Update on Va Mass Murder yesterday

[dgibby]

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/fatalities_reported_in_appomattox_incident/318637/


APPOMATTOX — Bomb squad members today combed the home and surrounding property of a man suspected of killing eight people and attempting to shoot down a Virginia State Police helicopter before surrendering without incident early this morning.

Christopher B. Speight, 39, “managed to conceal himself overnight in the wooded area” guarded by officers before surrendering at 7:10 a.m., said Appomattox Sheriff O. Wilson Staples. He was unarmed, though authorities said they believed he used a high-powered rifle, and was wearing a bulletproof vest.

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Appomattox County Sheriff, O. Wilson Staples, speaks to the press during a news conference outside State Police headquarters in Appomattox, Va., Jan. 20, 2010. Bomb teams searched for explosive devices that may have been planted by a man accused of shooting eight people to death.

AP Photo/Steve Helber
Shooting suspect Christopher Speight, 39, sought in connections with the fatal shootings of eight people in Appomattox, Va. AP Photo/Virginia State Police Authorities mobilize during a manhunt for a man connected with fatal shooting on Snapps Mill Road in Appomattox County on Jan. 19, 2010. Nick Adams The(Lynchburg) News & Advance Local resident Brian Abbitt ties his shoe at a police roadblock near the scene of a multiple shooting in Appomattox, Va., Jan. 19, 2010. Police say a lone gunman was hiding in the woods near the scene of the shootings. AP Photo/Steve Helber A Va. State trooper prepares to pack away his weapon after a successful manhunt where suspect, Christopher Speight, accused of killing eight people, turned him self over to deputies in Appomattox, Va., Jan. 20, 2010. AP Photo/Steve Helber Murder suspect Christopher Speight, second from right, is led out of State Police headquarters in Appomattox, Va., Jan. 20, 2010. Speight is accused of killing eight people and leading police on an overnight manhunt. AP Photo/Steve Helber Appomattox County Sheriff, O. Wilson Staples, speaks to the press during a news conference outside State Police headquarters in Appomattox, Va., Jan. 20, 2010. Bomb teams searched for explosive devices that may have been planted by a man accused of shooting eight people to death. AP Photo/Steve Helber

STEVE HELBER/AP

Christopher B. Speight, suspected in the slayings of eight people in Appomattox, is led out of Virginia State Police headquarters in Appomattox.


Related Info
• Video: Police discuss the shootings in Appomattox

• Video, breaking coverage from Lynchburg News & Advance

• Crime News

By BILL McKELWAY AND REED WILLIAMS
Published: January 20, 2010
Updated: January 20, 2010
» 1 Comment | Post a Comment
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nowBuzz up!APPOMATTOX — Bomb squad members today combed the home and surrounding property of a man suspected of killing eight people and attempting to shoot down a Virginia State Police helicopter before surrendering without incident early this morning.

Christopher B. Speight, 39, “managed to conceal himself overnight in the wooded area” guarded by officers before surrendering at 7:10 a.m., said Appomattox Sheriff O. Wilson Staples. He was unarmed, though authorities said they believed he used a high-powered rifle, and was wearing a bulletproof vest.

With the capture made, crime scene technicians, bomb squad members and SWAT officers combed the log cabin-style home on Snapps Mill Road/state Route 703 and a large area surrounding the dwelling.

Staples and Corinne Geller, a State Police spokeswoman, said that based on the initial investigation by authorities, police have “reason to believe” there could be explosives in the house or outside.

Speight was an owner of the residence and a large amount of surrounding land, Geller said.

A mass casualty unit from the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Roanoke has been assigned to the case, Wilson said.

“This is probably the worst tragedy in Virginia since the Virginia Tech massacre,“ said Geller.

Police repeated that Speight was acquainted with the victims but declined to specify their relationships, citing the ongoing investigation. Geller also said that positive identifications of the victims had not been made. Police have said the victims were males and females. A member of the county Board of Supervisors said last night the victims included Speight’s wife, son and another teenage boy, but two acquaintances said Speight was not married and had no children.

more at link above


CNN is now reporting that the suspect was wearing a bulletproof vest, and they are finding booby traps around his property/house, making it difficult to identify 7 of the victims.

[MineralMan]

1. From the link, it also appears that he has had a

CCW for over 10 years there. Make of that what you will. His home appears to have been heavily booby-trapped. Perhaps after the shootings.

Somewhere, a right-wing website is missing a contributor, I suspect.

[dgibby]

3. And a village, it's idiot. n/t

[MineralMan]

7. That, too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. In any other day this story would have like oh

broken into national news.

But hey, they were actually talking and chewing gum at the same time, covering an election AND an epic disaster. Perhaps they will learn to talk as well next.

Am I a cynic? NAH.

I found that like to breaking news when it just like broke on in a Mexican paper... you'd be surprised just how much more news they are like covering and such...

[dgibby]

4. This broke yesterday,

but with very little detail. They were still searching for him, but didn't know how many were dead or who they were looking for. It was a local item in Va., but was picked up by the international press first, then found it's way to MSM. I was very interested because I'm from Va, have friends and family throughout the state.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Trust me, my original link on LBN was from your local news

linked from a third tier paper in Mexico

[dgibby]

6. Cool.

The first report I saw was on DU from a British news source (I can't remember which one). It took awhile for MSM to pick up on it.

[tom_paine]

8. We'll see - smells like a mass-murder of liberals by a Bushie again

I could be wrong, but when LE starts clamming up like that as to specifics, when we all know in most other cases, protocol or not, all details of a sensationalistic case are "leaked" to the media.

Paranoia? I doubt it, when one considers that the letter penned by the Unitarian Chruch Killer was suppressed until the last day of sentencing for his trial.

Naturally, it was a screed that any Hannidiot or Savage Weiner could get 100% behind, though they would have to pretend the "killing part" was reprehensible.

This smells like that, JUST like it.

"acquainted with the victims, but declined to specify their relationships..."

Smells like Bushie Law Enforcement covering for one of their own Bushies again, just like they did down in Knoxville and many other places, I'm sure.

Add to that the blanket censorship by the Corporate M$M and it looks like...well, what it always looks like. Covering up for Bushies.

More hints: Accompanying documentation for the permit showed he had received firearms “retraining” in June 2003 from the Liberty University Police Department.