While law enforcement officials in Mississippi worked around the clock for the past week searching for an escaped prisoner, the manhunt ended Thursday when a quick-thinking wife shot the man who was holding her and her family hostage.
The more than weeklong manhunt for Rafael McCloud, a capital rape and murder suspect, started March 2 after McCloud used a homemade shank to take a guard at Warren County jail hostage. McCloud escaped after taking the guard's green pants and jacket, keys and radio, according to WJTV.
McCloud saw a father and his 5-year-old son going into the garage at their Vicksburg home around 4 a.m. Thursday, according to WTOK. McCloud forced them inside their house and locked them in the bathroom.
McCloud let the wife out of the bathroom and she returned with the family handgun and shot McCloud. Then she cut loose her husband who shot McCloud multiple times.
"We have been working on this case for more than a week," Vicksburg police chief Walter Armstrong told WAPT. "The hunt for Rafael McCloud, we believe, now is over."
McCloud was being held in jail as a suspect for the kidnapping, rape and death of Sharen Wilson, 69, whose body was found in an abandoned hospital by ghost hunters last June, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
A $26,000 reward was being offered for information in McCloud's capture. However, the family who killed him is not eligible to receive the Crime Stoppers reward.
A GoFundMe set up by Wilson's friends is working to secure money to benefit the family. It has raised more than $17,000.
"All funds raised by this campaign will go to the victims who were attacked (Thursday) morning in Vicksburg," according to the GoFundMe. "We will leave this campaign open until all funds from Crime Stoppers are returned, then the entire amount will be issued to the victims."
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