Police: S.C. serial killer is dead

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 6 (UPI) -- Police in North Carolina Monday shot to death the man who had killed five people in South Carolina, officials said.

Three Gaston County, N.C., police officers shot the man after he allegedly shot and wounded an officer, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported. The shooting occurred about 40 miles northeast of Gaffney, S.C., where the five apparently related killings are being investigated.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed late Monday ballistics tests showed the man's gun matched the weapon used to kill five people in Cherokee County, S.C., last week, the newspaper said.

"We saw evidence (at the scene) they (South Carolina police) needed to know about," Gaston police Capt. Joe Ramey told CNN.

Police said the man killed by police in Gaston County was in a Ford Explorer. CNN reported the vehicle was similar to the older-model Explorer suspected of being used by the Gaffney shooter.

Police did not release the identity of the man killed by police, the Observer said.

North Carolina police said officers went to a vacant home shortly before 3 a.m. Monday in response to a tip from a neighbor. When officers tried to take a man -- one of three people in the vehicle -- into custody because he was wanted by Lincoln County, N.C., authorities the man fired on the officers, wounding Officer J.K. Shaw in the leg. He was killed by return fire, police said.

Shaw was reported in good condition after treatment at a hospital.