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Employees of the Waffle House restaurant watch as Spotsylvania investigators and federal agents comb the shooting scene at the Exxon station for evidence that could lead to an end to the random killings.
State troopers and federal agents search a flower bed outside the Super 8 Motel With a bloodhound leading the way, FBI agents, investigating the latest random shooting, run down U.S. 1 south near Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County yesterday. |
Bruce Bingham was standing in front of the Four-Mile Fork Mobil station talking to his boss when he heard what sounded like a gunshot from across the street.
As he looked in the direction of the sound, he saw a white van come through the intersection of U.S. 1 and Market Street and then head for the northbound Interstate 95 entrance ramp a few hundred yards away.
Bingham said he couldn't be sure the van--a Chevy Astro with no windows on the side and no writing on the exterior--was involved in the shooting at the Four-Mile Fork Exxon station across the street, but he found the timing with the traffic light uncanny.
"It was like it happened and the light changed," Bingham said yesterday afternoon as he tried to get back to work on a car in the station's bay.
Kenneth Bridges, 53, of Philadelphia was shot and killed around 9:35 a.m. at the Exxon at 5326 Jefferson Davis Highway in Spotsylvania County. Authorities would not say where they think the shot came from, but people staying at a Ramada Inn facing the station described a gunshot from the motel area.
"It was loud as [expletive]," said 39-year-old construction worker Tom Bowling, who was checking in at the time. "It sounded like a bomb going off."
Pedro Martinez, 48, of upstate New York and his wife, Fanni, said they were sleeping in their first-floor room directly across from the Exxon when the gunshot woke them.
"It was like a boom," Martinez said. "A few seconds later, I heard someone say, 'Oh, no.'"
Across the street in the Howard Johnson parking lot, truck driver Alvin Evans and a friend were getting ready to leave. "We heard a big, loud shot from a high-powered rifle," said Evans, an Army veteran from North Carolina. "We joked and said, 'That might have been the sniper.'"
Evans didn't see anything after he heard the single shot, but a motel maid on her way to work at the time told Evans she saw a woman driving erratically in a white van.
In the minutes after the shooting, authorities strung police tape around the gas station and along Market Street. Police cars and large mobile command and evidence-collection units from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI, Virginia State Police and the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office were parked in and around the Exxon lot.
Federal agents canvassed the Ramada and other nearby businesses looking for witnesses. At one point, they confiscated a videotape from a reporter with fredericksburg.com, an Internet site owned by the Free Lance-Star Publishing Co., and film from a newspaper reporter.
Later in the morning, deputies widened the crime-scene area to include part of the Ramada parking lot. Dozens of officers searched the scene as rain fell throughout the day.
At times, authorities closed U.S. 1 between the I-95 on-ramp and Mine Road.
Around 4:30 p.m., two helicopters landed in a grassy area near the Exxon station. One carried geographic profiles from the FBI.
The other was a Virginia State Police helicopter, which Spotsylvania Sheriff's Maj. Howard Smith said had come to pick up evidence gathered at the Exxon and deliver it to the state crime lab for testing. The state police helicopter also carried people away from the scene.
Mobil station owner Raja Abilmona and Bingham were questioned repeatedly after the shooting, then watched as law enforcement officers searched the roped-off business for evidence.
It was a step Abilmona found a bit odd because he was "102 percent" sure the shooting came from across the street.
"I guess they know what they're doing," he said. "They have to do what they have to do."
A CSX Transportation worker who lives in The Meadows--a subdivision a half-mile from the Exxon as the crow flies--thought he was making a smart move yesterday morning when he decided to walk through the woods to The Shops at Lee's Hill.
"I figured there would be too many idiots out there rubber-necking so I decided not to drive--but I guess I was wrong," he said.
The father of three's shortcut through the woods aroused suspicion, and he wound up being wrestled to the ground by two state troopers.
After being handcuffed and questioned, he was let go--about the time his wife telephoned his cell phone to ask what was taking so long.
Despite his encounter with police, the man said he was unfazed. "You know they're doing their job," he said. "I can understand them thinking it's suspicious coming out of the woods."
At the Lee's Hill shops--on Spotsylvania Avenue in the larger Lee's Hill Commercial Center, which includes Capital One--merchants reported a marked drop in business.
Amy Chan, general manager of Chinamax restaurant, said business has been slow since a woman was shot in the parking lot of the Michaels Arts & Crafts store at Spotsylvania Mall a week ago.
"You can see a big difference," Chan said. "Everybody talks about it, even the employees."
She said her delivery driver didn't want to come in at first yesterday, but relented.
At Hair Cuttery, clients were calling yesterday to cancel appointments and few were walking in. Stylist Monisha Brown had planned to stop at the Exxon on her way to work about 9 a.m., but didn't because she was running late.
Another stylist, Carmen Thorpe, said she was headed for Michaels on the day of the shooting there, but got waylaid when she discovered her car's tags had expired.
"I'm trippin' after that," Thorpe said. "I'm just thankful my tags were dead."
At Rexel electrical and datacom products on Spotsylvania Avenue, the radio was blaring with news reports--as it has the past few days.
But business was slow--for two reasons. First, police were staked out along Spotsylvania Avenue checking vehicles. And second, nearly every vehicle that does business at Rexel is a white panel-style van--similar to the one witnesses saw after the shooting, salesman Dave Kuser said.
"It's very rare you don't see one of those vans," Kuser said. "That's the most popular color. Plumbers, painters, electricians--all have those white vans."
Mobil station owner Abilmona said the shooting left him more sad than afraid.
"My main concern is I hope my customers don't get afraid," he said. "I'm doing what I can."
He is watching for suspicious vehicles and calling in anything unusual to the Sheriff's Office.
"That's the only thing I'm going to do," Abilmona said. "I'm not going to put up walls around the building."
Staff Writer Ruth Finch contributed to this report.
