Suspect identified in I-81 officer-involved shooting

ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - A man shot by a Virginia State Trooper after being chased on Interstate 81 was identified by police Tuesday. 

VSP said the suspect, 25-year-old Justin Howard St. Clair of Fincastle, was at the hospital and listed in stable condition.

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The incident happened Memorial Day afternoon and closed parts of I-81 and I-581 near Roanoke for several hours.  

State police said state police initiated a traffic stop just before 3 p.m. at mile marker 144 on I-81 in Botetourt Co. for a Nissan driving 95 miles per hour in a 70 mile per hour area. The driver refused to stop and a 21-mile-chase followed.

St. Clair continued south on I-81 and, just before the I-81 and I-581 merge in Roanoke County, when his car ran off the right side of the highway and crashed. 

Police said St. Clair got out of his car with a firearm. He refused to comply with the troopers' demands to drop the weapon and was subsequently shot. One shot was fired by the trooper.

State police immediately rendered aid to St. Clair, who was transported by ambulance to Roanoke Memorial Hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound. 

The incident remains under investigation by the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation's Salem Field Office. The officer was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. 

Interstate 81 southbound reopened around 8 p.m. Monday after being closed since around 3 p.m. State police said during a news conference Monday evening the suspect was in surgery at 6:30. 

A person who lives nearby the interstate told us what he saw happened.

"I saw four patrolmen with their guns out," says Cloyd Brown. "It scared me. I realized they were serious business, and I started to head back to my house which is right up to the street. That's what I saw. As I got to my car that's where I heard one gunshot and I just went to the house."