Gunfire on I-64 in Va. injures 2; has drivers, police remembering deadly 2002 sniper spree

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Gunfire that struck several vehicles and injured two people along a stretch of mountain highway had motorists and police on edge Thursday in a region where memories of the deadly Beltway snipers still haven't faded.

Authorities were seeking at least two people suspected of firing shots the night before that hit two cars, a van, a tractor-trailer, another vehicle and an unoccupied dump truck on Interstate 64 just west of Charlottesville. Two people were injured, but not seriously.

Col. Steven Flaherty, the state police superintendent, would not characterize the shootings as the work of snipers, calling it "random firing."

Nevertheless, Flaherty conceded the 2002 attacks, in which 10 people were killed and three wounded in Maryland, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia, were on investigators' minds as they sought those behind Thursday's spree.

Police took a call from a driver whose vehicle was hit just after midnight. Four more occupied vehicles headed westbound were shot, one at an on-ramp at Ivy, the others at an overpass in the Afton area. An unoccupied Virginia Department of Transportation dump truck was targeted later, farther down the interstate.

The 20-mile stretch of I-64 between Waynesboro and Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia, was closed for nearly six hours while police searched for suspects and evidence. The interstate reopened around dawn.

Albemarle County public schools closed for the day.

Police think the bullets were all of the same caliber but they could not be sure until ballistics tests are completed.

The two injured motorists were treated at hospitals and released. Flaherty said he did not know whether the victims were struck by bullets or shattered glass.

Flaherty said that the shooters could still be in the area, but that there was no need for motorists to avoid I-64. Police planned to deploy additional officers in the area Thursday night if no arrests were made, he said.

Robert Caldwell, owner of Duner's, said he took I-64 Thursday morning and noticed police at every overpass. "I've never seen so many state police," he said.