Is a Serial Sniper on the Loose in W.Va.?
Aug. 18, 2003 -- Investigators in West Virginia have vowed to make an arrest in a possible serial sniper case that has left three people dead in less than a week in separate shootings outside convenience stores.
"We do have 100 leads and every lead is being covered," Kanawha County Sheriff Dave Tucker told reporters today. "We will continue our investigation until we solve this case."
Kanawha County Sheriff's Department officers are probing the similarities between the slayings of three people last week and the sniper shootings that terrorized residents of Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland last year. Two suspects, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, are in custody and awaiting trial for the D.C.-area shootings.
The three people gunned down in West Virginia — identified as Okey Meadows Jr., Jeannie Patton and Gary Carrier Jr. — did not know each other, but police say each was killed outside a convenience store by a single bullet fired from a distance.
The FBI, as well as several other federal and local law enforcement agencies are helping Kanawha County Sheriff's Department officials with the investigation. In addition, investigators who worked on last year's Washington-area sniper shootings have joined the probe.
"We have the agents that worked that particular case," Tucker said. "They're on board with us and giving us some good advice, whichwe're following."
Officials are awaiting the results of ballistics tests on slugs recovered from the crime scenes. Tucker said there was a similarity in the caliber of gun that was used.
Police said they do not have a suspect or a person of interest they want to question, but they said they are looking for a dark-colored Ford F-150 pickup truck that may be maroon or blue. Initial reports indicated investigators were looking for a black Ford pickup truck with an extended cab and gold trim, driven by a heavyset white man spotted at the some of the crime scenes.
Looking for a Marksman
Carrier, 44, was shot in the head on Aug. 10 while he was using a pay phone outside a Go-Mart in Charleston. Patton and Meadows were killed on the night of Aug. 13, approximately an hour apart: Patton, 31, was shot while pumping gas at a Speedway in Campbells Creek, while Meadows, 26, was slain 10 miles away outside a Go-Mart in Cedar Grove.
The shot that killed Meadows, authorities said, was fired from 60 or 70 yards away, while Patton was shot from approximately 30 to 40 yards away, making authorities believe the suspect is a skilled marksman.
"I'm a pretty good shot myself, but with a handgun that would be even a greater shot for me," Tucker said Friday. "So that's the reason why I say it'd [the weapon] be a long gun, something like that."
Authorities have warned residents not to travel alone to convenience stores and to be aware of their surroundings. They said they are reviewing video from surveillance cameras at the Go-Mart stores and are not ruling out the possibility that the slayings are connected to a shooting at an area supermarket in March.
In the meantime, local residents like Denise Watson are taking no chances. Watson doesn't usually top off her son's gas tank, but now she insists on doing it before dark.
"I'm doing it so my 16-year-old son won't have to do it. I don't want him to stop in here right now by himself, so either me or his dad will do it," she said.
ABCNEWS Affiliate WCHS-TV and ABCNEWS Radio contributed to this report.