Among the victims are his father, brother, uncle, seven-year-old cousin, and the pastor and his brother.
Suspect Daricka M. Moore was arrested at a police roadblock in Cedarbluff shortly before midnight after dozens of local, state and federal law enforcement officers swarmed the northeast Mississippi area. Moore is being held in the Clay County Jail without bail and is expected to make a first appearance in court on Monday.
District Attorney Scott Colom has announced that he plans to seek the death penalty and that Moore will likely be assigned an official defense attorney. If the charges are upgraded to aggravated murder, Moore will not be eligible for bail under state law.
Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott said evidence and witnesses indicate Moore was the only shooter and that no one else was injured. The motive of the attack is not yet known. “In a situation like this, you have a family member attacking their own family. Whatever the reason, we hope to find it,” the sheriff said.
The murders took place in a remote area about 200 kilometers northeast of Jackson, in an area filled with fields, forests and modest homes. Investigators believe Moore first killed his father Glenn Moore, 67, brother Quinton Moore, 33, and uncle Willie Ed Guines, 55, in the family’s mobile home.
After that, he stole his brother’s truck and drove several kilometers to his cousin’s house, where he broke in and killed a seven-year-old girl. The mother and the third child, who survived, were also in the house. Moore then went to the residence of the Apostolic Church of the Lord Jesus, where he killed Pastor Barry Bradley and his brother Samuel Bradley and stole one of their vehicles.
Moore was arrested four and a half hours after the first call to police. He had a rifle and a pistol with him, and it is being investigated how he got the weapons. The sheriff said the surviving members of Moore’s family were devastated. “It was very difficult to talk about anything but prayers with everyone there. This really shook our community,” Scott said.
Prosecutor Colom confirmed that seeking the death penalty was the right move. “Six people, one night, several different crime scenes, it can’t get any worse,” Colom concluded.
(Vijesti.ba)
