Police have identified Ross Truett Ashley as the alleged gunman who fatally shot a Virginia Tech police officer before killing himself about 30 minutes later.
There is no known connection between Officer Deriek Crouse, who was ambushed on campus Thursday, and Ashley, 22, of Partlow, Va., police said today.
Ashley, a part-time business student at Radford University near Virginia Tech, stole a white 2011 Mercedes SUV from a real estate office in the city of Radford Wednesday, according to Radford City Police. The Mercedes was stolen at gunpoint at about 11:25 a.m.
The SUV was located the next day, Thursday, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Officer Crouse later stopped a car and was seated inside his unmarked patrol car when Ashley, who had no connection to the stopped motorist, walked up and fatally shot Crouse, police allege. Ashley escaped on foot and changed out of his wool cap and pullover top, police said.
At least part of the deadly encounter that rattled the campus Thursday was captured on Crouse's dash-cam and since the Virginia Tech officers are also "miked," so there was likely audio of the encounter.
"We know who this person is," Corinne Geller of the Virginia State Police said at a news conference this morning.
Authorities have yet to identify a motive for the ambush.
"At this time we have made no connection that the shooter and Officer Crouse knew each other at the time of the shooting," Geller said.
She also said, "We are very confident that he was the only individual involved in this."
Determining a motive for the ambush, Geller said, is "the fundamental part of the investigation right now."full story at http://abcnews.go.com
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