2 shot inside minivan

Gunfire inside a speeding minivan Tuesday afternoon left two men shot, one of whom was fighting for his life Tuesday night.
At 2:45 p.m., the white Dodge minivan zoomed around a curve on Fairway Avenue and crashed through a metal fence.
Details of what happened within the minivan remain sketchy. But Charlottesville police said that two of its occupants were shot with a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.
A third occupant, a woman, was treated for injuries to her ankle. Authorities would not say how she was injured, but she was not shot.
Late Tuesday night, police had not confirmed the identities of the three motorists. All three were described as being in their 20s or 30s.
One of the two men was in serious condition at the University of Virginia Medical Center. The second had non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Police were not searching for       additional suspects Tuesday, saying that the violence was apparently confined to the minivan and that the three injured people were the only ones involved.
“There was no active shooter on the loose in the neighborhood,” said Lt. Ronnie Roberts of the Charlottesville police. “This was self-confined in the vehicle.”
Roberts declined to provide many details about the three people involved. He did note, however, that they were only “passing through” and were not residents of the immediate vicinity. Roberts would say only that they live in “the Virginia area.”
Roberts also declined to say which of the three occupants would face criminal charges.
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.