The shootings happened outside a hotel in an area jammed with people coming out of nightspots on one of Daytona Beach's busiest weekends of the year.
"It's about midnight, and that's a high-impact time," said police Sgt. Clem Malek. "The bars are really going at that time."
Two officers were escorting the man off the street when he shot them in the chest, said police Sgt. Clem Malek. Both officers were wearing bulletproof vests.
In the exchange of gunfire, two other officers also were shot. Two bystanders were injured, one by flying glass and one by either glass or bullet fragments.
Neighborhood resident David Riccio estimated that he heard about 30 shots. One bullet slammed into the wall of a restaurant across the street.
Authorities won't know who shot whom until everyone's gun is tested, said spokesperson Stacey Hall of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The man who was killed was not carrying any identification.
The experiment, one of 26 being performed on the two-week Neurolab mission, should help scientists learn whether gravity is required for normal brain development.
The answer is critical in determining whether animals and humans could be born in space, enabling space colonies to be established.
"These experiments are going to answer very basic and very important questions that are particularly relevant not only to humans but to animal health here on Earth as well as in space," NASA scientist Louis Ostrach said. "The value of these experiments is considerable."
Before the dissections, crew members injected the pregnant mice with cell markers to label the brain cells in their embryos. This allows scientists to track the development and migration of the cells and compare the results with data collected from mice that developed on Earth.
No one was killed but 40 people were treated at area hospitals for injuries that were not considered life threatening, state police Capt. Howard Gregory said.
The accident that started it all happened shortly before 1 p.m. on Interstate 64 atop Afton Mountain, about 95 miles west of Richmond. Cars slammed into the mess for about 20 minutes before police arrived.
04-20-98
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