WASHINGTON — The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man suspected of fatally shooting his wife in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and then leading authorities on a high-speed chase along Interstate 95 Thursday morning before crashing his SUV.
Authorities said 42-year-old Gregory Lee fired several shots at a Virginia State Trooper and a sheriff’s deputy who were attempting to pull him over. Authorities said Lee then shot himself in the head before his SUV crashed into a guardrail and overturned on the highway, snarling traffic for several hours Thursday afternoon.
Lee was pronounced dead overnight at Inova Fairfax Hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities said the police pursuit began after Lee was suspected of fatally shooting his wife, 36-year-old Melissa Dee Lee, at the England Run North Apartments in Fredericksburg at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Authorities said Melissa Lee was shot three times in the chest. The circumstances leading up to her shooting are still unclear.
A state trooper spotted Lee’s black Ford Explorer speeding down I-95 in Stafford County shortly after 11:30 a.m. When the trooper and a sheriff’s deputy attempted to pull Lee over, authorities said the man leaned out of the driver’s side window of his SUV and fired multiple rounds at both officers.
Bullets penetrated the windshields of both officers’ vehicles, lodging in the seat of one and the headrest of the other.
“The deputy just ducked his head right in time and was not injured,” sheriff’s office spokeswoman Amanda Vicinanzo told WTOP earlier.
Neither the trooper nor the deputy returned fire, authorities said. Before Lee crashed, his SUV sideswiped another vehicle and the police chase also involved a minor three-vehicle, chain-reaction crash. However, authorities said there were only minor injuries.
