Search warrants: Blacksburg double shooting was drug deal dispute

On the afternoon of Feb. 18, town police found a wounded man on the sidewalk of Bluestone Lane in the Fieldstone apartment complex. Officers got a call about an hour later about a second shot man at the nearby Cambridge Square apartments.

Search warrants said that the two woundings happened at about the same time, during an altercation inside a parked car.

The search warrants offer a more detailed explanation of what occurred. Earlier, police said only that said the two men were acquaintances and the shootings were related to one another.

Police Chief Todd Brewster did not respond to messages last week or Tuesday about the incident.

But search warrants said that the wounded man at Cambridge Square apartments told police that he had driven his red Ford Mustang to Fieldstone to conduct “an illegal narcotics transaction” and became the victim of an attempted robbery.

The search warrants said that the two men told investigators that they were in the Mustang and began fighting inside the car.

“At some point during the transaction, both individuals ended up shooting each other” in the car, search warrants said.

According to the search warrants and an earlier police statement, the man who was the intended buyer received gunshot injuries to an arm and leg. The location of the Mustang owner’s wound was not specified, though search warrants said both men were hit “in extremities.”

The search warrants said that after the shooting, the Mustang was left at Fieldstone apartments as its owner went back to Cambridge Square.

Investigators collected unfired 9mm and .45-cal. ammunition from the vehicle, as well as two fired bullets and bullet jacket fragments. They took swabs of blood stains on the driver and passenger seats.

Police also found a scale with plant residue, a search warrant said.

Court records showed no charges against either man.