State police: Virginia Tech gunman acted alone, was not a student
(CBS/AP) BLACKSBURG, Va. - Investigators believe the gunman who shot and killed a Virginia Tech policeman acted alone and that he changed clothes after fleeing the scene, then killed himself with his handgun when another officer spotted him, state police said Friday.
Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators have not found anything connecting the gunman and the slain officer, Deriek W. Crouse, who was shot in his car in a campus parking lot after pulling a driver over for a traffic stop. The shooter's motive remains a mystery, she said.
"That's very much the fundamental part of the investigation right now," Geller said at a news conference.
The gunman was not a student at Virginia Tech, the scene of the deadliest gun rampage in modern U.S. history in 2007. Geller said investigators were confident they know who the gunman is, but declined to say anything more about his name, age or hometown until the medical examiner confirms his identity and his next of kin are notified.
Officials locked down the university for hours Thursday while police and SWAT teams searched the school.
Authorities have in-car video from officer Deriek W. Crouse's cruiser that shows a male suspect with a handgun at the officer's car at the time of the shooting.
Crouse was killed after pulling a driver over in a school parking lot. Police said the gunman was not involved in the traffic stop. Instead, he approached, shot the officer and then fled on foot before apparently killing himself.
The events unfolded on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington, fighting a federal government fine over their handling of the 2007 massacre where 33 people were killed.
Crouse, an Army veteran and married father of five children and stepchildren, joined the campus police force in October 2007. He previously worked at a jail and for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department.
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