Richard Dale Crum, Arkabutla Shooting Suspect Identified

Richard Dale Crum is the suspect accused in connection with a series of shootings at different locations in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on February 17, 2023, according to the Tate County sheriff.

“Richard Dale Crum, 52, of Arkabulta was arrested this afternoon and charged with First Degree Murder in connection with this case. Additional charges, for each of the other victims, will be filed in the coming days. Crum is being held without bond in the Tate County Jail,” the Tate County Sheriff announced in a press statement posted to the department’s Facebook page.

Arkabutla is a small town of about 285 people located in rural Mississippi near Memphis, Tennessee.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Richard Crum Shot 6 People in 3 Different Locations in Arkabutla, the Sheriff Says

The sheriff’s statement says that, on February 17, 2023, “there was a series of shootings at three different locations in Arkabutla, resulting in the deaths of six people.”

The statement adds: “We are in the very early stages of the investigation so we can only release a limited amount of information. What we do want the community to know is that the suspect is in custody.”

A woman wrote on a comment thread about the shootings that Crum is her uncle’s stepson. “We still aren’t sure why he went on a killing spree. Praying for the other families involved,” she wrote of the accusations.

2. Richard Dale Crum Is Accusing of Shooting a Man in a Store Before Shooting People in Two Different Homes

Sheriff Brad Lance told WREG that authorities believe Crum “went into a store and shot a man, then went to a house nearby on Bend Road and shot a woman.”

Lance told the television station that Crum “also went to a home on Arkabutla Dam Road and shot and killed two people there.”

He was arrested after a chase ended in the driveway of a home where two more people were found deceased, one in a vehicle and the other in the roadway, according to what the sheriff told WREG.

A man who says he knows a person in Arkabutla referred to Crum on Facebook by the nickname “Bubba” and shared a surveillance photo image. The Tate Record reported that it had obtained a surveillance photo of the suspect, possibly from the Arkabutla Dam Store, and was working to verify it.

3. A Witness Says a Man Was Shot in a Truck at a Convenience Store & He Saw a ‘Dude Walking Back Here With a Shotgun’

VINE LinkRichard Crum booking.

A man who witnessed a shooting at a convenience store on Arkabutla Road, Ethan Cash, told WREG, “I heard the gunshot from inside my house. I had just woken up and I look back here, and I see dude walking back here with a shotgun.”

“I go up to a truck where a guy got shot at, and I check his pulse and make sure he’s okay — he’s already gone at this point,” Cash said to the television station. “I had a moment where I could have saved someone’s life and I missed it, man.”

According to VINE Link, Crum was booked into the Tate County Jail in Senatobia, Mississippi, at 3:28 p.m. on February 17, 2023.

4. A Woman Described Arkabutla as a ‘Place Where Everyone Knows Everyone Else’

Arkabutla resident April Wade described the community to ABC 24 as a place where everyone knows everyone else “but if you don’t, you know somebody who knows somebody.”

“I think it’s crazy,” Wade said to the television station. “You do not expect something like that to happen so close to home.”

5. The Motive Is Not Yet Clear

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves wrote on Twitter that he had been “briefed on the series of shootings in Tate County.”

According to Tate, the “individual responsible has been taken into custody alive. At this time we believe he acted alone. His motive is not yet known.”

Tate promised that “the full resources of the state are available to law enforcement.”

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