SAMSON, Ala. — A gunman on a terrifying rampage across two southern Alabama counties Tuesday killed at least nine people, including members of his own family and apparent strangers, and burned down his mother's home before fatally shooting himself, authorities said.
Police were investigating shootings in at least four different locations in several communities, all of which were believed to be the work of a single gunman who had not yet been identified by investigators.
The afternoon of bloodshed began in Kinston, near the Alabama-Florida border, where the shooter burned down his mother's house, according to Coffee County Coroner Robert Preachers. Officials located the woman's body inside the house, but they had not been able to get inside the still-burning house to determine a cause of death or whether she was the 10th victim.
The gunman then headed east, into Geneva County, where he shot and killed five people _ four adults and a child _ at a home in the nearby town of Samson. Then he killed one person each in two other homes. The identities of all the victims were unknown, but Preachers said they included other members of the shooter's family.
"He started in his mother's house," Preachers said. "Then he went to Samson and he killed his granny and granddaddy and aunt and uncle. He cleaned his family out."
"We don't know what triggered it," Preachers added.
The gunman also shot at a state trooper's car, striking the vehicle seven times and wounding the trooper with broken glass.
He then killed someone at a Samson supply store, and another person at a service station.
