SAMSON, Ala. — A coroner said the suspect in a shooting rampage Tuesday that left at least 10 people dead in south Alabama began his day of bloodshed by burning down his mother’s house, where officials found her body.
Coffee County Coroner Robert Preachers said officials had not been able to enter the house outside of Kinston to determine whether she had been shot. Preachers said the suspect then went to nearby Samson and killed his grandparents, aunt and uncle.
Preachers said the grandfather, Alfred White, had raised the suspect and that officials knew of no motive for the killings.
The state Department of Safety said the gunman killed nine people before fatally shooting himself at a metal products plant in neighboring Geneva.
Police are investigating at least four separate shootings, all believed to be done by one gunman. The suspect’s name was not released.
The shootings began late in the afternoon in Samson. The shooter killed five people in one home and one each in two other homes.
The gunman also shot at a state trooper’s car, wounding the trooper with broken glass. He then killed someone at a Samson supply store and another person at a service station.
Samson contractor Greg McCullough said he was pumping gas at the station when the gunman opened fire, killing a woman coming out of the service station and wounding McCullough in the shoulder and arm with bullet fragments that struck his truck and the pump.
“I first thought it was somebody playing,” he said.
Police pursued the gunman to Reliable Metal Products, about a dozen miles southeast of Samson, where he fired an estimated 30 rounds, the safety department said. One bullet hit Geneva Police Chief Frankie Lindsey, who was saved by his bulletproof vest.
The gunman then went in the plant and shot himself, authorities said.
The gunman had worked at Reliable Metal, said state Rep. Warren Beck, a Republican whose district includes Geneva.
State Sen. Harri Anne Smith, R-Slocomb, said some of those killed in Samson were sitting outside.
“He was just driving down the street shooting at people sitting on their porches,” she said. “A family was just sitting on the porch, and they were shot.”
Reliable Metal Products makes grills and vents for heating and AC systems, mainly for hotels. A person who answered the phone at the plant said no one there could talk about the shootings.
