Media General News Service and Associated Press
Published: March 28, 2008

Updated 6:15 p.m.

More information from the State Police evening news conference:

The 15-year-old and 19-year-old Slade Woodson are charged with ten felonies each in connection with the I-64 car shootings.

This is an additional ten charges on top of the charges Woodson currently faces in connection with two separate shootings at a Waynesboro credit union, and inside a house that were filed this morning (see below).

State Police say they found a weapon of the same caliber that was used in the I-64 shootings.  Troopers are still waiting on ballistic and DNA evidence, but had enough other evidence to suppport the current charges against the teenagers.

Troopers are investigating other building shootings from late Wednesday night/Early Thursday morning, and say more charges are possible.

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Updated 5:58 p.m.

A second suspect has been arrested in the I-64 shootings.

That suspect is a 15-year-old.  More charges pending against first suspect arrested.

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Updated 3:23 p.m.

By Brian McNeill
Charlottesville Daily Progress

Police probing the Interstate 64 shootings have found small-caliber cartridge casings inside an abandoned 1975 AMC Gremlin and believe the shooter used a .22-caliber firearm, according to court documents.
The new details emerged from two search warrants filed with Albemarle County Circuit Court as police investigate the suspect in the interstate shootings, Slade Allen Woodson.
One search warrant authorized the search of an orange 1974 AMC Gremlin with a black stripe, which was found abandoned late Thursday off U.S. 29 in Albemarle County near the Greene County border.
A similar vehicle was spotted early Thursday by security cameras at the DuPont Community Credit Union on Lucy Lane in Waynesboro.
According to the search warrant, the camera’s tape shows two people inside the Gremlin, which was positioned in the bank’s parking lot. The footage shows one of the occupants fire a gun into a parked vehicle’s rear window.
While inspecting the scene, investigators noticed that the bank building had also apparently been struck with bullets.
Upon discovering the vehicle, investigators peered through its windows and saw “small caliber cartridge casings” and a box of ammo.
Col. W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police superintendent, said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is analyzing ballistics evidence found in the Gremlin to see if it matches the rifle fire that hit at least six vehicles the previous night. Four occupied vehicles were hit on I-64 in Albemarle County, injuring two motorists.
A second search warrant authorized police to search a single-story house on Yonder Hill Farm Road near Crozet. Police had seen a 1993 Grey Isuzu Rodeo registered to Woodson parked outside.
The search warrant states that investigators were looking for Woodson, a .22-caliber weapon and ammunition.
When Albemarle County’s tactical unit entered the residence at 4:40 a.m. Friday, they encountered an unidentified man armed with a handgun, authorities said. Police shot the man, who was flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center and is being treated for his injuries. Police declined to provide much information about the man, but said they do not believe he is connected to the I-64 sniper shootings.
Two neighbors said that the house is occupied by the manager of the surrounding cattle farm and his teenage son.
Police arrested Woodson at the residence. Woodson is charged with two felonies - one count of destruction of property and one count of shooting into an occupied building.
According to the search warrant, police were told that Woodson was hiding at the Yonder Hill Farm Road residence by a “reliable source of information.”
Investigators still believe that two people were involved with the shootings, though Flaherty declined to say if police were still looking for another suspect.
“We’ve taken some mighty big steps in this investigation,” Flaherty said. “We’re on the right path. Everyone can rest compared to the state we were in overnight.”

