A week after a fatal shootout occurred in the Henleyfield community, Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department deputies were called to the scene of an apparent murder-suicide.

Chief Deputy Shane Tucker said deputies received a call of the incident Saturday evening just before 8:30. 

When they arrived at the home, located at 41 Pinetuckey Road, Carriere, they spoke with a friend of the family, who said earlier that evening she received a call from 61-year-old Victoria Burton that she needed a ride to the hospital for medical issues, Tucker said.

The friend arrived to find Burton on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head and Burton’s husband, 73-year-old William Claycomb, on a bed with a gunshot wound to the mouth, Tucker said. 

Claycomb, who was still alive and talking when deputies arrived, claimed his wife had shot him and then shot herself, Tucker said. 

Claycomb was transported by helicopter to Forrest General Hospital for treatment of his wound, but later died at 12:31 a.m. on Jan. 31, said Pearl River County Coroner Derek Turnage.

While Claycomb claimed his wife was the one to shoot him before turning the gun on herself, Turnage’s investigation shows a different story.

“I believe Dr. Claycomb shot his wife,” Turnage said. 

The county coroner said he is ruling the incident as a murder-suicide on his report. 

Tucker said this weekend’s incident occurred about a quarter of a mile away from last weekend’s fatal shooting at a Henleyfield gun store, which resulted in the deaths of the store’s owner and his son, and put another man and his son in the hospital.