And then several more residents called to report gunfire.

By early afternoon, deputies in Arkabutla, a community about 72km south of Memphis, realised they were dealing with multiple killings, several crime scenes, and questions about what had possibly driven a local resident to fatally shoot six people.

New York Times News Service