A man named Willie Cory Godbolt confessed Sunday to fatally shooting eight people in three homes in the towns of Brookhaven and Bogue Chitto, Mississippi. Among the dead was a sheriff's deputy called to investigate after a neighbor reported a disturbance. The identities of the victims have not been released.
"I ain't fit to live, not after what I done," Godbolt confessed to a local paper after he was arrested. "Not in y'all eyes, not in nobody else's eyes." Godbolt said he did not intend to hurt the deputy — "My pain wasn't designed for him. He was just there" — but planned to provoke police into killing him: "Suicide by cop was my intention."
A 16-year-old boy Godbolt took hostage escaped unharmed, and law enforcement are expected to bring charges soon. Godbolt is believed to have been disputing custody of his children when he attacked.