By Brian McNeill

Published: March 29, 2008

A one-time accomplished Western Albemarle High School pole-vaulter and an unidentified 16-year-old Crozet resident were arrested Friday and face numerous felony charges in connection with the Interstate 64 sniper shootings.
Slade Allen Woodson, 19, and the juvenile were taken custody during an early morning police raid of a house at Yonder Hill Farm, a 91.5-acre farm in rural western Albemarle County.
A member of the Albemarle County Police Tactical unit shot an Unidentified man who was armed with a handgun during the search of the residence, according to police. The man was listed as “stable” late Friday and the officer was been placed on paid leave during the investigation.
The arrests of the two young men, police said, put an end to the terrifying ordeal on I-64, in which five occupied vehicles traveling on the interstate were shot with small-caliber fire early Thursday morning.
“I’m very relieved,” said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. “Certainly this was a case that gave us great concern and gave concern to the people of the Charlottesville area.”
Woodson and the juvenile were both charged with eight felony counts in connection with the sniper fire from the Route 690 overpass that hit four occupied vehicles in the highway’s westbound lanes. Two drivers suffered minor injuries from the gunfire. The charges include two counts of malicious wounding, two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony and four counts of maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle.
The duo faces an additional two charges each in connection with the shooting that occurred at the on-ramp to I-64 at exit 144. These include one felony count of attempted malicious wounding and one felony count of maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle.
Waynesboro police are charging Woodson with yet another two felony counts — shooting into an occupied dwelling and destruction of property — that spun out of a shooting incident the same night as the other shootings at the DuPont Community Credit Union on Lucy Lane in Waynesboro. A security camera caught two people in a 1974 AMC Gremlin shooting out the rear window of a parked car and the bank building.
All told, Woodson could face more than 100 years in prison and a fine of more than $200,000. The juvenile could receive a maximum jail sentence of more than 90 years and a fine of up to $200,000.
“I feel very good about the investigation,” said Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford. “I’m very confident in what the investigators have put together here.”
In their 4:48 a.m. search of the Yonder Hill Farm residence, investigators were looking for Woodson, ammunition and a .22-caliber firearm, according to a search warrant filed in Albemarle County Circuit Court. In a Friday evening press conference, Flaherty said only that police had confiscated a “weapon” that matched the caliber of bullets used in the I-64 shootings, but declined to elaborate. Forensic specialists with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will continue to analyze the evidence through the weekend, he said.
Additional ballistic evidence was found inside the 1974 Gremlin, a distinctive orange hatchback, which was found late Thursday abandoned on the side of U.S. 29 in Albemarle County just south of the Greene County border. According to another search warrant, investigators peered through the car’s window and saw small caliber cartridge casings and a box of ammo.
The investigation was described by Flaherty as remaining “very active” and more charges against Woodson and the juvenile may be filed within the next week. Woodson will make his first court appearance Monday morning at a bond hearing, while the juvenile will have his first hearing Monday afternoon, Lunsford said. Additional arrests are not expected, Flaherty said.
Many details of the investigation remain unclear, such as the identity of the man shot by police during the search of the Yonder Hill Farm house. It is also not known what the shooting victim’s relationship is with Woodson or the juvenile.
Two neighbors of the Yonder Hill Farm residence said the home is occupied by the farm’s longtime manager, who has a teenage son often seen driving his four-wheel-drive vehicle across the farm’s rolling hills.
Every time it snows, the unidentified farm manager clears Buddie Critzer’s long and steep driveway before he clears his own driveway. “He’s been a real blessing to us,” Critzer said. “He’s always been real nice and pleasant. You just don’t expect something like this to happen here. But we’re all vulnerable, I guess, to a certain extent.”
A call to Woodson’s home on Pughs Store Road in Afton was not returned Friday. At the family’s house, a piece of notebook paper had been duct taped to a window. The note said: “This is our statement. All we can say is that we love our boy an we hope the incedent on I-64 is not related to him. We also want to say our hearts are with the innocent victim that was shot by police during our sons arrest.”
Altogether, police believe that Woodson and the juvenile fired upon a total of six vehicles, including a van, a tractor-trailer, two cars and an unoccupied Virginia Department of Transportation dump truck.
Flaherty declined Friday to provide any possible motive for the apparently random shootings, which caused police to shut down a 20-mile stretch of I-64 and reminded many residents of the Washington-area sniper slayings in 2002 and the Ohio highway sniper shootings in 2003.
Thankfully, Flaherty said, no one was hurt too seriously in the I-64 shootings.
“Everyone can, I think, rest compared to the state that we were in overnight,” he said.
Flaherty praised the efforts of the numerous law enforcement agencies that contributed to the investigation, including the police departments of Albemarle, Charlottesville, Waynesboro, Staunton, the University of Virginia, Augusta County, as well as the FBI, the ATF and others.
More than 50 officers participated in the manhunt for and investigation into the two young friends charged in the case, which was ended with the arrests just 22 hours after the gunfire.