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New shooting probed in West Virginia
Shot fired at convenience store; no one hurt
Thursday, August 21, 2003 Posted: 10:41 AM EDT (1441 GMT)
CHARLESTON, West Virginia (CNN) -- Police are investigating a shooting at a convenience store near Charleston late Wednesday that bore a striking resemblance to three recent fatal attacks in the area over the last week and a half.
No one was reported injured in the latest shooting.
According to a dispatcher with the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department, at least one shot was fired at a Go-Mart in Dunbar, West Virginia, west of Charleston. A woman told CNN affiliate WSAZ that her 16-year-old daughter was the target of the shooting.
"My daughter called me and told me she'd been shot at at the Go-Mart on 16th street," she said. The teen told her mother she was with her boyfriend and another person she did not know at the time of the shooting.
"She said [the bullet] hit the building and it went right by her head," the mother said. "She saw the truck before the shot was fired and said it was maroon with a gold stripe."
Investigators searching the area around the Go-Mart Thursday morning collected what one investigator described as "something of interest." It was found about 100 feet away from where the teen said she was at the time of the shooting.
The teen's mother disputed recent speculation that the string of shootings was drug-related, saying neither her daughter nor her boyfriend uses drugs. (All mother"s say that
)
"It had to be a random shooting on this case," she said.
Members of the task force investigating the string of fatal shootings have been called to the scene, the dispatcher said.
A sheriff's deputy began chasing a vehicle leaving the area of Wednesday's shooting. It was not clear whether the vehicle being chased was the same one seen leaving the convenience store.
Authorities lost sight of the vehicle in rural Kanawha County near St. Albans, West Virginia. A police helicopter with a searchlight was searching the area, the dispatcher said.
Investigators have determined that two of the three people killed in Charleston-area shootings last week were shot with the same .22-caliber firearm, probably a rifle.
Jeanie Patton, 31, was killed about 10:30 p.m. on August 14 at a Speedway filling station on Campbell Creek Road south of Charleston. About an hour later, Okey Meadows, 26, was fatally shot at a Go-Mart on U.S. 60 east of the city.
Ballistics tests in the third case -- the August 10 shooting death of Gary Carrier, 44 -- have been unable to link his death to the other shootings, authorities said. Carrier was shot in the head just after 11 p.m. 10 while using a pay phone outside a Go-Mart store on the west side of Charleston.
The killings have stunned residents of the Charleston area, raising fears of sniper attacks similar to those that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area last year.
The task force investigating the shootings is checking out significant leads and narrowing its list of suspects, sources close to the investigation said.
Investigators are also looking for a dark-colored, possibly maroon, full-size pickup -- perhaps a Ford F-150 -- in connection with the killings. The F-150 is a common vehicle in the area.
A witness saw a truck at the Go-Mart where Meadows was killed last week and told police it had waited at the store for up to 20 minutes before speeding away after the shooting.
Detectives said they would consider putting witnesses under hypnosis if they volunteered they had seen a license number.
Investigators said they are focusing on the community near where Meadows was gunned down, but said they were still uncertain whether the three victims were randomly chosen or linked in some way.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/08/21/w.va.shootings/index.html
Shot fired at convenience store; no one hurt
Thursday, August 21, 2003 Posted: 10:41 AM EDT (1441 GMT)
CHARLESTON, West Virginia (CNN) -- Police are investigating a shooting at a convenience store near Charleston late Wednesday that bore a striking resemblance to three recent fatal attacks in the area over the last week and a half.
No one was reported injured in the latest shooting.
According to a dispatcher with the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department, at least one shot was fired at a Go-Mart in Dunbar, West Virginia, west of Charleston. A woman told CNN affiliate WSAZ that her 16-year-old daughter was the target of the shooting.
"My daughter called me and told me she'd been shot at at the Go-Mart on 16th street," she said. The teen told her mother she was with her boyfriend and another person she did not know at the time of the shooting.
"She said [the bullet] hit the building and it went right by her head," the mother said. "She saw the truck before the shot was fired and said it was maroon with a gold stripe."
Investigators searching the area around the Go-Mart Thursday morning collected what one investigator described as "something of interest." It was found about 100 feet away from where the teen said she was at the time of the shooting.
The teen's mother disputed recent speculation that the string of shootings was drug-related, saying neither her daughter nor her boyfriend uses drugs. (All mother"s say that
) "It had to be a random shooting on this case," she said.
Members of the task force investigating the string of fatal shootings have been called to the scene, the dispatcher said.
A sheriff's deputy began chasing a vehicle leaving the area of Wednesday's shooting. It was not clear whether the vehicle being chased was the same one seen leaving the convenience store.
Authorities lost sight of the vehicle in rural Kanawha County near St. Albans, West Virginia. A police helicopter with a searchlight was searching the area, the dispatcher said.
Investigators have determined that two of the three people killed in Charleston-area shootings last week were shot with the same .22-caliber firearm, probably a rifle.
Jeanie Patton, 31, was killed about 10:30 p.m. on August 14 at a Speedway filling station on Campbell Creek Road south of Charleston. About an hour later, Okey Meadows, 26, was fatally shot at a Go-Mart on U.S. 60 east of the city.
Ballistics tests in the third case -- the August 10 shooting death of Gary Carrier, 44 -- have been unable to link his death to the other shootings, authorities said. Carrier was shot in the head just after 11 p.m. 10 while using a pay phone outside a Go-Mart store on the west side of Charleston.
The killings have stunned residents of the Charleston area, raising fears of sniper attacks similar to those that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area last year.
The task force investigating the shootings is checking out significant leads and narrowing its list of suspects, sources close to the investigation said.
Investigators are also looking for a dark-colored, possibly maroon, full-size pickup -- perhaps a Ford F-150 -- in connection with the killings. The F-150 is a common vehicle in the area.
A witness saw a truck at the Go-Mart where Meadows was killed last week and told police it had waited at the store for up to 20 minutes before speeding away after the shooting.
Detectives said they would consider putting witnesses under hypnosis if they volunteered they had seen a license number.
Investigators said they are focusing on the community near where Meadows was gunned down, but said they were still uncertain whether the three victims were randomly chosen or linked in some way.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/08/21/w.va.shootings/index.html
