Brian Smith, 37, killed at least one of the victims of Monday’s shootings, police Lt. Craig Miller said. Investigators linked Smith to a killing in Dallas by matching the bullets found at the standoff, he said.
“We feel safe in saying (Smith) … was the shooter,” Miller said.
Dallas police declined to comment on a second death in neighboring Garland, where the standoff took place, because it was out of their jurisdiction.
Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said his department has not been able to make a definitive connection between Smith and the killing there, but he acknowledged that Smith fit the description of the highway shooter: a balding, 40ish white man.
“We certainly hope it is him,” Harn said. “But we are going to have to see more concrete evidence.”
Two people were shot and killed and another was injured by broken glass in four shootings along or near a Dallas-area highway Monday evening. Police believe the victims were selected at random.
Smith was in critical condition Tuesday night at a Dallas hospital from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said he shot himself in the head early Tuesday morning after a brief standoff more than six hours after the shooting spree ended.
Smith had been a Utah state trooper since 1996 but retired in May because of “personal issues,” said Sgt. Jeff Nigbur, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Public Safety.
The crime spree appears to have begun in Garland, where a man police identified as Smith jumped over a pharmacy counter at a grocery store and stole OxyContin pills.
