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US serial killer 'shot by police' US serial killer 'shot by police'
(about 1 hour later)
A gunman who has shot five people dead in South Carolina has been killed in a shootout in North Carolina, police say. Police in the US say they have shot dead a serial killer who had terrorised a town in South Carolina.
Police named the gunman as 41-year-old Patrick Tracy Burris, identified as the killer after bullets found in his gun matched those of the wanted gunman. Patrick Tracy Burris, 41, was killed during an attempted burglary 30 miles (48km) from Gaffney, North Carolina.
Officials in Cherokee County, where five people were killed around the town of Gaffney, gave few details. Bullets in his gun reportedly matched those used in the murders, which saw five residents of Gaffney shot and killed within a few days of each other.
But they said intensive police efforts had paid off, adding they wanted to tell residents they could sleep safely. Police said Burris had a long criminal record, and had been released on parole in April after serving eight years.
"We have him. He's our serial killer," said Neil Dolan, deputy state law enforcement director in South Carolina. "Look at this," State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) Chief Reggie Lloyd told a press conference, waving a copy of Burris' criminal record.
The shootout took place near Gastonia, North Carolina, after police challenged a suspect in a burglary. "This is like 25 pages. At some point the criminal justice system is going to need to explain why this suspect was out on the street."
Previous charges filed against Burris included larceny, forgery and breaking and entering in several states in the south-eastern US.
Police say they still do not know the motive behind the killings.
"He was unpredictable. He was scary. He was weird," the deputy director of the SLED, Neil Dolan, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
"We have him. He's our serial killer," Mr Dolan added.
The killings all occurred over six days within about 10 miles (16km) of each other in Cherokee County, a rural community some 50 miles west of Charlotte, North Carolina.
A peach farmer was killed on 27 June, an 83-year-old woman and her daughter were found bound and shot four days later, and the following day a father and his teenaged daughter were shot in their family's furniture shop.
Burris was shot to death by officers responding to a burglary complaint at a home in Gastonia, in neighbouring North Carolina.
Police say an investigation is underway to determine if he was involved in other unsolved crimes in the area.