The handgun used in the fatal shooting of a Virginia Tech police officer was purchased legally, according to Virginia State Police. Ross Truett Ashley, 22, purchased the .40-caliber semiautomatic weapon in January from a licensed Virginia gun dealer. Ashley used the gun against 39-year-old Deriek W. Crouse during a traffic stop on Tech’s Blacksburg campus. Ashley was found a short time later in a parking lot, dead of a self-inflicted wound from the same weapon.
Investigators say they have yet to find a connection or reason behind the shooting. Ashley was a part-time student of Radford. Former friends and classmates say Ashley had broken up with his girlfriend over the summer and may have had some family issues, but they spoke of him in positive terms.