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Updated 2:07 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Authorities arrested a suspect early Friday in a series of highway shootings after storming a farm and firing at a man who met them with a handgun, police said.
Slade Allen Woodson, 19, of Afton was charged in separate shootings at a home and a credit union early Thursday, police said. He was not charged with firing shots along a rural stretch of Interstate 64, but authorities said he was considered a suspect and more charges were possible.
“We’ve taken some mighty big steps toward the resolution of this,” State Police Superintendent Steven Flaherty said at a news conference Friday. “Everyone can, I think, rest compared to the state that we were in overnight.”
State and county police searched a farm near Crozet in Albemarle County just before 5 a.m. Friday. Another man confronted them with a handgun, and was shot by a county law enforcement officer, police said. Woodson was taken into custody, and the man was taken to a hospital.
Elaine Paley, who lives on a hill overlooking the horse and cattle farm, said she was awakened at 4:40 a.m. by a helicopter flying with spotlights shining on the farm and surrounding woods.
Authorities were still investigating whether a second person was involved in the highway shootings, but had not yet identified anyone, they said. The Albemarle County police officer involved in the shooting is on administrative leave with pay, county Police Chief John Miller said.
The highway gunfire began early Thursday on Interstate 64 on a 20-mile stretch between Charlottesville and Waynesboro. A motorist called police just after midnight to report it, and in the next few hours, gunshots hit two cars, a van, a tractor-trailer, another vehicle and an unoccupied dump truck. Two people were injured, but their injuries were not life threatening.
Sometime between midnight and 2 a.m., shots also were fired at a bank and a residence in Waynesboro.
Police later found a light-colored AMC Gremlin seen on surveillance video around the time shots were fired at the credit union. The car had been abandoned along a road in Albemarle County, and authorities determined that Woodson owns a vehicle that appears similar to the car in the video.
According to news reports and court records, Woodson was arrested on Jan. 18, 2007, and accused of stealing two pickup trucks and setting them on fire. Woodson, a former member of the high school’s track and field team, was later convicted of two misdemeanor counts of petit larceny and given a suspended sentence.
On two MySpace pages created under his name, his occupations are listed as “mechanic, sorta” and “horse farm.” He is described as “just a country boy who keeps gettin his heart broken!!! Ive got my heart broken twice in less then a year… i dunno wat to do.... keep gettin my heart broke or stop caring!!! and i dont wanna stop caring...”

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Updated 12:45 p.m. with mugshot
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Updated 11:55 a.m.

BY CARLOS SANTOS
AND CLEVE WIESE
Media General News Service
CHARLOTTESVILLE — One person was arrested today and another was shot as police searched an Albemarle County house during their investigation of Thursday’s Interstate 64 shootings.
Authorities said Slade Woodson, 19, of Afton was taken into custody this morning as police executed a search warrant just west of Crozet. Woodson was charged with two felonies related to shootings Thursday in Waynesboro but was not charged in relation to the I-64 shootings that injured two motorists.
Virginia State Police Sperintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty said Woodson was being interviewed late this morning by authorities at the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Department.
“Woodson is considered a suspect in the Interstate 64 shootings,” Flaherty said.
Woodson was one of five people in the house where police executed the warrant, and Flaherty said one of the other people was armed and confronted officers, who shot him. The person, whose identity was not immediately released, was being treated at a hospital, said Flaherty, who did not elaborate on his condition.
Woodson was charged on Waynesboro warrants, on one felony count of shooting into an occupied building and one of destruction of public property. Police said the charges stemmed from a shooting at the DuPont Community Credit Union in Waynesboro early Thursday.
Flaherty said Woodson is the owner of an orange 1974 AMC Gremlin that police believe may have been used in the I-64 shootings. Two shooters fired bullets randomly at passing cars along the I-64 corridor near Crozet, leaving two people with minor injuries.
Flaherty also said police believe others were involved in the I-64 shootings.
“We have not identified any additional suspects at this time,” he said.
The house where Woodson was arrested and the other person was shot is a small, one-story, clapboard structure is part of a horse farm named Yonder Hill Farm. The farm includes a hay barn and horse barn.
State police troopers spent several hours today processing evidence at the house, which was surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape.
Flaherty said police were unsure if Woodson lived at the house or was just visiting at the time of his arrest.
Carlos Santos is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Cleve Wiese is a staff writer for The News Virginian.

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Updated 11:26 a.m.

(AP) - Virginia State Police say they have arrested a suspect in the Interstate 64 shootings.
He is identified as 19-year-old Slade Woodson of Afton.
He was arrested earlier this morning near Crozet and is charged in a separate bank shooting that happened
early Thursday morning, but police say more charges are possible.
Police are in the process of interviewing him right now.
They also say that when they went to the property to serve the warrant, a man armed with the gun started shooting.
Officers then fired back, hitting him.  He was taken to UVA Medical Center.  His name has not been released.
Police say there were five people in the house.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE—At least one person has been arrested in connection with the Interstate 64 shootings that injured two motorists yesterday morning, according to a police source.

Police also executed a search warrant on a house in western Albemarle County earlier this morning, according to Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the state police.

State police will hold a news conference this morning at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the new developments in the I-64 shootings, said Virginia State Police Sgt. Dave Cooper refused to release any further details.

Two shooters fired bullets randomly at passing cars yesterday morning along the I-64 corridor near Crozet.

Two motorists sustained minor injuries from the gunfire, which came from the roadside and an overpass.

Police said they believe more than one person was involved in the firing.

-- Carlos Santos