At least 10 dead in two-town Alabama shooting spree

• Story Highlights
• The gunman and the wife and child of a sheriff's deputy among those killed
   
• Samson and Geneva, two small towns near Florida border, involved
   
• State senator: "He was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business"
   
• Body found at arson site in neighboring Coffee County thought to be related
   

(CNN) -- At least 10 people were killed Tuesday in a shooting spree that spanned two small southern Alabama towns, state officials confirmed. The gunman, and the wife and child of a sheriff's deputy were among those killed.

The shooting started in a neighborhood in Samson, a town of about 3,000 about 15 miles north of the Florida border, just after 4 p.m. (5 p.m. ET) and ended 12 miles away at a manufacturing plant in Geneva, said Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, *****presents Geneva County.

"He was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business," Smith told CNN, saying she had been briefed by state and local law enforcement.

The gunman was killed at the plant, though it remained unclear whether he shot himself or was shot by someone else.

Smith said the wife and child of a Geneva County sheriff's deputy were killed in the shooting spree.

State police Cpl. Steve Jarrett told reporters that the shooter killed six adults and one child in three residences in Samson before heading down state highway 52, firing at least seven bullets into a state trooper car. The trooper sustained minor injuries from shattered glass.

The shooter then killed another person at Samson Pipe and Supply and then another at a service station -- both on highway 52, Jarrett said.

He ended up at the Reliable Metal Products plant in Geneva, where he fired a 30-round burst, injuring the town's police chief, authorities said.

"Then the subject entered the business. Within minutes, shots were heard ... Law enforcement officers found him dead," Jarrett said.

"There are believed to be additional people shot and wounded during these episodes," he said.

Authorities are also investigating an arson at a residence in neighboring Coffee County, where a body has been found. That incident is believed to be related to the shootings, Jarrett said.

The FBI bureau in Mobile, Alabama, sent an agent to assist the Geneva County sheriff's office and local police, a spokeswoman for the FBI said.

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