Eight people are dead after a lone gunman opened fired at a rural house just outside of Appomattox, Va. last night, The Washington Post reported this morning.

The man who allegedly shot eight people in Appomattox, Virginia, has surrendered.

Virginia State Police now say that the shooter surrendered without incident this morning, according to recent reports.

Authorities last night surrounded a small patch of woods, two miles wide and 1,000 yards deep, where they said the shooter, identified as 39-year-old Christopher Speight, was hiding out. The gunman allegedly shot at a police helicopter flying overhead, forcing the copter to make an emergency landing in a nearby field The Times reported.

Schools in Appomattox County, in central Virginia, are closed today while police search the area; Speight is believed to be armed with a high-powered rifle, reports said.

Police could give no motive to the killings, although they said the incident may have stemmed from domestic violence. Four of Speight’s victims were found outside the rural house, three inside, and a final victim on a stretch of road, some distance from the house.