On its Web site, the town of Ashland jokingly refers to itself as “the center of the universe.”

Saturday night, it was.

After the Washington-area sniper shot his 12th victim outside a Ponderosa restaurant here, life in yet another community along the Interstate 95 corridor halted momentarily. The national news media poured in and deputies were pulled off their normal beats to join an already crowded investigation.

“I think there was a big sigh of relief” when the news media trucks left, Ashland Mayor Angela LaCombe said from her home Tuesday as she cared for her two children, who were out of school because of the shootings. “We’ve never had anything like this happen here before.”

While the shootings have touched communities from Rockville, Md., to Richmond since they began Oct. 2, the effects may have been most acutely felt in central Virginia, where large swaths are still heavily rural and violent crime is virtually unknown.

Ashland, a town of about 6,500 residents, has had two murders in the last 2½ years, according to LaCombe. Hanover County sheriff’s Lt. Doug Goodman said the area is proud of its security, but in a case as random as the sniper, it means little.

“No jurisdiction can be prepared for this kind of crime,” he said.

Goodman said his office has beefed up security on busy roads and pulled deputies from their usual posts to help investigators. But all this is taking a toll on the county’s limited resources.

“Everybody has been working long hours,” he said. “We are rotating our folks and getting them the rest they need ... but we are utilizing them pretty heavily.”