8 dead in shooting rampage in Mississippi; suspect arrested

Updated: 1:435 p.m. | Posted: 8:50 a.m.

A man who got into an argument with his estranged wife over their children was arrested in a house-to-house shooting rampage in rural Mississippi that left eight people dead, including a sheriff's deputy.

"I ain't fit to live, not after what I done," a handcuffed Willie Corey Godbolt, 35,

"They cost him his life," he said, apparently referring to the deputy. "I'm sorry."

The stepfather-in-law, Vincent Mitchell, said in an interview that Godbolt's wife and their two children had been staying at his Bogue Chitto home for about three weeks after she left her husband.

After the sheriff's deputy arrived at the house, Godbolt looked as if he was about to leave, then reached into his back pocket, pulled a gun and opened fire, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he escaped along with Godbolt's wife. But he said three family members were killed in his home: his wife, her sister and one of the wife's daughters.

"I'm devastated. It don't seem like it's real," Mitchell said. The slain deputy was identified as William Durr, 36.

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."