Police in the US backed away today from a "random sniper" theory behind threeshootings outside convenience stores in West Virginia last week, saying at leasttwo of the victims appear to have been deliberately targeted.
Kanawha County Chief Deputy Phil Morris said two of the three killings appearto be drug-related rather than the acts of a sniper choosing victims at random.
Ballistic tests show a .22-calibre rifle was used against two victims shotabout 90 minutes apart at convenience stores 10 miles from each other.
"We can't eliminate the possibility of a sniper, but it appears like it isdrug related," Mr Morris said.
Ballistic tests were incomplete for the third victim, shot four days earlierin Charleston. However, Mr Morris said the characteristics of the bullet weresimilar to those of the bullets in the other two shootings.
He declined to comment on potential suspects.The shootings reminded many of a series of sniper attacks which terrorisedVirginia, Maryland and the Washington, DC area last year. Many were single shotsfrom far distances that felled people as they stopped at fuel stations. Two menwere arrested and accused of a total of 20 shootings, including 13 killings,around the country.
However, residents in Campbells Creek, where two of the West Virginia victimslived, had raised concerns that their August 14th deaths may have been related todrugs.
Similar concerns had not been raised in the first shooting four days earlier,in which a 44-year-old man was killed outside a shop in Charleston.
"We weren't pursuing the drug angle. We didn't have anything in the past tolink that person with drugs," Charleston Police Chief Jerry Pauley said today.
All three were shot in the head or neck between 10.20 p.m. and 11.30 p.m.Morris said Campbells Creek residents' concerns about the extent of drugdealing in the area was a surprise to his investigators.
AP