A Virginia State Police trooper and a pedestrian he encountered on the shoulder of southbound Interstate 95 in Caroline County were both shot Thursday during a struggle inside the trooper's car, police said.
Senior trooper M.H. Hamer, who is assigned to the department's Culpeper Division Area 5 office, was taken by ambulance to Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg with a non-life-threatening injury to his leg.
The suspect, who was not identified, was airlifted to the same hospital with a life-threatening gunshot wound, said Sgt. Thomas Molnar, a state police spokesman.
The officer successfully came through surgery and was in stable condition, Gov. Bob McDonnell said Thursday night during a news briefing on the Virginia Tech shootings.
The shootings occurred about 3:25 p.m. after the trooper, driving an unmarked patrol car, responded to a report of a pedestrian on the interstate. Hamer then located the man on the right shoulder of I-95 at mile marker 116.3, which is 2 miles south of the Thornburg exit in Spotsylvania County, Molnar said.
After Hamer placed the man inside his vehicle, a struggle ensued and shots were fired, wounding both men, police said.
"Investigators are interviewing all the witnesses to determine if the suspect was a pedestrian or may have been a disabled motorist on the interstate," Molnar said. They are trying to determine "why was this suspect on the interstate."
Molnar said only the trooper's vehicle was found at the shooting scene.
Police declined to say whether Hamer was shot with his own gun or whether a second firearm was used in the shootings.
"Right now, it's under investigation," Molnar said.
Investigators believe they know the suspect's identity but were still working to confirm it Thursday night. "Once they determine the identity of the suspect, they will go and speak with the family," Molnar said.
To conduct their investigation, police immediately closed all lanes of southbound I-95 at mile marker 116, near the Caroline-Spotsylvania border, for about two hours. The left lane was reopened for traffic about 5:30 p.m. and then closed briefly again about 7:30 before reopening. The right and center lanes remained closed, causing a traffic backup of about 10 miles.
The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation's Richmond field office and its Shooting Investigation Team are continuing to investigate the incident.
Copyright 2011 - Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
