Northbound traffic on Interstate 95 in Stafford County was moving again Thursday night after a driver suspected in the fatal shooting of his wife fired on law enforcement officers and crashed on the highway.
Stafford County sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a shooting at 11:24 a.m. at an apartment complex in the area of Heron Drive and found a woman with three gunshot wounds to the chest, Stafford County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Amanda Vicinanzo said.
Deputies put out a call for the gunman, who they said had fled in a black SUV. Virginia State Police say a state trooper and a Stafford County sheriff's deputy stopped an SUV in the northbound lanes of I-95 near the 138 marker in connection with the shooting. The driver got out of the SUV and began firing at the trooper and deputy, striking the trooper's windshield, state police said.
A bullet hole could be seen in the driver side headrest of the sheriff's cruiser, narrowly missing the deputy.
The driver then got back into the SUV and fled northbound on I-95, where he crashed and overturned near the 142 marker. The sheriff's office said he was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and was flown to a hospital where he is being treated.
"That guy could have killed a lot of people, just by driving the way he was, let alone shooting at people," a witness told NBC4 News.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the first shooting. Her name was not released because her family had not been notified of her death. The sheriff's office confirmed that the suspect and woman were husband and wife.
No law enforcement officers were injured. State police say the trooper and deputy did not fire their guns during the shooting.
Northbound lanes were closed at Exit 140 during the investigation and caused an hours-long backup into the evening commute.
