A grieving father mad at the government was fatally wounded by Pontotoc County Sheriff's deputies responding to a call about a suicidal man.
Reports say deputies responded to a home in Byng after receiving a call that a man was armed and suicidal at the home. When they arrived, they discovered Stephen Godfrey, 69, armed with an assault rifle and handgun.
The first law enforcement officer to arrive at the scene ordered Godfrey to drop his weapons. Instead, deputies say, he fired at the deputy, striking the patrol car. When another sheriff's deputy arrived, the man fled in his vehicle.
Godfrey crashed the pickup truck about a mile from the scene, and investigators examining the truck found a handgun inside the abandoned truck.
Deputies began a manhunt for the armed man they say had threatened the sheriff's office in the past. They say Godfrey, a retired coach and teacher and former Ada police officer, had been mad at the sheriff's department for not determining the cause of death of his son who died during a hunting trip in October. Deputies say the sheriff's office is still awaiting toxicology reports in the incident.
Pontotoc County Sheriff John Christian said Godfrey had stated in the past that he believed a sniper could "take out" deputies from the Pontotoc County Sheriff's Office.
The manhunt came to an end nearly three hours after deputies first received the call about the suicidal man. According to reports, Godfrey, carrying the rifle, approached law enforcement's command station for the manhunt. When deputies again ordered him to drop the weapon, they say the man instead turned toward them and raised the rifle. Deputies fired, killing the man.
Sheriff Christian told reporters that he was unsure if the department could have taken any steps to prevent the situation from unfolding as it did, particularly given Godfrey's history of animosity toward the department over the past few months. Christian stated, "Could we have done something different to head this off I don't know. But he had shown he was having mental health issues."
It is unknown if the man was receiving any type of treatment for any possible mental health issues resulting from the death of his son and his subsequent anger at the sheriff's department, or if the situation simply escalated in the absence of appropriate mental health treatment.
