Va. trooper shot during water contamination investigation

[Drizzt]

Va. trooper shot during water contamination investigation


By the Associated Press

Published February 4, 2003

ACCOMACK, Va. -- A Virginia state trooper was shot Tuesday night in Accomack County while investigating a possible plot to contaminate water supplies.

Col. Gerald Massengill, state police superintendent, said the trooper had been taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Massengill said the trooper was executing a search warrant on Virginia's Eastern Shore between 10 and 10:30 p.m. in connection with an investigation into a possible plot to contaminate water supplies.

The investigation was being conducted by the state police, the FBI and the Accomack Sheriff's Office. The FBI could not immediately be reached and a dispatcher at the Sheriff's Department could not provide any information.

Massengill did not release the trooper's name or any information about possible suspects or other injuries.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/loca...04,0,1054536.story?coll=dp-headlines-virginia

 

[Drizzt]

Trooper shot, 1 person killed in Accomack raid

By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 5, 2003
Last updated 9:09 AM Feb. 5

NORFOLK -- A state trooper was shot and one person was killed during a raid Tuesday night on an Eastern Shore home where a man was sought for threatening to poison Virginia's water supplies, according to police, paramedics and court records.
The trooper, who was wounded in the arm, was not identified. A Maryland state trooper said a helicopter was called to the scene to transport the wounded officer to a hospital.

Phil Mann, chief division counsel with the Norfolk FBI office, said the trooper was in good condition.

Mann said a shootout erupted as officers were attempting to arrest Ipolito "Polo" Campos at his home, on Kellam Drive in Accomac. He said another occupant of the house shot and wounded the trooper, and authorities returned fire, killing the shooter.

Campos was taken into custody. Mann would not identify the person who was killed or give any other details.

Charges were filed against Campos earlier that day in federal court.

An unidentified person reported to the Accomack County Sheriff's Department two weeks ago that Campos said he was sent here to poison Virginia's waters and ``if he did not poison the water someone would kill him,'' according to federal court records.

While he is not now charged with making the threat, he is charged with having phony immigration documents and using a false Social Security number. That case will likely go to a federal grand jury.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service informed the FBI that it had no record on Ipolito Campos. Immigration documents on file with a seafood company where Campos worked do not exist in INS files, and the Social Security number Campos provided to the business belongs to someone else, the records say.

An FBI spokesman said the reported threat to the water supplies remains under investigation by the region's Joint Terrorism Task Force, but no credible evidence exists that any plan to carry out such an attack was in place. The task force was set up after the Sept. 11 attacks to investigate such reports.

Campos began working for Eastern Shore Seafood Products Inc. in Mappsville and Norfolk on Dec. 28, 2001. He was fired nearly a year later after testing positive in a random drug test, the court records say.

An employee who answered the phone Tuesday in the Mappsville office said no one was available to discuss the matter.

http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0205pol.html