Killer of Virginia Tech cop turns gun on himself
Source: Agencies |
December 10, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
INVESTIGATORS believe the gunman who killed a Virginia Tech policeman acted alone and that he changed clothes after fleeing the scene, then killed himself with his handgun when another officer spotted him, state police said yesterday.
The events unfolded on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington, fighting a federal government fine over their handling of the 2007 massacre where 33 people were killed. The shooting brought back painful memories. About 150 students gathered silently for a candlelight vigil on a field facing the stone plaza memorial for the 2007 victims.
Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators have not found anything connecting the gunman and the slain officer, Deriek W. Crouse, who was shot in his car on Thursday in a campus parking lot after pulling over a driver for a traffic stop. The motive remains a mystery, she added.
The gunman was not a student at Virginia Tech, the scene of the deadliest gun rampage in modern United States history in 2007. Geller said investigators were confidant they know the gunman's identity but she declined to say anything more about his name, age or hometown until the medical examiner confirms his identity and next of kin are notified.
The campus shooting prompted officials to lock down the university for hours while police and elite response teams searched the school.
Geller laid out the most detailed account thus far of the shooting.
Crouse was sitting in his cruiser when the gunman walked up and shot him. Geller declined to say if the officer was wearing body armor or where exactly he was shot.
The gunman fled on foot and went to nearby greenhouses, where investigators say he changed out of a pullover wool cap and left them there with his backpack.
Geller said a deputy sheriff on patrol then noticed a man at the back of a parking lot about 800 meters from the shooting. The man was by himself and acting "a little suspicious." The officer drove around to approach him, lost sight of the man and then found him on the ground. The man appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a handgun was nearby.
The events unfolded on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington, fighting a federal government fine over their handling of the 2007 massacre where 33 people were killed. The shooting brought back painful memories. About 150 students gathered silently for a candlelight vigil on a field facing the stone plaza memorial for the 2007 victims.
Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators have not found anything connecting the gunman and the slain officer, Deriek W. Crouse, who was shot in his car on Thursday in a campus parking lot after pulling over a driver for a traffic stop. The motive remains a mystery, she added.
The gunman was not a student at Virginia Tech, the scene of the deadliest gun rampage in modern United States history in 2007. Geller said investigators were confidant they know the gunman's identity but she declined to say anything more about his name, age or hometown until the medical examiner confirms his identity and next of kin are notified.
The campus shooting prompted officials to lock down the university for hours while police and elite response teams searched the school.
Geller laid out the most detailed account thus far of the shooting.
Crouse was sitting in his cruiser when the gunman walked up and shot him. Geller declined to say if the officer was wearing body armor or where exactly he was shot.
The gunman fled on foot and went to nearby greenhouses, where investigators say he changed out of a pullover wool cap and left them there with his backpack.
Geller said a deputy sheriff on patrol then noticed a man at the back of a parking lot about 800 meters from the shooting. The man was by himself and acting "a little suspicious." The officer drove around to approach him, lost sight of the man and then found him on the ground. The man appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a handgun was nearby.
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