Three people were shot to death outside convenience stores in less than a week, and authorities said on Friday that a single shooter could be responsible.
A man and a woman were fatally shot late Thursday at different stores near Charleston. Another man was killed outside a third store on the west side last Sunday.
Kanawha County Chief Deputy Phil Morris voiced concern Friday about the resemblance between the deaths and last year's sniper shootings in the Washington area.
"We don't have anyone standing there with a smoking gun, we have no apparent domestic violence situations and we don't have any reason to believe these were drug-related," Morris said. "As sad as that is, we are concerned about [a single killer]."
Residents were advised not to travel alone to convenience stores and to keep their eyes open, Morris said.
A woman was shot at about 10:20pm Thursday while pumping gas at a SuperAmerica store in Campbells Creek, less than 16km east of Charleston. A man was killed about an hour later and 16km away outside a Go-Mart in Cedar Grove.
Police have not identified the weapon or weapons used but did say the shootings occurred from a stationary position. Authorities were scrutinizing video from surveillance cameras at both stores. Morris declined to say if the shooter or the vehicle can be seen.
Sunday, Gary Carrier Jr., 34, of South Charleston, was shot in the head and killed while using a pay telephone outside a Charleston Go-Mart.
In addition to those shootings, Morris said authorities are not ruling out a possible connection to a fatal shooting at a supermarket in a Charleston's Kanawha City neighborhood in March.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS