Police shoot serial killer to death

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Police shoot serial killer to death

Investigation continues into motive

By TIM GULLA
Ledger Staff Writer
tim@gaffneyledger.com

Patrick Tracy Burris

The hunt for a serial killer is over.

As law enforcement officials such as Gaffney Police Chief Rick Turner and SLED Director Reggie Lloyd stood side by side outside the Cherokee County Law Enforcement Center on Monday evening, Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton stepped up to the podium and announced that the man who killed five people in Cherokee County had himself been killed in a Monday morning shootout in Gaston County, N.C. 

While many details remain to be sorted out, the law enforcement officials were confident the nightmare that had besieged Cherokee County for the past nine days had come to an end. 

That nightmare was identified Monday night as Patrick Tracy Burris, a 41-year-old man described as a recently paroled career criminal with a rap sheet at least 25 pages long.

Burris was killed in a shootout with three Gaston County Police Department officers who had responded to a report of a burglary in progress on Dallas Spencer Mountain Road. 

Burris pulled a gun and fired a shot at the officers, striking Officer J.K. Shaw of the Gaston County Police Department in the leg, when the police learned of his identity as a wanted man in Lincoln County, N.C., and attempted to take him into custody. The officers returned fire, killing Burris.

Blanton and Lloyd confirmed that investigations showed the weapon Burris used to shoot the officer was the same weapon involved in all five killings in Cherokee County. 

Moreover, the Ford sport utility vehicle found in Gaston County matched the vehicle seen in

Authorities tow the Ford Explorer from the shooting scene in Gaston County.

Cherokee County and that it had a "unique characteristic" known only to a witness and law enforcement. 

Investigations also showed that Burris was near all three crime scenes on the dates and times of the Cherokee County murders and that items related to the June 27 killing of local peach farmer Kline Cash that started the nine-day manhunt were found in Burris' possession.

While glad Cherokee County's ordeal was over, Lloyd held the thick rap sheet in the air and remarked, "At some point, the criminal justice system will have to explain why this man was out on the street," 

He later said, "It angers me what he did to this community."

Police and prosecutors alike conceded they would have liked the opportunity to question and bring Burris into court. 

They could not provide any motives and said the case remained under investigation. 

They also could not say if Burris had any ties to Cherokee County, or the five victims.

The victims included  Cash, 63, who was killed in his Battleground Road home on June 27; 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, who were killed in Linder's Buck Shoals Road home on July 1; and 48-year-old Stephen Tyler and his 15-year-old daughter, Abby, who were shot inside his East Frederick Street business on July 2. Abby Tyler survived the shooting but died from her injuries Saturday.   

"Every time you think there are no depths to which humankind can sink, there's another depth," said 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy. 

Gowdy, who recently announced his intent to run for Congress, said, "I would have seen this case through to the end, regardless of what happens in the future, even if it meant changing my career plans."

Gowdy was confident that Burris would have received the same penalty in a court of law -- the death penalty -- as he did in Monday's shootout. 

"The beauty of what happened this morning, there are no appeals," he said. 

Sheriff Bill Blanton announces the hunt for the serial killer is over, but the investigation will continue.

Blanton and Gaffney Police Chief Rick Turner offered their thanks to all of the dozens of officers who worked tirelessly on the case. Both men, exhausted but relieved, declined to take additional questions after the press conference and said they would make themselves available Tuesday. 

Blanton said he and many others simply wanted the chance to go home to their own families for a night, now that the manhunt is over. 

"I'm just glad (about the news)," remarked Gaffney resident Tiffany Tuft, who lives just a few blocks from the Tyler Home Center on East Frederick Street, where  Stephen and Abby Tyler were gunned down last Thursday. "I haven't been able to sleep at night," Tuft said. "He (the killer) had no remorse," added Tuft, who has two children of her own. 

The investigation is far from over. 

Officials said they will now be able to focus their efforts on Burris, who he was, where he spent his time, and with whom he spent his time. 

The task force assembled to hunt the killer included the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, State Law Enforcement Division, the Gaffney Police Department, the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the 7th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, the South Carolina Department of Probation and Parole, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, police departments and sheriff's offices from every surrounding county, and the manpower and resources from at least 20 other sheriff's offices in South Carolina.

More information will be made available online and in print. Check out Wednesday's edition of The Gaffney Ledger for more details.