Ross Truett Ashley responsible for 2011 VA Tech Shooting, Suicide

by Emily Sutherlin | December 13, 2011 at 07:11 am

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Ross Truett Ashley, 22, shot and killed a police officer last Thursday and then committed suicide.

The day before the Virginia Tech shooting, according to police reports, Mr. Ashley stole a Mercedes SUV at gunpoint from a real estate office in Radford, Va., that managed a nearby apartment building where Ashley leased a unit, about 10 miles from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg.

Nic Robinson, a student at Radford University, told the Associated Press that Ashley appeared “friendly” most of the time but hinted at family problems. Last summer, Mr. Robinson said, Ashley broke up with a girlfriend, but it didn’t seem to hinder his daily life.

Ashley had walked up to patrolman Deriek Crouse, 39, and fired a shot killing him before fleeing and ditching his jacket, hat and backpack. Ashley had no known connection with Crouse. Crouse was a husband and father of five who joined the force not long after the 2007 massacre that claimed 33 lives. He had served in the U.S. Army and previously worked at the New River County Jail and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

Police said he then made his way to a nearby car park and when a deputy spotted him, he took his own life by turning the gun on himself.