Serial killer has South Carolina residents on edge

[Jexxifer]

Originally Posted by DeChayz

So why are people cancelling plans and staying home when most of the victims were found killed in their homes??

The view?

[Laurent]

Police Kill Suspected Serial Murderer

GASTONIA, N.C. — A man shot and killed by police officers during a burglary here early on Monday was identified by law enforcement authorities as the suspect in a string of five shooting deaths in South Carolina over the last 10 days.

Sheriff Bill Blanton of Cherokee County, S.C., where the killings took place, confirmed Monday evening that the authorities had been seeking the man killed in the burglary, Patrick T. Burris.

The investigation, Sheriff Blanton said, would now shift to learning more about Mr. Burris, whom he had traveled with and where he had been. “It’s not over,” he said. “It’s just changing gears.”

The South Carolina killings started June 27 with the shooting of a 63-year-old peach farmer, who was found in his home in Gaffney. Four days later, an 83-year-old woman and her 50-year-old daughter were found bound and shot inside the mother’s home. The next day, a man and his 15-year-old daughter were shot inside their family’s store about a mile from downtown Gaffney. The father was dead at the scene; his daughter died two days later.

Sheriff Blanton said physical evidence connected the cases, but the authorities have declined to give details about any links.

The shootings terrified residents along the border of North and South Carolina, leading many to carry their own weapons, and prompting business owners to keep their doors locked.

On Monday, police officers responded when a man in North Carolina reported a suspicious vehicle.

The man, Mike Valentine, called police about 3 a.m. when he saw the vehicle backing up to a vacant house across the street from his home. Two men and a woman got out of the vehicle and went inside the house. Mr. Valentine said he knew one of the men and the woman, but had never seen the other man, the suspect, who appeared to be staggering when he got out of the vehicle.

When police officers arrived, they knocked on the door several times, said Mr. Valentine’s wife, Terry. “I heard someone holler, ‘Put it down,’ ” Ms. Valentine said. “I heard the first shot go off, then I heard, ‘Bam-bam, bam-bam.’ ”

Few details were released on Monday evening, but a police officer was wounded in the foot during the shooting.

Four doors down from the house, Pam and Gene Gunter watched nervously from lawn chairs outside their home. There had been a few problems in the neighborhood in 18 years, they said, but nothing like this.

People in Gaffney were equally frightened. “There’s a lot of rumor and speculation contributing to people’s fears,” said Brian Ziegelheafer, the owner of a skateboard shop across the street from the victims’ store. Crime-scene tape still surrounded the store on Monday, and a passer-by left a purple and yellow silk-flower bouquet with a note that said, “In loving memory.”

“Everyone’s on edge,” Mr. Ziegelheafer said.

Residents attended church on Sunday armed with handguns, said Tim Phillips, his employee.

In town, many business owners kept doors locked, opening only for those who knocked. Will Debrode wasn’t taking any chances at the Gaffney visitor center, where the front windows were covered with reward posters.

“We’d be lying if we said we weren’t more than a little nervous,” Mr. Debrode said, while unlocking the front door.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/07serial.html?hpw

[mamaste]

The shootings terrified residents along the border of North and South Carolina

Yeah, I know. Notice they were all shot? All these crazy motherfuckers have guns.