Gunfire Hits 6 Vehicles, Closing I-64 for 6 Hours

Six vehicles were shot at yesterday on a stretch of Interstate 64 west of Charlottesville, injuring two motorists and prompting officials to close schools in Albemarle County, cancel evening recreational activities and increase police presence along the highway.

Investigators hunted last night for two or more people in the shootings, which closed I-64 for six hours for 20 miles from Charlottesville to Waynesboro. Police also had a possible lead on a vehicle used in the shootings: an AMC Gremlin seen on a surveillance camera near a credit union in Waynesboro, where evidence of gunshots was found.

"To call it a sniper incident, I wouldn't," Col. Steven Flaherty of the Virginia State Police said at a news conference. "There are multiple shots fired. It appeared to be random firing at occupied and unoccupied vehicles. It doesn't appear, at this point in time, to give us that tone of accuracy" as the shootings in 2002, which terrorized the Washington area.

In the 2002 rampage, Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad shot 13 people, killing 10, in three weeks. The gunmen are in prison in Virginia, where Muhammad was sentenced to death and Malvo to life without parole.

The I-64 shootings began about 12:10 a.m., when police received a call from a motorist whose vehicle was struck by gunfire, possibly from an overpass, while traveling west on the interstate at mile marker 106, about 12 miles west of Charlottesville.

During the next 20 minutes, police received more calls. Three motorists reported being shot at from the Greenwood Station Road overpass; two drivers were injured. Police did not know whether their injuries were caused by bullet fragments or shattered glass from windshields. Both drivers were treated for superficial wounds.

Another driver reported being shot at closer to Charlottesville, on the ramp to I-64 from Dick Woods Road at Exit 114. Police said only the vehicle was hit.

Last night, another motorist reported that his vehicle was struck near the Greenwood Station Road overpass, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. The driver was not hit.

In all, six motorists reported being fired on from 12:10 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. About an hour later, someone saw an empty dump truck in a maintenance lot at Yancey Mills at Exit 107 that had been fired at several times.

Police said they think that the same caliber weapon was used in the shootings and that at least two people were involved.

Police in Waynesboro, about 22 miles west of Charlottesville, reported two shootings that could be linked. At 1:30 a.m., shots were fired in a residential neighborhood, Sgt. Kelly Walker said. Officers responded but found nothing. Later, a resident recovered a shell casing and police found a bullet hole in a home, Walker said.

Employees of Dupont Community Credit Union arrived at work to find bullet holes in a window, the building's sign and a repossessed van parked outside, Walker said. The credit union is near I-64, which runs through the south side of Waynesboro.

Police checked surveillance cameras and found that an AMC Gremlin was in the area from midnight to 2 a.m., Walker said. Waynesboro police were searching for the vehicle and were being more vigilant in the areas near I-64, he said.

Investigators did not know whether the Waynesboro shootings were linked to the I-64 shootings. "We won't know until we get ballistics tests back," Geller said.

In Albemarle, police planned to "have an increased presence out in the areas where the shootings occurred," county spokeswoman Lee Catlin said. Geller said uniformed and plainclothes state police officers were to be on patrol last night.

Albemarle, which canceled activities scheduled for last night, had not decided whether to open schools today.