Mystery, challenges abound for police

A volatile situation lurks for officers pursuing the shotgun-wielding suspect in a double-shooting on the Blue Ridge Parkway, according to experts in the pursuit of criminals.

“Once they know they’re going down ... they become very, very dangerous,” Washington, D.C.-based criminal profiler Pat Brown said of fugitives.

“If he gets away with this, he’s going to be excited,” she added.

Working against investigators will be the random nature of the crime, experts said Tuesday.

A man fired two shotgun blasts at the backs of Tim Davis, 27, a Charlottesville disc jockey, and an 18-year-old Palmyra woman Monday evening as they watched the sunset off the Blue Ridge Parkway, 10 miles from the Afton entrance. Authorities said there is no apparent connection between the shooter and the victims. Authorities said the shooter fled in a red car.

Those details, while relatively sparse, will launch numerous leads and invite many tips, if investigators are lucky, experts said.

The pursuit will take “grunt work,” said private investigator Bill Robbins, owner of Reliable Security & Investigations LLC in Ruckersville.

“In a situation like this, since it’s not going to work out the ‘easy way,’ so to speak, the forensic analysis at the scene [will be key],” Robbins said.

Detectives revisited Rock Point Overlook on Tuesday, combing the scene again. After authorities left, a reporter Ted Strong of The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress found a shotgun shell casing that authorities later collected.

Robbins said authorities could look for tire patterns at the overlook, hope that the struggle with the victim left behind DNA evidence and they might view security camera footage from local gas stations.

Investigators likely will look for similarities in other cases, as aided by the FBI.

Robbins said a “cool and calculating” suspect is difficult to anticipate, especially without identification.

“We don’t know what he is yet,” Brown said. “Luckily, we have a description.”

Robbins suggested the suspect would have been familiar with the Parkway, which is traveled by more than 18 million people annually, according to parks statistics.

Brown said authorities — and the public — can help by thinking about the car description, shotgun owners and anyone they know with a recent downturn in life or a stockpile of weapons.

She said weapons hoarding is a general profile investigators consider.

The experts called the use of a shotgun “rare” and “interesting.”

“No. 1: It’s hard to hide,” Robbins said.

Examining the ammunition also would require different techniques.

The possibility of another attack will add urgency to the search, experts said.

“You want to stop this guy as soon as possible,” Robbins said.

Brown said a random shooting can turn into a “spree” that could include thefts and more attacks.

“Now [police] really need to go very, very public, because we’re not looking at a domestic,” Brown said.

Bob Burton, director of nationwide bounty-hunting group U.S. COBRA, called the case description “unusual.”

“With that kind of description you can almost count on a lot of phone calls coming in,” he said.

More than three years ago, Elizabeth Hafter, 22, was murdered on the Parkway near Waynesboro. Authorities said they suspected Tom Ashby, 37, of Savannah, Ga., killed Hafter and four others during a week-long killing spree in October 2006 before taking his own life while running from police in Florida.