PATRICK TRACY BURRIS Patrick Tracy Burris literally had a criminal record the length of an arm.

His rap sheet consists of 25 pages, it covered multiple states and he had just been paroled not long ago from a multi-year prison sentence in North Carolina.

The same rap sheet shows multiple counts of breaking and entering, larcenies, felony larcenies, habitual felon charges, and burglary upon burglary.

"That's just the second page," said Gaffney Police Chief Rick Turner as he leafed through Burris' criminal background.

While little is known about Burris personally, and there was nothing in his record of the same type of magnitude as what occurred in Cherokee County over the past 10 days, Burris' long record has some law enforcement officials angered that he was out on the streets.

"I just don't know of a logical explanation for someone having that kind of rap sheet out of prison," South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Director Reggie Lloyd said Tuesday.

Unfortunately, Lloyd said it's an issue that police deal with on a daily basis, as repeat offenders can be rearrested several times before they are brought to trial in an overwhelmed criminal justice system running on limited resources.

"The reality is we should be willing to build and fund a system that will take care of bad people like this individual," he said.

Since news broke that Burris was linked to the serial killings in Cherokee County, Sheriff Bill Blanton said he has received numerous e-mails from police officers who have had past dealings with Burris.

One e-mail was from an officer in Florida who had charged Burris with 25 counts of home burglary. Another e-mail came from a North Carolina officer who had charged Burris with similar offenses.

"I don't know how else to put it," Blanton said. "He should have been in prison."

Burris was killed in an early morning shootout with Gaston County Police in a Dallas Spencer Mountain Road home Monday.

The officers had gone to the home on a report of a break-in in progress and found three people, including Burris, inside.

Police determined that Burris provided a false identification and when they learned his true identity, they also learned he was wanted for a parole violation out of Lincoln County, N.C. and attempted to take him into custody.

Burris pulled a gun and fired a shot at the officers, striking one in the leg. The officers returned fire, killing Burris.

While the type of gun Burris possessed has not been released, investigators in the Cherokee County serial killer task force positively linked the weapon to all five killings in Cherokee County.

Prison records in North Carolina show Burris was sentenced to 10 years plus one month of imprisonment effective Oct. 3, 2001 on numerous charges ranging from breaking and entering to larceny and being a habitual offender. He was paroled on April 29 with a review date set for July 1.

He was paroled despite several prison infractions on his record.

"That's the frustration I have, that agents here at SLED have, and law enforcement in general," Lloyd said. "You see people not only with bad behavior out on public streets, but while they're in prison they continue to have that behavior. There seems to be no repercussion for that."

Lloyd had no known address since his parole from prison, investigators said. Police plan to conduct follow-up investigations into where he traveled and stayed in the weeks before the Cherokee County killings.

Despite having a criminal record in several states, including North Carolina, Florida and Maryland, a check of SLED criminal records showed he had no criminal record in South Carolina.

Investigators have said they have found no links between Burris and Cherokee County, or between Burris and the five victims so far.