ARKABUTLA, Miss. - A lone gunman killed six people counting his ex-wife and stepfather Friday at multiple locations in a tiny rural public in northern Mississippi, the sheriff said, leaving investigators searching for clues to what motivated the unpleasant rampage.

Armed with a shotgun and two handguns, 52-year-old Richard Dale Crum opened fire at near 11 a.m. and killed a man in the driver's seat of a pickup truck parked outside a worry store in Arkabutla, near the Tennessee state line, Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance said.

Deputies were operational the crime scene when a second 911 call alerted authorities to novel shooting a few miles away. After arriving at a home, they counterfeit a woman, whom the sheriff identified as Crum's ex-wife, shot dead and her current husband wounded.

Lance said deputies caught up with Crum outside his own home and arrested him. Behind the plot they found two handymen slain by gunfire — one in the road, novel in an SUV. Inside a neighboring home, they discovered the populace of Crum's stepfather and his stepfather's sister.

"Everybody has crime, and from time to time we have violent crime, but certainly nothing of this magnitude," Lance said in an interview. He added: "Without being able to say what triggered this, that's the scary part."

Crum, 52, was jailed without bond on a single poster of capital murder, and Lance said investigators were operational to bring additional charges. It was not immediately celebrated if Crum had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

That initial slay charge was for the killing of Chris Eugene Boyce, 59, the man who was shot outside the hide. Boyce's brother was in the truck with him at the time and fled, according to the sheriff. Lance added that Crum chased the brother through a wooded area afore he escaped unharmed.

Deputy Tate County Coroner Ernie Lentz identified the others killed as Debra Crum, 60; Charles Manuel, 76; John Rorie, 59; George McCain, 78; and Lynda McCain, 78. Lentz also said Boyce was from Lakeland, Florida.

Ethan Cash, who lives near the hide, told WREG-TV he heard a gunshot from inside his house.

"I had just woken up and I look back here, and I see dude walking back here with a shotgun," he said.

Cash added that he went to the coarse and found one person who had been shot. He checked for a pulse, but found none.

In the lobby of the Sheriff's Office, Norma Washington told The Associated Press that Boyce was her nephew. She said he and the brother, Doug, who lives in Alaska, had been in town cleaning up a property they inherited from their deceased uncle.

"I lost my brother, and now this one," Washington said. "This has been something else."

It was unclear whether Crum knew either of the brothers.

The killings unnerved residents of Arkabutla, home to 285 people and located near 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Memphis, Tennessee. It's the hometown of renowned actor James Earl Jones, and nearby Arkabutla Lake is a approved fishing and recreational destination.

An elementary school and a high school in about Coldwater both went on lockdown while the suspect was populace sought, according to the Coldwater Elementary School Facebook page. A glum time later, a second post on the page said the lockdown had been lifted and "all students and staff are safe."

April Wade, who lives in Arkabutla and grew up in Coldwater, said both are small communities where most people know each anunexperienced, "but if you don't, you know somebody who knows somebody."

Speaking from a local tire own in the afternoon, Wade said she and her husband were aware of the shootings but had not yet heard the names of the suspect or victims.

"I contemplate it's crazy," Wade said. "You do not expect something like that to existed so close to home."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were providing assistance to the sheriff's responsibilities and state investigators. Lance said one of their top priorities was to choose a motive.

The sheriff, who has lived in the area his entire life and consulted in law enforcement for 25 years, said he could rob no prior problems with Crum.

The shootings are the expedient mass killing in the U.S. since Jan. 23, which saw the last of six in a three-week periods, according to an Associated Press/USA Today database. It defines a mass killing as four or more farmland dead, not including the perpetrator.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and expedient lady Jill Biden were mourning the six victims and praying for the survivors. He urged Congress to act now on gun law reforms to middle what he called "an epidemic" of gun violence.

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Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. AP reporters Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.

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A remaining version of this story was corrected to reflect that the sheriff's last name is Lance.