Two men died and a third was taken to VCU Medical Center with life-threatening injuries in three separate shootings in the Richmond area last night. The first occurred about 6 p.m., when a man was fatally injured on Interstate 95 in Chesterfield County from what Virginia State Police said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sgt. Tom Cunningham said a trooper was northbound on the interstate north of Willis Road when he saw a van swerving.

Capt. Edward L. Hope Jr. is accused of forcibly sodomizing a girl in 2002 or 2003. A Virginia State Police captain was arrested yesterday at department headquarters and charged with forcibly sodomizing a young girl more than five years ago, authorities said. Capt. Edward L. Hope Jr. was arrested at work in Chesterfield County about 2 p.m. after an investigation by state police and Chesterfield prosecutors, said state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller.

A Bumpass man died after being ejected from the bed of a pickup truck in Manassas yesterday. Kevin Everton Simpson, 21, was riding in the truck when it ran off the left side of Quarry Road near the intersection with Battery Heights Boulevard and hit a tree at 2:07 a.m. Simpson died at Prince William Hospital in Manassas, police said.

A 33-year-old man was killed in a single-car crash in Newport News yesterday. Robert Tinsley Fields IV of Newport News driving on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard, 200 feet west of Louise Drive, when he lost control of his vehicle while exiting the interstate and struck a pole at 9:59 a.m. Fields was wearing a seat belt and died at the scene, police said.

Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr., R-Grayson, said he is preparing a bill that would prohibit the superintendent of the Virginia State Police from ordering chaplains to deliver nondenominational prayers.

A man struck and killed in Lunenburg County on Tuesday was the first pedestrian death reported on state roadways this year.

A Colonial Heights man and two others have died this week as a result of wrecks on Virginia roadways, Virginia State Police said. Oren Walter Carter, 59, died in Sussex County on Monday after the pickup he was driving ran off the road, hit a tree and overturned. Carter was pronounced dead at 4:20 p.m. at the scene of the crash on U.S. 460, about 2 miles south of state Route 62.

A Lexington woman was killed early yesterday when she lost control of her minivan and overturned off U.S. 11 in Augusta County,

Three people were killed in highway crashes yesterday, Virginia State Police said.

A Virginia State Police trooper was injured and three vehicles were damaged, including two cruisers, in a pursuit in Essex County that authorities said exceeded 100 mph. Trooper J.E. Hardy was treated at Riverside Tappahannock Hospital for a head injury and released yesterday morning, several hours after his cruiser slid off a rain-slickened road during the pursuit and crashed into a rock-lined drainage ditch, state police Sgt. Tom Cunningham said.

A Virginia State Police trooper was injured late last night when he crashed during a pursuit in Essex County. Trooper J.E. Hardy was treated at a hospital for a head injury that state police said was not life-threatening. Sgt. Tom Cunningham said James Brooks, 24, of Caret in Essex County, was charged with felony eluding and driving under the influence. He was being held at the Middle Peninsula Regional Jail pending a court appearance today.

The manager of a Dinwiddie County campground was struck and killed Monday evening after he apparently fell from the cab of a truck that he tried to stop, Virginia State Police said yesterday. Charles Louis Blazek, 57, of Disputanta was pronounced dead after being taken to Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg. Police said the incident occurred about 8:50 p.m. when Blazek, manager of Picture Lake Campground off U.S. 1, saw the driver of the truck portion of a tractor-trailer try to leave the campground.

One person was killed and seven others were injured in a fiery multi-vehicle crash that prompted Virginia State Police to close a stretch of Interstate 95 in Prince George County for several hours yesterday. Two people seriously injured were taken by helicopters to VCU Medical Center. The crash occurred about 10:30 a.m. and forced the closure of the interstate in both directions.

A 16-year-old Lexington girl died in a single-car crash in Rockbridge County on Friday, Virginia State Police report. Shawna Leigh Arrowood was traveling on state Route 603, about a mile and a half east of state Route 608, when her car struck a guardrail, flipped over twice and struck a tree at 4:35 p.m., police said. She died at the scene at 5:05 p.m.

The Virginia State Police trooper who was hit by a drunken driver Feb. 1 is back on the highways, corralling speeders and writing tickets. Sliding back into the driver’s seat was the easy part for Kris Chapman. The difficulty was relearning how to stand, and then to take a first step. “It was hard enough to balance, let alone to walk,“ he said during a news conference at the Virginia Welcome Center along northbound Interstate 81.