Virginia Tech gunman named as Ross Truett Ashley
The gunman who killed a police officer at Virginia Tech on Thursday has been identified as Ross Truett Ashley, a 22-year-old student at nearby Radford University.
A day after the spectre of random gun violence returned to the university, which in 2007 was the site of America's worst campus massacre, authorities have released a more detailed timeline of the events that led to the death of campus police officer Deriek Crouse, a father of five.
Police said Ashley fled the scene of the shooting and changed clothes before apparently turning the gun on himself as officers closed in.
They said there was no clear motive for the killing and that the gunman and his victims are not thought to have known each other.
Speaking at the second press conference since the killing at midday yesterday, police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said that Officer Crouse had pulled over a student for a traffic violation when the shooter approached and killed him as he sat in his police cruiser.
The 39-year-old officer was not able to return fire but his dashboard camera did capture an image of the gunman in the moments of the shooting. It is not known whether he was wearing body armour nor how many times he was hit.
source : www.telegraph.co.uk