Man surrenders after eight slain in Virginia

[Nagishkaw 510]

APPOMATTOX, Va. — People living along the Civil War battlefields here were relieved but perplexed after their neighbor, accused of slaying eight people and shooting down a police helicopter, surrendered to authorities Wednesday morning.

Christopher Speight, 39, ended a night of hiding in the woods near his family's 34-acre tract by approaching a SWAT team. He was unarmed, wearing a bulletproof vest and uninjured, said Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police.

Later Wednesday, Sgt. Thomas Molnar said bomb-sniffing dogs found a "multitude of devices inside and outside the house." Bomb technicians were exploding the devices, a process he said would probably continue into Thursday.

"This is a horrific tragedy," Geller said during a news conference Wednesday. "It's definitely one of the worst mass killings in Virginia, probably since the Virginia Tech tragedy in April of 2007."

"It's a big relief knowing that he's caught and nobody else can die," said Aaron Davidson, 15, who lives across a field from where police SWAT teams were stationed the night before.

The victims were people Speight knew, but they had not been positively identified. Authorities have not said how Speight knew them.

The flag was at half-staff in front of Appomattox County High School. County schools Superintendent Dorinda Grasty said crisis teams will be available when students return to school Wednesday. She said she expects the school system will be affected, but she did not have the list of confirmed victims. Authorities said all of the people shot were adults.

Speight's uncle, Jack Giglio of Tampa, said Speight's only association with weapons, as far as he knew, came through deer hunting.

"We're shocked, of course," Giglio said of the family's thoughts Wednesday. "I'm not aware of any problems with him."

Giglio said he hadn't seen Speight since 2006, when they both attended a funeral for Speight's mother, who died of brain cancer.

Neighbors described Speight as a gardener who loved shooting guns.

Elbert Williamson, 85, a retired bus driver, said his daughter sold Speight's house and 35 acres of land to Speight's grandparents 25 years ago. The family kept to themselves, he said, and he never heard of Speight having trouble with anyone.

He kept a beautiful flower garden, but "he must be nuts about guns," Williamson said. "Because he shoots all the time. He's done it for years."

Geller said Speight was cooperating with investigators.

The bomb squad was called in to comb the property for explosive s after a witness reported there could be bombs on the premises, Geller said.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called in to investigate the explosives and the high-powered rifle used to bring down the helicopter, Geller said.

The incident began around noon Tuesday when someone reported a man lying on the side of Snapps Mill Road, Geller said. A sheriff's deputy who arrived at the scene reported hearing gunfire. When additional police arrived, they found four bodies outside a home co-owned by Speight and three more bodies inside the home, Geller said.

An eighth victim, found barely alive on the road outside the house, died at the hospital before police could talk to him.

During the manhunt that followed, the gunman fired at a Virginia State Police helicopter that was forced to land with a punctured fuel tank. The two officers on board were uninjured.

About 150 law enforcement officers from 13 federal, state and local agencies surrounded an area 2 miles by 1,000 yards and searched it with dogs and heat sensors overnight, Geller said.

Residents who live among the area's rolling hills said they had been spooked by the idea of a killer on the loose.

"We were all worried," said Audrey Phelps, 86, who used to run an automotive service station in Appomattox. "We locked the doors and did something to protect ourselves. Each of us got a gun."

She said she didn't know Speight before, but her mind is made up about him now.

"He must have had some kind of problem," she said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-0...-shooting_N.htm

[DrissandAmy4ever 0]

Yikes...very scarey

[Nagishkaw 510]

Kinda of reminds me of that movie, Shooter.