March 28, 2008

19-year old Slade Allen Woodson of Afton was arrested in connection with Thursday's Interstate Shootings early Friday morning. As police served a search warrant on a house in connection with the investigation one person was shot. Officials say that person is now in stable condition.

In a news conference around 5:45pm Friday, Col. Steve Flaherty of Virginia State Police announced that a second suspect had been found and arrested related to the I-64 shootings. A 16-year-old boy from Crozet.

Around 4:48 a.m. Friday morning the Albemarle County Police and Virginia State Police executed a search warrant at 6740 Yonder Hill Farm in Crozet. As authorities made their way in to the residence, they were confronted by an individual with a handgun.

That man was subsequently shot and flown to University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville for treatment. Albemarle Police have requested the VSP Police Shooting Investigation Team to investigate the incident. Police tell us the suspect was not shot.

There was a total of five people in the house, including Woodson. He was taken without incident and no one else in the house was injured.

Police sources Slade Woodson has been arrested and is being processed at the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Jail.

This is not Woodson's first run in with the law. In January 2007 Woodson was arrested for allegedly stealing two cars and lighting them on fire. Police said Woodson stole the cars from the Crozet area.

Woodson had only been served police warrants in the city of Waynesboro, related to shootings in that city. He now faces an additional 10 charges, authorized by the Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney.

The 16-year-old Crozet juvenile will also face 10 charges from Albemarle County. Those charges include:

-Two felony counts of malicous wounding
-Two counts use of a firearm in the commission of a felony
-Four counts of maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle (charges stem from shootings at Route 690 overpass and I-64 westbound)
-One felony count of attempted malicous wounding
-One count of maliciously shooting into an occupied vehicle

The last two charges stem from shootings done at the exit 114 onramp to I-64 west. Authorities say that additional charges are likely next week.

Police are still waiting for ballistic evidence from the ATF lab in Maryland but say that there is other evidence to support the charges. That evidence includes a gun of the same caliber of the ballistic evidence that has been collected so far.

In Waynesboro Woodson has been charged with one felony count of shooting into an occupied building and one felony count of destruction of property. The charges stem from a shooting at a residence at the 200 block of North Commerce Avenue in Waynesboro and a shooting at theDuPont Community Credit Union on Lucy Lane.

Early Friday morning police released a surveillance photo taken from the Credit Union of a light colored AMC Gremlin with a dark stripe running the length of the vehicle that they believe is connected to the shooting.

Police say the found a similar vehicle to the one they believe was involved in the shootings. It was abandoned along Route 29 in Albemarle County just south of the Greene County line.

Woodson is also the owner of an orange 1974 AMC Gremlin, which is similar to the car found and the car show in the surveillance photo.

The vehicle was processed overnight. There is ballistic evidence recovered from the car. It is being taken to the ATF lab in Maryland for analysis and will be compared to other evidence collected and recovered from the shooting scenes along I-64.

Investigators are still awaiting results from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on ballistic evidence collected at each of the scenes on and near I-64.

Woodson is in custody and is considered a suspect in shootings that took place on or near I-64. State police did confirm Thursday that a sixth vehicle was hit while traveling westbound on I-64.

An investigation is still being conducted. At this time officials say that they are not looking for any other suspects.

Both Woodson and the juvenile have bond hearings set for Monday in Albemarle County. Col. Flaherty added that he could not say enough about all the agencies that were involved in the investigation. He said he appreciated their grasp of the community's concern.