CROZET -- Police have taken into custody two people they believe responsible for the Interstate 64 shootings and will begin court proceedings against them Monday.
Slade Allen Woodson, 19, will be charged with 10 felony counts associated with the interstate shootings that began shortly after midnight Wednesday and forced the closing of the interstate for six hours, Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty said yesterday.
A 16-year-old male from Crozet, described as a friend of Woodson's, also will face 10 felony counts.
The felony charges range from malicious wounding to malicious shooting at an occupied vehicle.
The spray of shots, apparently from a .22 rifle, slightly injured two motorists driving westbound on the interstate and resulted in police closing the road from Charlottesville to Waynesboro.
Woodson, 19, a self-described "country boy,'' also has been charged with one felony county of shooting into an occupied dwelling in Waynesboro and one felony count of destruction of property, related to shots that hit a bank building in Waynesboro Thursday morning.
Police have said they have no motives for the shootings, which resulted in at least six vehicles being hit.
Woodson and the juvenile will have bond hearings Monday, said Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford.
The investigation that led to Woodson's arrest turned violent about 5 a.m. yesterday when police raided a small house on a farm just outside the tiny community of Crozet in rural western Albemarle.
The Albemarle Police Department's Tactical Squad was confronted by a man inside the house wielding a handgun. Flaherty said an Albemarle officer fired multiple times, wounding the man.
Flaherty would not disclose the wounded man's identity but said he was not a suspect in any of the shootings. The man is being treated at the University of Virginia medical center where he was listed in stable condition late yesterday, Flaherty said.
Albemarle Police Chief John Miller said the deputy has been placed on administrative leave with pay while state police investigate the shooting.
The four other people in the small wood-clapboard house, including Woodson, were not injured in the raid at the Yonder Hill Farm, a neatly kept horse farm. Two neighbors said the house is occupied by the manager of the surrounding cattle farm and his teenage son.
Police spent much of yesterday searching the house and the property, which included hay and horse barns. Police were unsure why Woodson, who is from Afton, was in the house. But Woodson said on a personal Internet Web site that he worked at a horse farm.
Flaherty said the investigation, which included a host of law-enforcement agencies -- from the Staunton police to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- was intense.
"There was a ton of folks working on this. They realized the concern in the community and pulled it together. I'm very relieved . . . I'm very elated that we were able to wrap it up so quickly.''
Flaherty said Woodson's arrest stemmed from "an accumulation of interviews and physical evidence.''
At least part of that physical evidence was gathered from a wild, apparently pointless shooting at a window and sign at the Dupont Community Credit Union bank building in Waynesboro between midnight Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday.
The bank's surveillance camera caught an image of a 1974 orange-colored AMC Gremlin with a broad, dark stripe across its side, which may have been driven by the shooters.
A similar type Gremlin was found abandoned Thursday afternoon along U.S. 29 just north of Charlottesville at the Greene County line.
Police learned that the car belonged to Woodson. They found small-caliber cartridge casings in the car and believe the shooter used a .22-caliber firearm, according to court documents.
That evidence will be compared with shell casings found in Waynesboro and at the shooting sites on I-64, to see if they match, police said.
Police are still uncertain how many shots were fired at vehicles on I-64 early Thursday or how long the shootings went on.
The two motorists who were injured were treated at the Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville and released Thursday.
The shootings occurred at three locations along the interstate.
One vehicle was struck by bullets when it was on the westbound entrance ramp at the Ivy exit just west of Charlottesville at mile marker 114.
Four vehicles in westbound lanes were hit by sniper shots fired from the state Route 690 overpass near the 106 mile marker. That overpass is about 10 miles west of the Ivy exit.
A dump truck belonging to the Virginia Department of Transportation was hit by two bullets while parked at the VDOT maintenance yard at Yancey Mills off U.S. 250, which parallels the interstate. The VDOT truck was unoccupied.
Woodson is being held at the Middle River Regional Jail in Verona. The juvenile is being held at the Blue Ridge Detention Center in Albemarle.
Later yesterday, at Woodson's home in Afton, a handwritten statement was duct-taped to a blue-green Isuzu Trooper parked in front of a white split-level house with a wooden fence, a swingset in the yard and an American flag.
"All we can say is that we love our boy an[d] we hope the incident on I-64 is not related to him," the note stated. "We also want to say our hearts are with the innocent victim that was shot by police during our sons arrest."
Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or csantos@timesdispatch.com.
The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, The News-Virginian in Waynesboro and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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