U.S. & World

DALLAS (CBS) ― A former Utah state trooper suspected in a series of fatal rush-hour shootings near Dallas had an addiction to painkillers and a warrant had been issued for his arrest in connection with a recent robbery, according to Texas and Utah authorities.

Dallas police said Tuesday they think 37-year-old ex-trooper Brian Smith was responsible for at least one death that resulted from the shootings. They declined to comment on another death in neighboring Garland because it was outside their jurisdiction.

Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said his department has not been able to make a definitive connection between Smith and the killing there, but acknowledged that he fit the description of the highway shooter: a balding, 40ish white man.

"We certainly hope it is him," Harn said. "But we are going to have to see more concrete evidence."

Smith was in critical condition on life support Wednesday morning at a Dallas hospital from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said he shot himself in the head early Tuesday morning after a brief standoff and more than six hours after the roadway shooting spree ended.

Dallas police Lt. Craig Miller said they linked Smith to the killing in Dallas because the bullets from the standoff were a match. The weapon was a high-caliber semiautomatic handgun, Miller said.

"We feel safe in saying (Smith)... was the shooter," Miller said.

Before the standoff, two people were fatally shot and a third was injured in four rush-hour shootings Monday along or near a Dallas-area highway. Police said the victims appeared to have been selected at random.

The crime spree appears to have begun in Garland, where a man police identified as Smith jumped over a pharmacy counter at a grocery store and stole Oxycontin pills.

Minutes later, the first shooting happened in Garland when a driver pulled up alongside a small Nissan stopped at a red light and began shooting, Harn said. The Nissan's driver, 20-year-old Jorge "George" Lopez of Rowlett, was killed.

Witnesses told police the driver headed toward Interstate 635 in Dallas, where shots were fired at an 18-wheeler a short time later. The driver of the 18-wheeler, identified by police as Kenneth Black Harly, was not hurt.

Minutes later on the same highway, a gunman shot and killed 42-year-old William Scott Miller, the driver of a United Van Lines rig, Miller said.

Police said the driver, a military veteran who was about to fly home to his wife and two young daughters in Frankfort, Ky., for the holidays, was able to bring his truck safely to a stop before he died.

"The act he did in and of itself I consider to be heroic," Miller said. "Despite being mortally wounded, he was able to control his rig to the point where other drivers weren't injured."

After the shooting of Miller, another semitrailer was fired upon a half-mile away on the same interstate. The driver, 46-year-old Gary Roberts, was injured by debris and glass but not struck by any bullets. His right eye was hit by shattered glass and he needed several stitches in his fingers, said Bedford Wilhite, who works with Roberts at Dugan Truck Line.

While he was being shot at, Roberts radioed his employer to tell them what was happening. Jesse Medford, a Dugan terminal manager, told CBS affiliate KTVT in Dallas that Roberts said he thought he had been shot.

After telling Roberts to pull over, Medford said, he called 911. Roberts told him that he did not know who was shooting and could not give a detailed description of the assailant.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)