Suspected sniper says he planned cross-country shooting spree

RENO, Nev. - A suspected sniper who opened fire on Interstate 80 says the incident on the outskirts of Reno was the first in a planned cross-country killing spree.

The remarks during a jailhouse interview contradicted earlier remarks by Christopher Lee Merritt that he wanted the motorists to wreck their cars so he could rob them.

"Lunatics come in all shapes and sizes," Washoe County Sheriff Richard Kirkland said about the 20-year-old suspect from Minnesota.

"The motive of the crime as represented to our officers was to shoot people in their cars, have them crash, then run to the crash site and rob them," he said.

But Merritt told the Reno Gazette-Journal late Tuesday the shootings were "for the thrill of killing people."

"I don't see why people condemn me for my views and ideas when people will watch the news and read my story and someone will quite possibly fantasize about doing the same," he said, adding that he saw little value in human life.

"Why should I?" he said. "There is nothing terrific about it."

Merritt said Reno was tied with Las Vegas and Gallup, N.M. for launching his deadly odyssey.

"They are glamorized places well known in the news for being tied with violence," he said.

The shooting rampage forced a 10-mile stretch of the interstate closed for five hours on Monday.

One man was shot in the chest and two other people were hurt by flying glass. At least six vehicles - with a total of eight people inside - were hit by the gunfire on the western outskirts of Reno.

"He was frustrated because people would drive on a ways. We're not talking about a rocket ship commander," Kirkland said.

Merritt, of Mankato, Minn., faces eight counts of attempted murder and a number of other charges.

He was arrested Monday night by a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper and a Las Vegas Metro Police officer working a joint drug patrol.

He was pulled over 350 miles away in Las Vegas for having a light out on his license plate and a check showed the truck had been stolen from Fairfax, Mo., Kirkland said.

The officers observed weapons in the truck and Merritt subsequently "made some statements that incriminated himself in the shooting," the sheriff said.

"This case was solved by police officers doing the daily, mundane, routine work," he said Tuesday at a news conference in Reno.

"I overheard some talk radio show the other night lambasting law enforcement for stopping people for having lights out on their license plates. So there," he told reporters.

The FBI, state patrol and more than a dozen local law enforcement agencies had been searching the hills west of Reno since the interstate shootings began about 9 a.m. Monday.

Officers investigated the possibility that there could be a link between Monday's shootings and the Dec. 27 shooting of 34 wild horses east of Reno, but nothing was being ruled out.

"You've got a goofball shooting at people and an equally goofball shooting at horses so obviously it would lead you to ask if there is some connection there," Kirkland told reporters early Tuesday.

But by Tuesday afternoon, investigators had ruled out that possibility, Sgt. Bob Towery said.

"Detectives have confirmed there is no connection with the I-80 shooting and the wild horse shootings," he said.

The suspect was returned to Reno Tuesday and booked on eight counts of attempted murder, six counts of shooting a firearm at an occupied vehicle, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of battery with a deadly weapon.

He was being held today without bail in the Washoe County jail.

Kirkland said officers returned to the site along I-80 and found evidence the shots were fired from the rocks above the interstate west of Reno near Mogul, about 8 miles from the California border.

The arresting officers in Las Vegas found a rifle, shotgun and a large number of rounds in the truck.

FBI spokesman Jerry Hill said they were working with agents in Minneapolis to try to learn more about Merritt's past.

Sandi Schnorenberg, a clerk at the Mankato Police Department in Minnesota, said they had one brief "involvement" with a Christopher Merritt in August 1998.

She said that Christopher Merritt didn't check in with his parents and police found him for the parents, and that was the extent of it.

The man who was shot in the chest was able to drive to a fire station a few miles away. He remained hospitalized Tuesday in serious but stable condition.

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