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BLACKSBURG -- A law enforcement officer was shot this morning near the head of the Huckleberry Trail near the Blacksburg Public Library and police station.
The suspect in the shooting, William Morva, remains at large and a manhunt has closed a section of Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech campus. Officers from multiple police agencies have been searching for Morva using a helicopter and dogs.
Police are now surrounding Tech's Squires Student Center. Police radio traffic indicates someone fitting Morva's description was seen inside.
Morva also is accused of killing a security guard at Montgomery Regional Hospital early Sunday. The killing came after Morva, who had been in Montgomery County Jail awaiting trial on charges of trying to rob a store last year, was taken to the emergency room in the early morning hours Sunday. He attacked the deputy guarding him, took his gun, and shot the security guard, according to police.
Police said this morning Morva is wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and khaki shorts and had a white sheet wrapped around him. He is barefoot.
The condition of the officer who was shot this morning around 7:15 a.m. is not known, a Blacksburg police spokesman said.
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said the campus is closed for the day. All students are urged to return to their dorms or off-campus apartments. Staff were told to remain in their offices.
The Blacksburg Public Library downtown has been closed.
The search for Morva began after he was taken to the hospital to seek treatment for a sprained leg and wrist from a reported fall, Sheriff Tommy Whitt said Sunday. Procedure dictates that inmates are transported in handcuffs and leg irons to the hospital by a deputy sheriff assigned to the jail.
About 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Morva overpowered the officer, seized his pistol and shot Derrick McFarland, a hospital security guard, Davis said.
McFarland, a 26-year-old man living in Christiansburg, had tried to assist the deputy sheriff and prevent Morva's escape, police said.
Morva fled toward Hilltop Road, after shedding his orange jail-issued jumpsuit, police said.
McFarland died from his wounds. The deputy sheriff injured in Morva's escape was in stable condition at the hospital Sunday morning.
"We really need to look into it real closely and find out how this happened," Whitt said about Morva's escape. "We have an idea, but it's just speculation at this point, and I'd rather not speculate."
Whitt said the deputy, whose name he would not disclose, was sedated and unable to speak with investigators.
Police officers from several neighboring areas aided in the search effort. Two Virginia State Police helicopters surveyed the area and police dogs went out with officers on foot. The outpouring of support from other agencies was "mind-boggling," Whitt said.
The search took place just as Virginia Tech students were moving in for the start of the school year. Thousands of students and their parents flooded the area this weekend. Classes begin today.
Rumors about Morva and the police hunt flew around Blacksburg Sunday night and this morning, with people saying that police were visiting various people who had known the suspect.
Morva was known as a transient who had a hard time holding a steady job before his 2005 arrest. He had attended Blacksburg High School.
He was a downtown coffeeshop regular known for going barefoot and wearing camouflage shorts and a T-shirt regardless of the weather. He portrayed himself as an outsider and sometimes spoke of living in the woods and hunting for food.
Christina Gardner, an employee of the Rivermill bar in downtown Blacksburg who knew Morva from high school, said Sunday that he is an idealist who had gotten into a desperate situation.
"I never thought he was capable of these kinds of actions," Gardner said.
"He has been homeless off and on for several years, because his family moved back to Richmond. And he hasn't had the easiest life, but he's always tried to do right by people."
At McFarland's Christiansburg home on Sunday afternoon, a skateboard and other toys leaned against a wall and the sound of young children and barking dogs met knocks at the door. Relatives, however, declined to talk to a reporter.
Morva was in jail on charges of trying to rob the Deli Mart on Glade Road in Blacksburg in August 2005. His trial had been continued twice this summer, and the new date was set for Wednesday, according to circuit court records.
Morva and Jeffrey Scott Roberts, 21, of Richmond were arrested Aug. 16, 2005, after an attempted armed robbery at the Deli Mart.
Police said two masked men -- one carrying a shotgun, the other carrying a rifle -- attempted to enter the store only to find that the door had been locked and the business closed for the evening.
A store clerk who saw the robbers called Blacksburg police and then chased the men. Morva and Roberts were arrested a short time later with help from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and the Virginia State Police. They recovered a .22-caliber rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun -- both with rounds in the chambers -- as well as clothing and ski masks the robbers had discarded.
In April, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted Morva in connection with the Deli Mart crime as well as two other attempted burglaries on July 14, 2005, and Aug. 12, 2005. Online court records do not specify where those alleged crimes occurred.
On Sunday, Virginia State Police Officer Dave Purcell gives his dog, Zeus, water after emerging from the woods in an attempt to pick up the scent of the alleged shooting suspect at Meadow Brook Trailer Park near the Blacksburg/Montgomery County line Sunday morning. Police were following a tip from a citizen who reported seeing an individual matching the suspect's description, but the search team was unable to find the scent and the effort was terminated.
Before Sunday, Morva had been charged with attempted robbery, use of a firearm during an attempted robbery, statutory burglary, two counts of attempted statutory burglary and three counts of conspiracy.
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