CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A man in West Virginia is suspected of killing a woman, stealing a car and beating a police officer with a metal object before the suspect was shot Tuesday, police said.
Charleston police officer Austin Casto was not seriously hurt and was at home with his family, while the suspect underwent surgery at a Charleston hospital, Charleston Police Chief Tyke Hunt said.
The suspect’s name and condition were not released and no charges were immediately filed as investigators continued piecing the cases together. Hunt said at a news conference he expects the suspect will be charged with first-degree murder, among other charges.
“We feel confident that the perpetrator of, I believe, all these crimes … was the same individual,” Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford said.
Rutherford said after the woman’s body was found at a Charleston home, the suspect was involved in a carjacking, a car accident and another attempted carjacking. Witnesses followed him to a gas station. As soon as Casto arrived, the suspect hit him in the head with an antique iron before being shot.
The sheriff’s office is investigating the shooting and Charleston police are handling the woman’s death and car incidents. The woman’s name and details of her death were not immediately released.
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