Man Held In I-80 Shootings Police Say Suspect Planned To Rob Drivers After Causing Wrecks

Authorities arrested a 20-year-old Minnesota man believed to be the sniper who wounded three people and forced the closing of Interstate 80 near Reno for more than five hours Monday morning.

Christopher Merritt of Mankato, Minn., was arrested Monday night during a traffic stop in Las Vegas after he admitted to a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper that he was the man they were looking for, NHP spokesman Scott Flabi said.

Washoe County Sheriff Richard Kirkland said the alleged motive for the sniping “was to shoot people, have their cars crash, then run to the crash site and rob the person.”

Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick said the potential charges facing Merritt include attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into a vehicle. All the charges are felonies.

Flabi said Merritt was booked into the Clark County Detention Center Monday. Detectives with the Washoe County Sheriff’s office took him back to Reno on Tuesday.

Flabi said a trooper stopped a white pickup truck with Missouri license plates around 9:30 p.m. Monday. The vehicle was stopped because the license plate light was burned out. A records check revealed the pickup had been stolen from the suspect’s grandfather in Fairfax, Mo.

The trooper and a police officer who was riding with him examined the truck and found a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle, Flabi said.

During an interview by the officers, Flabi said, the man admitted to shooting at cars on I-80. Ballistic tests revealed the weapons found in the truck may have been used in the shooting spree.

During the course of the interview, Flabi said, the suspect told officers he had intended to rob a number of convenience stores along the way, but there were too many bystanders and security was too tight.

The gunfire on Monday had forced authorities to close the busy highway between Reno and the California state line for about five hours.

Kirkland said dozens of law officers had used helicopters and dogs to search “each piece of rock and sagebrush” in the rugged terrain where the shots were fired, about 7 miles east of the state line.

Flabi said six cars were hit during the sniping incident. Three people were injured, including one man who was shot in the chest and was listed Tuesday morning in critical condition at a Reno hospital. The other two victims received minor injures from shredded glass to the eyes, face and hands. They were treated and released.

Officials said the man who was shot in the chest was able to drive himself to a fire station a few miles from where he was shot.

Flabi said the man, whom he declined to identify, thought a rock had crashed through his windshield and hit him in the chest.