New Jersey man charged with killing seven in two states
(Reuters) - A New Jersey man has been charged with shooting and killing seven people and wounding an eighth in a weeks-long rampage across two states, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Todd West, 22, of Elizabeth, New Jersey was arrested this week in Pennsylvania, where he is charged with killing two people in Allentown and one in Easton, officials said.
The violence began in New Jersey on May 18, when West is accused of killing his cousin, Michael Thompkins, in Elizabeth, the Union County Prosecutor's office said in a news release on Thursday.
On June 25, West shot four people across the city of Elizabeth, about 20 miles from New York City, prosecutors said. All were shot with the same .38 caliber weapon, the release said. Three died and one survived.
After the shooting spree, West fled to Pennsylvania where he is charged with killing three more people before a manhunt led to his arrest, law enforcement said.
There is no known motive for the shootings, authorities said. They do not appear to be gang-related or spurred by drugs or robbery, Grace Park, the acting Union County prosecutor, said on Thursday, according to the New York Times.
West is being held in a Lehigh County jail in Pennsylvania without bail. It was unclear whether he had hired an attorney or been assigned a public defender.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles,; editing by Larry King)
