– A man was arrested in the “vicious” murders of at least five people in Alabama on Saturday, authorities said.
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The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office has identified the victims in Saturday’s quintuple murder in Citronelle.
Burch told reporters at the scene that “there was some type of instrument other than a firearm used on them”.
He kidnapped Lester and a 3-month-old child who belonged to one of the victims from the home and drove them to his father’s home in MS, police said. Dearman was accompanied by his father when he showed up at the sheriff’s department and surrendered Saturday afternoon, the Alabama sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Derrick Dearman, a man in his “20s from Greene County, MS is in custody after turning himself in at the Greene County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday afternoon, Captain Paul Burch with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office tells CNN.According to Burch, Dearman will be charged with six counts of capital murder, as one of the victims was pregnant”.
Dearman is still in custody in MS and will likely be extradited to Alabama this week, Burch said.
That didn’t stop Dearman from returning later in the evening and attacking the sleeping occupants where he used multiple weapons, including guns to slay his victims. Investigators are working to determine his relationship to the victims.
Burch said he understood that Citronelle police responded to the call, but found no one.
When they arrived at the scene, they found nothing out of the ordinary, authorities said.
Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said it was the worst crime she’s seen in her 20 years as a prosecutor.
After the killings, the suspect allegedly kidnapped a woman and a 3-month-old baby from the home, and drove to MS, where he surrendered Saturday afternoon at the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Later, Dearman apparently returned to the home and attacked the people inside, the statement said. The woman and baby are believed to be safe and unharmed, according to authorities. She said that five people were “brutally and viciously murdered”. Burch said it was his understanding that during the call Dearman had been identified as the trespasser.
The victims’ names have not been released pending notifications of next-of-kin.
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A MS man faces six capital murder charges in the deaths of five Alabama residents, one of which was pregnant. It’s about 35 miles away from Mobile.
