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Same gun used in 3 killings, police say
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Same gun used in 3 killings, police say
Authorities release composite sketch in West Virginia shootings
CHARLESTON, W.Va., Aug. 21 - Investigators said Thursday that ballistics tests showed all three victims in a series of sniper-style slayings at convenience stores were killed by the same weapon. Hours later, federal authorities released a composite sketch of a possible suspect.
`Pills and meth and the hard stuff has swept through here just over the last couple of years.'
- DAVID ROY
Area resident CHARLESTON POLICE Chief Jerry Pauley said the victims, who all were shot in the head or neck last week, were killed by a .22-caliber rifle.
The ballistics tests "positively link the three bullets together. They all three came from the same weapon," Pauley said at an evening news conference. "Now that we know it came from the same weapon, we've got a direction to go in."
Police also released a composite sketch of the suspect, a heavy-set white male. Wednesday, they released enhanced photographs of a two-tone, dark-colored Ford F-150 extended-cab pickup truck similar to a vehicle that eyewitnesses to two of the Campbells Creek shootings have described as being at the scene.
Gary Carrier Jr., 44, of South Charleston was killed Aug. 10 while making a telephone call outside a Charleston convenience store.
Four days later, Jeanie Patton, 31, and Okey Meadows Jr., 26, both of Campbells Creek, were killed within 90 minutes of each other at rural convenience stores about 10 miles apart less than 20 miles east of Charleston.
Pauley said investigators had not determined whether the three murders are the work of a random sniper.
DRUG LINK SUGGESTED
Kanawha County sheriff's officials had said the killings of Meadows and Patton appeared to be drug-related. Pauley said there is no evidence yet that drugs were involved in Carrier's slaying. He would not speculate whether the ballistics tests promoted the drug theory in that case.
"I don't know if it hurts it or helps it," he said. "I just know that it gives us a direction, that we know all three of them were killed with the same weapon."
Witnesses told police that they saw a large white man in the truck the night of the Aug. 14 shootings in Campbells Creek and Cedar Grove.
The suspect's sketch came from detailed witness accounts at the Cedar Grove shooting, said Senior Special Agent Patrick Berarducci of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The sketch shows the suspect with dark hair, long sideburns and a goatee. His hair is short in front and longer in back.
A city, county and federal task force continues to sift through more than 400 leads, 10 of which have linked two of the shootings in the Campbells Creek area to drugs.
"As the leads come in, the investigators will go out and check it. We'll continue to do that," Pauley said. "This may give us a little bit more direction to go in. Hopefully, we'll get some more information from it."
A cardboard memorial hangs outside the West Virginia gas station where Jeanie Patton was killed by a sniper as she pumped gas.
OTHER SHOOTINGS DISCOUNTED
Earlier Thursday, police said there was no evidence linking other recent shootings to the convenience-store slayings, although investigations were continuing.
That included a report Wednesday night that a teenage girl heard gunshots at a Dunbar Go-Mart. Dunbar police found no physical evidence of a shooting, Sgt. B.L. Hite said.
Still, every new shooting report and headline add to residents' raw nerves.
Terry Reeves of Charleston walked into the Dunbar Go-Mart on Thursday morning, his smiling young daughter skipping in step behind him. Reeves picked up a local newspaper featuring the store on the front page.
"It's scary. All I know is that I try to get in, and I try to get out," Reeves said.
Kanawha County sheriff's Chief Deputy Phil Morris said: "People are edgy. People are jumpy. There's no question about it."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/952949.asp?cp1=1
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
Authorities release composite sketch in West Virginia shootings
CHARLESTON, W.Va., Aug. 21 - Investigators said Thursday that ballistics tests showed all three victims in a series of sniper-style slayings at convenience stores were killed by the same weapon. Hours later, federal authorities released a composite sketch of a possible suspect.
`Pills and meth and the hard stuff has swept through here just over the last couple of years.'
- DAVID ROY
Area resident CHARLESTON POLICE Chief Jerry Pauley said the victims, who all were shot in the head or neck last week, were killed by a .22-caliber rifle.
The ballistics tests "positively link the three bullets together. They all three came from the same weapon," Pauley said at an evening news conference. "Now that we know it came from the same weapon, we've got a direction to go in."
Police also released a composite sketch of the suspect, a heavy-set white male. Wednesday, they released enhanced photographs of a two-tone, dark-colored Ford F-150 extended-cab pickup truck similar to a vehicle that eyewitnesses to two of the Campbells Creek shootings have described as being at the scene.
Gary Carrier Jr., 44, of South Charleston was killed Aug. 10 while making a telephone call outside a Charleston convenience store.
Four days later, Jeanie Patton, 31, and Okey Meadows Jr., 26, both of Campbells Creek, were killed within 90 minutes of each other at rural convenience stores about 10 miles apart less than 20 miles east of Charleston.
Pauley said investigators had not determined whether the three murders are the work of a random sniper.
DRUG LINK SUGGESTED
Kanawha County sheriff's officials had said the killings of Meadows and Patton appeared to be drug-related. Pauley said there is no evidence yet that drugs were involved in Carrier's slaying. He would not speculate whether the ballistics tests promoted the drug theory in that case.
"I don't know if it hurts it or helps it," he said. "I just know that it gives us a direction, that we know all three of them were killed with the same weapon."
Witnesses told police that they saw a large white man in the truck the night of the Aug. 14 shootings in Campbells Creek and Cedar Grove.
The suspect's sketch came from detailed witness accounts at the Cedar Grove shooting, said Senior Special Agent Patrick Berarducci of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The sketch shows the suspect with dark hair, long sideburns and a goatee. His hair is short in front and longer in back.
A city, county and federal task force continues to sift through more than 400 leads, 10 of which have linked two of the shootings in the Campbells Creek area to drugs.
"As the leads come in, the investigators will go out and check it. We'll continue to do that," Pauley said. "This may give us a little bit more direction to go in. Hopefully, we'll get some more information from it."
A cardboard memorial hangs outside the West Virginia gas station where Jeanie Patton was killed by a sniper as she pumped gas.
OTHER SHOOTINGS DISCOUNTED
Earlier Thursday, police said there was no evidence linking other recent shootings to the convenience-store slayings, although investigations were continuing.
That included a report Wednesday night that a teenage girl heard gunshots at a Dunbar Go-Mart. Dunbar police found no physical evidence of a shooting, Sgt. B.L. Hite said.
Still, every new shooting report and headline add to residents' raw nerves.
Terry Reeves of Charleston walked into the Dunbar Go-Mart on Thursday morning, his smiling young daughter skipping in step behind him. Reeves picked up a local newspaper featuring the store on the front page.
"It's scary. All I know is that I try to get in, and I try to get out," Reeves said.
Kanawha County sheriff's Chief Deputy Phil Morris said: "People are edgy. People are jumpy. There's no question about it."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/952949.asp?cp1=1
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
Comments
A .22??
IT'S WHAT PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THEMSELVES THAT MAKES THEM AFRAID.
Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.<BR>