'Sniper' attacks may be linked to drugs - police

Police backed away from the “random sniper” theory behind three shootings outside convenience stores in West Virginia last week, saying at least two of the victims appear to have been deliberately targeted.

Kanawha County Chief Deputy Phil Morris said two of the three killings appear to be drug-related rather than the acts of a sniper choosing victims at random.

Ballistic tests show a .22-calibre rifle was used against two victims shot about 90 minutes apart at convenience stores 10 miles from each other.

“We can’t eliminate the possibility of a sniper, but it appears like it is drug related,” Mr Morris said.

Ballistic tests were incomplete for the third victim, shot four days earlier in Charleston. However, Mr Morris said the characteristics of the bullet were similar to those of the bullets in the other two shootings.

He declined to comment on potential suspects.

The shootings reminded many of a series of sniper attacks which terrorised Virginia, Maryland and the Washington, DC area last year. Many were single shots from far distances that felled people as they stopped at fuel stations. Two men were arrested and accused of a total of 20 shootings, including 13 killings, around the country.

But residents in Campbells Creek, where two of the West Virginia victims lived, had raised concerns that their August 14 deaths may have been related to drugs.

Similar concerns had not been raised in the first shooting four days earlier, in which a 44-year-old man was killed outside a shop in Charleston.

“We weren’t pursuing the drug angle. We didn’t have anything in the past to link that person with drugs,” Charleston Police Chief Jerry Pauley said yesterday.

All three were shot in the head or neck between 10.20pm and 11.30pm.

Mr Morris said Campbells Creek residents’ concerns about the extent of drug dealing in the area was a surprise to his investigators.

“Until this double homicide, the community hasn’t spoken out,” he said. “We knew there were drugs on Campbells Creek, but not to the extent the public is telling us now.”