Suspect Arrested in I-80 Sniper Attacks

AUBURN, Calif. —  A 48-year-old Applegate man was arrested Thursday in Sacramento County and will be charged with at least nine Interstate 80 sniper attacks, Placer County Sheriff Ed Bonner said.

Christopher Shaw Scalley was spotted in a red pickup truck by a television news crew and arrested by Placer County deputies.

Bonner said Scalley would be charged with nine counts of malicious discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle. He said deputies have physical evidence linking Scalley to nine of the 15 shootings.

The break in the case came because a woman who said her vehicle was hit by a bullet in June provided deputies with the license plate number, Bonner said.

Scalley had evaded authorities since Tuesday, when sheriff’s deputies searched his Applegate home and questioned him, Lt. Johnnie Smith said. Smith said deputies do not yet have a motive and have not recovered a weapon.

Scalley was last seen Tuesday evening at a friend’s home in Carmichael. Officers also searched that home, Smith said.

The friend, Larry Don Shores, 58, was found dead at the Carmichael home Wednesday with a gunshot wound to the head, an apparent suicide victim. Shores was not considered a suspect in the case, authorities said.

There had been 14 reported sniper attacks on buses, motor homes and other vehicles, mostly along a two-mile stretch of I-80 between Applegate and Clipper Gap--about 40 miles east of Sacramento. The shootings started in early July and ended Aug. 8. The woman’s report was No. 15.

One man was shot in the head Aug. 5 and is recovering from the injury. The other sniper bullets have lodged in vehicles.