Man still in hospital from minivan shootings

Charlottesville police say a man shot in a speeding minivan Tuesday remains in critical condition at the University of Virginia Medical Center, but declined to identify him because the police investigation is continuing.

The man is one of two men who were found shot after a minivan sped around a corner on Fairway Avenue in Charlottesville and crashed into a chainlink fence. Two men were found shot in the van. The man who is hospitalized reportedly has life-threatening injuries while the other did not. A third occupant, a woman, was treated for an ankle injury but had not been shot, police said.
Details of what happened within the minivan remain sketchy, but Charlottesville police said the two men were shot with a .38-caliber handgun. All three occupants were described as being in their 20s or 30s.

Police said that the violence was apparently confined to the minivan and that the three injured people were the only ones involved.

The minivan crashed near the intersection of Fairway Avenue and Caroline Avenue near Meade Park. It was not far from the wooded site where police discovered an abandoned car last fall that had apparently been driven in connection with the killing of 26-year-old Jayne McGowan. “Another shooting? This is a lively neighborhood,” said one exasperated resident of Caroline Avenue.

Most residents of the neighborhood described the area as a quiet, peaceful place where families feel safe. At the time of the shootings, children were playing outside, riding on skateboards.

“I’ve been here my whole life,” said Beverly Hayslett, manager of the nearby Joy Foods. “This is a good neighborhood. These days, though, you never know what can happen anywhere.”

Investigators were working to “piece together the puzzle” of what transpired within the minivan, Roberts said. Several clues were discovered around the crime scene, including a Virginia driver’s license and the revolver. Lt. Gary Pleasants found the handgun buried in a pile of mulch in the front yard of a house in the 400 block of Fairway Avenue. For nearly an hour, investigators continued to sift through the mulch pile, digging with a shovel, a crowbar and a ballpoint pen.