Officers injured in shootout with gunmen carrying bodies

[Hum]

Authorities in West Virginia say that two police officers were injured Thursday in a shootout with two suspects who were transporting the bodies of an elderly North Carolina couple.

The two Lewisburg officers pulled over an SUV around 4 p.m. Thursday on a highway outside of the city, Lt. Michael Baylous of the West Virginia State Police said in a press release. The SUV had a North Carolina license plate that showed it had been stolen. During the stop, a truck pulled over in the area.

As the officers were conducting the stop, the driver of the truck shot at them with a handgun, wounding both officers, Baylous said. One officer returned fire, wounding the suspect in the leg.

Baylous said the driver of the SUV fled the scene and hid but later turned himself in without incident. The driver of the truck also fled and was eventually taken into custody by the Greenbrier County Sheriff's Department, he said.

The suspects' identities have not yet been verified but they claim to be father and son, Baylous said.

During a search, authorities found two recently deceased bodies under a mattress in the bed of the truck, according to the news release.

State Police did not immediately identify the victims, but North Carolina's Granville County Sheriff Brindell B. Wilkins Jr. told Raleigh TV station WRAL that the bodies were those of Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife, Dora Faulkner, 62.

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[DocM]

Gold ticket to the woodchipper.