CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Police detectives are working with police in Oregon to see if a man shot to death Saturday may have tried to kill women in other locations.
The man, from Oregon, was shot and killed in a 6th Street apartment in Charleston by the woman he tried to kill. The two met on Backpage.com. She grabbed his gun and shot him while being strangled, Charleston Chief of Detectives Lt. Steve Cooper said.
Suspicious items in the man’s car have police thinking this may not have been a random situation, Cooper said.
“If you are asking me if I suspect it is possible? I do,” Cooper said, adding it’s very early in the investigation. “Based on his m-o (mode of operation) and based on some of the items we’ve discovered and based on his clear intent. There’s not a whole lot of question that he had at least intended to greatly harm her if not kill her.”
Police are going over the items found in the man’s car. Cooper said some of them were in plain view, others were not.
The odds are very low for a victim to survive such an attack, Cooper said.
“Her instincts kicked in and she acted without hesitation,” he said. “She was very distraught afterward. Distraught she had taken a man’s life. Distraught that she had been attacked like that. It was basically an act of heroism considering what this man was trying to do to this poor girl.”
The names of those involved still haven’t been released.