I-64 Shootings Investigation Ramps Up
posted 11:29 pm Thu March 27, 2008 - Albemarle Co., VA
reporter:
Jeremy Mills
posted by:
Webteam
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Police are searching high and low for whoever opened fire on passing traffic on I-64 overnight, leaving five vehicles with bullet holes and sending two drivers to the hospital.
The gunshots put every driver between Charlottesville and Waynesboro on edge. Police wasted no time shutting down a 20-mile stretch of I-64 in Albemarle County, a heavily-traveled area. It’s the area where investigators say a shooter targeted passing vehicles.
It wouldn't take much for a competent marksman to easily hit these vehicles and then just disappear into the darkness. The news came in the dead of night.
Col. Steve Flaherty, VA State Police Supt. - "The first call that we got was at 12:10 AM."
The calls continued for the next 30 minutes. Someone was shooting at three separate locations near I-64.
Col. Flaherty - "There were a total of four vehicles that were struck along Interstate 64 westbound. Right inside the entrance here is where they thought they was."
A fifth vehicle, this one empty, was shot in the VDOT (web) parking lot at the Yancey Mills station. The windows were blown out and a tire was popped. Investigators removed the remains of a bullet from the roof line.
Col. Flaherty - "We believe there it is more than one suspect, but that doesn’t mean that they were firing simultaneously at these sites, we believe at one of the sites, based on some witness information that it was more than one individual there."
Motorists driving in the area admit they’re a little nervous.
Frank Ragonese, Driving to Connecticut - "That makes me a little concerned, yeah."
Maggie Walkup, Driving to West Virginia - "I certainly don’t want to hear that my last two hours on the road are going to be looking left and right to see if some person is shooting at us."
Col. Flaherty - "We haven’t identified any motive for what may have occurred, so we need to be cautious and observant."
State Police will not discuss the type of weapon used, but we have learned from a source close to the investigation that they found casings from a .22 Magnum near one of the shooting sites.
In case you are wondering, a 22 Magnum round is very small but certainly capable of inflicting the damage we've seen during these shootings. We'll continue to monitor this case and bring you updates throughout the night.
Troopers aren't using the word "sniper." But Thursday's events certainly bring back memories of the DC area sniper shootings. They started in October of 2002.
The snipers killed 10 people and wounded three others in the Maryland-Virginia-Washington area. John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo are behind bars in Virginia for those attacks. Muhammad is on death row. Malvo is serving a life sentence.
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