Newspaper Carrier Shot Dead as She Drove to Get Papers

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says one person has died and four others, including a police officer, were injured when a suspect fired shots at a Days Inn and at several vehicles traveling along Volunteer Parkway in East Tennessee. The person killed was a newspaper carrier who was driving to pick up papers for the morning delivery; her vehicle careened over an embankment after she was shot. Bristol Herald-Courier publisher Jim Maxwell confirmed 44-year-old Jennifer Rooney, who had been delivering papers since August, was killed in the overnight shooting. He called it a "senseless act of violence" that has stunned the small city on the Virginia border.

TBI spokesman Josh DeVine said the suspect was armed with at least two weapons and shot at responding officers, who returned fire, wounding him. The suspect and the four people who were injured were taken to the Bristol Regional Medical Center. Media reported that TBI agents were processing four separate crime scenes, and WJHL calls the shootings "random." DeVine said police are working "as aggressively, as quickly, and as carefully as possibly" to gather evidence and determine what happened. (More shooting stories.)