A man killed seven people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over a seven-week period during shooting sprees in which at least some victims may have been targeted at random, authorities said Thursday.
The killings began in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in mid-May and ended 70 miles away in Pennsylvania on Sunday, when three people were shot in the middle of the night, two as they sat in a car.
Todd West, 22, of Elizabeth, was arrested Monday by police in Allentown, Pennsylvania, who spotted him and an alleged accomplice who matched the description of two men wanted for robberies earlier in the day, prosecutors said.
The police work “may have prevented more people from being killed, potentially, because it’s pretty apparent that these guys meant business,” said Terry Houck, first district attorney in Pennsylvania’s Northampton County, where one of the killings occurred.
West faces charges including seven counts of homicide and one count of attempted murder. It was not clear if he had hired a lawyer, and a call to an attorney who previously represented him went unanswered Thursday.