Police knew SUV was at Tech

Blacksburg police knew hours before a gunman shot and killed Virginia Tech police officer Deriek W. Crouse that an SUV stolen by an armed gunman was on campus; the first alerts to students went out only after Crouse had been shot.

While gaps in key information still existed Tuesday night in a new timeline released by Virginia State Police, state authorities acknowledged that a white Mercedes SUV, known to have been stolen in Radford the day before Crouse was shot to death, was reported to be parked at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, a few hours before Crouse was killed.

A Radford City Police Department alert to area law enforcement agencies, including police at Virginia Tech and the city of Blacksburg, that went out at 12:11 p.m. Wednesday after the SUV theft described the vehicle and said the suspect in the theft was “armed and dangerous.”

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute facility is at the south end of Blacksburg, about 3 miles from where Ross Truett Ashley, a part-time Radford University student, gunned down the officer as Crouse sat in his patrol car during an otherwise routine traffic stop.

The shooting occurred at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, almost three hours after the Mercedes SUV was located at VTTI, and was carried out by Ashley, 22, the same man later shown to have stolen the car about 20 miles away.

As of Tuesday night, state police could not say when the SUV was first seen on the Tech campus, only when it was reported to police. A VTTI representative declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech officials said this week that widespread police reports Wednesday of an “armed and dangerous” person being sought for the car theft at Radford did not warrant alerts to Virginia Tech students.

“It’s not likely that we’d issue an alert unless campus police felt a threat to the community,” Virginia Tech Associate Vice President Larry Hincker said in an email. “That’s the notion behind an alert — we need you, the recipient, to do something.”

He continued, “Alerts are not advisories. Remember, Radford is 17 miles from here in the next county.”

About 30 minutes after Crouse was shot, Ashley took his own life with the same weapon he used to kill Crouse.

Ashley was renting his Radford apartment from the rental agency from which he stole the Mercedes, but he was not immediately recognized by staff.

At 12:11 p.m. Wednesday, Radford police issued an alert about the vehicle theft and described the suspect as a college-age white male with dark hair and possibly blue eyes dressed in dark clothing. The alert, which went to police departments from Salem to Wytheville, described the suspect as “armed and dangerous” and urged anyone who came in contact to “use extreme caution.”

Then, shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday, Radford University informed its community about the armed theft, which occurred across the street from campus. The alert described the same male in dark clothing but deleted any reference to a weapon and added: “This is considered to be an isolated incident with no believed danger posed to the university community.”

A Radford spokesman was unavailable last night to explain the eased wording and lack of reference to a weapon.

Virginia State Police on Tuesday said they also have obtained video from a retail store in Blacksburg that shows Ashley was in the town of Blacksburg on Wednesday, the day before the murder-suicide. But the time of the video was not disclosed, and it was not obtained until after the shootings.

Police said they still were trying to determine a motive in the case. Crouse was mourned Monday in a funeral at Cassell Coliseum on the Tech campus attended by hundreds of police and students.

About a half-hour after Crouse was shot, Ashley fatally shot himself in a large, fenced parking lot called the Cage, using the same .40-caliber weapon he used to kill Crouse.

Authorities also said they have found no connection between Ashley and a handwritten message on the wall of a greenhouse a few hundred yards from where Ashley’s body was discovered. The message was a goodbye note to a girlfriend wishing her “good riddence.” It was signed MAC.

Ashley was from Partlow near Spotsylvania Courthouse; he was a standout football player there who received multiple academic scholarships. Recent friends and acquaintances provided mixed assessments of him, with some describing him as intensely withdrawn and quiet and others saying he seemed untroubled and friendly.