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Virginia Gunman Surrenders to Police After Killing 8

   VOA News 20 January 2010

   Police  in  Virginia  say  a gunman who killed eight people in a rural
   part of the southeastern U.S. state has turned himself in.
   They  identify  the gunman as 39-year-old Christopher Speight, and say
   he surrendered early Wednesday without incident.
   He  had  been  the subject of an intense manhunt in a wooded area near
   the central Virginia town of Appomattox, about 240 kilometers south of
   Washington, DC.
   The eight victims were found dead in and around a small house near the
   town.  Police say they included both men and women.
   The  shootings  were discovered after a young man was found shot along
   the side of a rural road Tuesday.
   They  say they believe Speight fired at a state police helicopter that
   was  assisting  the manhunt, striking its fuel tanks and forcing it to
   land.
   Appomattox  is  famous  for being the site where General Robert E. Lee
   surrendered  to General Ulysses S. Grant to end the American Civil war
   in 1865.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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