2010 Appomattox shootings

Appomattox shootings
Location	Appomattox, Virginia, United States
Date	January 19, 2010 About 12:00 p.m. EST (UTC -5)
Attack type	Assassination, spree shooting
Weapon(s)	High-powered rifle
Death(s)	8
Perpetrator	Christopher Speight

The 2010 Appomattox shootings was a spree shooting in Appomattox, Virginia on January 19, 2010.

The incident began when police were called to a road outside Appomattox on a report of a man who required medical attention. When police arrived, they were fired on by the suspect, Christopher Bryan Speight, who also fired on a police helicopter, forcing it to make an emergency landing. Shortly afterwards, the suspect fled to a wooded area, where a force of more than a hundred police officers surrounded him. No officers were injured in the attacks, though eight civilians were killed, three in a house co-owned by the gunman, four outside the house, and the last on the road.^[1] Police said that the victims were both men and women, and all were previously acquainted with the suspect. No motive was known, and Speight was believed to have acted alone.^[2]

He surrendered on January 20 near the same wooded area where police thought he had been surrounded, wearing a bulletproof vest, but without the high-powered rifle believed to be the weapon used. He approached a group of officers from outside the perimeter. When the officers noticed him standing with them, one officer told him to "Leave the area." Speight told the officers that they would all be dead if he wanted because he was the man they were looking for. Police put a school and local businesses on lockdown, and advised residents to lock their houses and not go outside. Police were concerned that Speight's house had been rigged with explosives, and a bomb squad was searching the building the morning of the day after the attack,^[1] which found explosives both inside and around the building, which were detonated safely.^[2] The house did sit unsecured for more than twelve hours as state police assumed local deputys had secured the house and vice versa.

Speight was employed as a security guard for Old Dominion Security.^[3]

On June 24, 2010, Appomattox County Circuit Court Judge Richard Blanton signed an order declaring Speight incompetent to stand trial. He was ordered sent to a state psychiatric hospital until such a time when he is able to assist his attorneys with his defense.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Urbina, Ian; Emery, Theo (19 January 2010). "Suspect Surrenders in Virginia Killing of 8 People". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/us/21virginia.html. Retrieved 20 January 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Suspect in 8 Virginia killings surrenders". CNN. 20 January 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/20/virginia.shootings/index.html?hpt=T2. Retrieved 20 January 2010. 
3. ^ "Speight Gun Permit". http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2010/02/03/appomattox/news/news31.txt. 
4. ^ "Appomattox murders suspect declared incompetent for trial". WSLS. 29 June 2010. http://www2.wsls.com/sls/news/local/lynchburg/article/appomattox_murders_suspect_declared_incompetent_for_trial/108516/. Retrieved 29 June 2010.