APPOMATTOX, Virginia: A man suspected of shooting eight people to death at a rural Virginia home and then firing at a police helicopter surrendered Wednesday after an overnight manhunt, Virginia State Police said.

Sgt. Thomas Molnar said 39-year-old Christopher Speight approached officers at the scene of the shootings and turned himself in at about 7:10 a.m. He was wearing a bulletproof vest but carried no weapons, authorities said.

Speight was taken to an undisclosed location to be interviewed, and charges were pending. Authorities said Speight was acquainted with the victims, but details of the relationships weren’t released.

“We are still interviewing him, and it’s going to take hours to process the crime scene,” State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said.

Authorities said there may be explosive devices in or around the house where most of the bodies were found and they were sending bomb technicians.

Speight’s last known address was along the same block, but Molnar would not say whether the shootings happened there or another house.

The drama began around noon Tuesday when a man was spotted barely alive along the side of a narrow country road. The man died on the way to the hospital.

A deputy who answered the emergency call heard more gunshots, and seven other men and women were found dead inside and outside a nearby home.

Police surrounded a stretch of heavily wooded terrain overnight. As teams tried to flush out the gunman, he fired at a police helicopter and hit a fuel tank, forcing it to land. No police were injured.

Sheriff O. Wilson Staples said investigators believe Speight had weapons training based on the weapons found in his home, but he declined to elaborate.

Court records in the county show a concealed weapons permit was issued to a Christopher Bryan Speight in 1999, 2004 and 2009, although police were not able to immediately confirm it was the same man. The permits must be renewed every five years.

The search had paralyzed the rural area near Appomattox, best known as the place where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in 1865 to end the US Civil War. Four nearby schools serving about 2,000 students had planned to stay closed for the day before Speight surrendered.