HANOVER COUNTY, Va. -- Investigators are piecing together what happened and why late Friday night after a man caused the deaths of four people in the Richmond region.
Chesterfield County Police call the Virginia State Police Friday afternoon and asked for help finding the man they think murdered his estranged girlfriend, Morgan Rogers, and their one-year-old child.
State Police find him quickly.
“When our trooper activated his emergency equipment the vehicle sped away at an excessive rate of speed,” said Sgt. Steve M. Vick of the Virginia State Police.
Police say the suspect, Stafford Shaw, crossed over the grassy median on I-295 and slammed head on into another car causing a chain reaction crash.
“That vehicle began to spin and struck a Nissan that was also traveling southbound. As the Nissan was spinning it was struck by a Lincoln,” explained Vick.
Police say Shaw died at the scene along with two other people. Two more people were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Shaw has an extensive criminal history: According to an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Shaw was acquitted in 1989 after he was charged with murdering his 17-year-old pregnant girlfriend.
Also, a long-time friend of Rogers tells CBS 6, earlier this year Shaw was arrested and charged with assaulting Rogers.
That friend says he was currently doing jail time on weekends for that beating.
Shaw was also found not guilty of assault in Henrico in 2014 and found guilty of three animal-related crimes in Richmond in 2008.
