• Police gun down man after week of attacks
• Bullets and gun match victims of six-day spree

A serial killer who stalked a rural South Carolina county claiming five victims was shot dead last night by police investigating a burglary at a home 30 miles away.

Ballistics tests on a gun and bullets found with the man in Gastonia, North Carolina, match those used during a weeklong killing spree in and around Gaffney, said deputy director of state law enforcement Neil Dolan.

“We have him. He’s our serial killer,” Dolan said last night.

Authorities did not release the man’s name, but said he had had several encounters with the police over the years.

Dolan said the physical evidence left no doubt that the dead suspect was the person who had killed five people over six days. But investigators still have no idea why he started the killing spree on 27 June.

The killer had sent panicked residents scrambling for their guns and evoked painful memories of another killing spree more than four decades ago.

A team of more than 100 law enforcement officers scouring Cherokee County, looking for the killer. The case came to an end in Gastonia after a couple called police to report a suspicious sport utility vehicle in their neighbourhood.

It was thought the killer might have been targeting families: he bound and shot dead an elderly woman and her middle-aged daughter, and killed a teenaged girl and her father.

His apparent first victim was a 63-year-old peach farmer, found shot dead last week by his wife.

Police had been warning door-to-door salespeople to take a break from their routes while the investigation was going on, fearful that armed and nervous Cherokee County residents might have reacted with violence to the slightest threatening shadow.

Police had also asked people who suffer vehicle breakdowns on back roads to wait at the roadside instead of approaching strangers’ houses for aid.

Murders are rare in Cherokee County, a community of about 54,000 people that is 45 minutes south of banking hub Charlotte, North Carolina.

The first victim, 63-year-old Kline Cash, was found shot dead a week last Saturday. Gena Linder Parker, 50, and her mother Hazel Linder, 83, were found bound and shot in Linder’s home on Wednesday. Abby Tyler, 15, and her father Stephen Tyler were found dead on Thursday.

The killings since last week are more than double the number reported in 2007. But for residents of the modest community, they evoke old memories of a town paralysed with fear and of parents patrolling with shotguns.

In 1967 and 1968, a man dubbed the Gaffney Strangler killed four females, including two teenagers, one of whom he kidnapped from a bus stop.

Lee Roy Martin, who was later convicted of the killings, taunted the community, sending a newspaper a list of names and locations of the victims’ bodies. Martin was stabbed to death in prison in 1972.

Most US serial killers attack women. One of America’s most prolific killers, Gary Leon Ridgway of Seattle, was convicted in 2003 of strangling 48 prostitutes over 21 years. Another, Ted Bundy, confessed to killing more than 30 women before he was executed in Florida in 1989.

Investigators are trying to determine if a man killed by police is responsible for murdering five people

Investigators tonight are determining whether a man killed by police is the serial killer responsible for five slayings in South Carolina in the past week.

A man matching the description given by witnesses in Cherokee county, South Carolina was shot to death in Gastonia, North Carolina after he pulled a gun on police sent to arrest him on a separate warrant. The man’s name was not released by police, who were investigating his connection to the slayings.

A serial killer stalking the rural South Carolina county has sent panicked residents scrambling for their guns and has evoked painful memories of a killing spree more than four decades ago. The dead suspect had been driving a SUV that matched a Ford sought by police in connection with the slayings. Police approached him after a jittery neighbour spotted his vehicle. Officials didn’t say if he was linked to the five deaths.

Earlier, a team of more than 100 law enforcement officers had been scouring Cherokee county, looking for a hulking white man suspected of having slain five people in the past week. The killer may be targeting families: He bound and shot to death an elderly woman and her middle-aged daughter, and slew a teenaged girl and her father. His apparent first victim was a 63-year-old peach farmer, discovered shot to death last week by his wife.

“All I can say is what the experts are telling me,” Cherokee county sheriff Bill Blanton told the Greenville News in South Carolina. “This guy is an impulse actor. He’s unpredictable.”

Fearful that armed and jittery Cherokee county residents will react with violence at the slightest threatening shadow, police have warned door-to-door salespeople to take a break from their routes while the investigation continues and have asked people who suffer vehicle breakdowns on back roads to wait at the roadside instead of approaching strangers’ houses for aid.

Homicides are rare in Cherokee county, a community of about 54,000 people that is 45 minutes south of the banking and transportation hub Charlotte, North Carolina. The five killings reported since last week more than double the number reported in 2007. But for residents of the modest community, the killings spark four-decade-old memories of a town paralysed with fear and of parents patrolling with shotguns.

In 1967 and 1968, a man dubbed the Gaffney Strangler killed four females, including two teenagers, one of whom he kidnapped from a bus stop. Lee Roy Martin, who was later convicted in the deaths, taunted the community, sending a local newspaper a list of names and locations of the victims’ bodies. Martin was stabbed to death in his prison cell in 1972.

But Martin killed only females and largely stuck to Gaffney, the county seat. The current killer, identified only as a 6ft, 2in white man weighing about 250 pounds (113kg), has killed both men and women of all ages, all across the county.

The first victim, 63-year-old Kline Cash, was found shot to death by his wife last Saturday. Gena Linder Parker, 50, and her mother Hazel Linder, 83, were found bound and shot in Linder’s home on Wednesday. Abby Tyler, 15, and her father Stephen Tyler were found dead on Thursday by relatives at the family’s furniture store.

Police have determined that they are hunting the same suspect in each of the five deaths, but have released few details of the crime scenes, describing them as sensitive to the investigation.

At just five known victims, the Cherokee county gunman is fairly modest in the pantheon of American serial killers, but is striking for the diversity of his victims. Most American serial killers attack women.

One of America’s most prolific killers, Gary Leon Ridgway of Seattle, was in 2003 convicted of strangling 48 prostitutes over 21 years. Ted Bundy, a handsome, charming psychopath, confessed to killing 30 women before he was executed in Florida in 1989.