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W.Va. shootings police release sketchBallistics link all three killings
CHARLESTON, West Virginia (CNN) -- Ballistics evidence conclusively links three recent shooting deaths at convenience stores around this city, the police chief said Thursday, and authorities have released a sketch of a man reportedly seen at one crime scene. Chief Jerry Pauley said the three victims -- two of whom were shot last Thursday -- were killed with the same weapon, "some kind of .22-caliber rifle." The latest test results involved the August 10 shooting death of Gary Carrier, 44. He was shot in the head just after 11 p.m. while using a pay phone outside a Go-Mart store on the west side of Charleston. "We didn't have as much information from our case as the county had on their two cases," said Pauley. "Now that we linked all three together, we've got more to work on that will solve all three of them." Jeanie Patton, 31, was killed about 10:30 p.m. on August 14 at a Speedway filling station on Campbell Creek Road south of Charleston. About an hour later, Okey Meadows, 26, was fatally shot at a Go-Mart on U.S. 60 east of the city. Profilers are working with the task force to help track down the killer. The task force Thursday night released a composite drawing of a stocky white male with a goatee-style beard. The sketch is based on information from a witness who saw the man outside of a dark-colored, possibly maroon, full-size pickup -- perhaps a Ford F-150 -- similar to a truck seen at both of last Thursday's murder sites. But the F-150 is a common vehicle in the area. "We just want to talk to him," a task force member told CNN, referring to the person depicted in the sketch. "We don't know if he is the driver, the shooter, or just someone who might be able to help us." One witness, who saw the truck at the Go-Mart where Meadows was killed last week, told police it had waited at the store for up to 20 minutes before speeding away after the shooting. Detectives said they would consider putting witnesses under hypnosis if they volunteered they had seen a license number. Investigators said they are focusing on the community near where Meadows was gunned down, but said they were still uncertain whether the three victims were randomly chosen or were linked in some way. Shot fired at convenience store; no one hurtPolice also are investigating a shooting at a convenience store near Charleston late Wednesday that bore a striking resemblance to the three fatal attacks in the area. No one was injured in the latest shooting. Investigators say so far there is little to connect the fourth incident with the previous shootings, and they have found no sign that any building or vehicle was hit by the reported gunshot. Dunbar police Capt. Randy Gillespie said a teenage girl reported a shot fired at a Go-Mart in Dunbar, West Virginia, west of Charleston, at about 11:40 p.m. Wednesday. She also said she saw a maroon, full-sized pickup approach the convenience store before hearing a shot. "She saw the vehicle drive down the street and turn around. That's when she heard what she believed to be the sound of a bullet and a bullet ricochet," Gillespie said. A woman told CNN affiliate WSAZ that her 16-year-old daughter was the target of the shooting. "My daughter called me and told me she'd been shot at at the Go-Mart on 16th street," she said. The teen told her mother she was with her boyfriend and another person she did not know at the time of the shooting. "She said [the bullet] hit the building and it went right by her head," the mother said. "She saw the truck before the shot was fired and said it was maroon with a gold stripe." Investigators searching the area around the Go-Mart Thursday morning collected what one investigator described as "something of interest." It was found about 100 feet away from where the teen said she was at the time of the shooting. The teen's mother disputed recent speculation that the string of shootings was drug-related, saying neither her daughter nor her boyfriend uses drugs. "It had to be a random shooting on this case," she said. The killings have stunned residents of the Charleston area, raising fears of sniper attacks similar to those that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area last year. The task force investigating the shootings is checking out significant leads and narrowing its list of suspects, sources close to the investigation said.
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