GAFFNEY, S.C. -- South Carolina law enforcement officials have identified the serial killer suspect slain in North Carolina as a felon with a lengthy record who was paroled in April after seven years in prison.

They said Patrick Tracy Burris was the man responsible for shooting five people to death in a killing spree that has terrorized residents in and around Gaffney.

He was shot by police responding to a burglary complaint in Gastonia, N.C., early Monday. They said bullets in his gun matched those used to kill residents in and around Gaffney some 30 miles away. They said other evidence never released to the public also helped to connect the man to the slayings.

Authorities did not immediately say where Burris was from.

“A killer is off the streets,” said SLED director Reggie Lloyd.

Lloyd also said Burris has a long criminal record including charges. Burris had been a free man less than 10 weeks. On April 29th, he was released from state prison in Salisbury, after serving nearly eight years on charges of felony breaking and entering and larceny. Those crimes were committed in Rockingham County during the summer of 2001.

Then less than a month ago, on June 12, Burris was arrested again, in Lincoln County, for driving with a revoked license. Burris had so many driving infractions, his license was permanently revoked.

Lloyd said Burris’ rap sheet is 25 pages long.

“At some point the criminal justice system is going to have to explain why this individual was out on the street,” he said.

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It's still a mystery exactly what happened inside the house along Dallas Spencer Mountain Road where officers shot Burris.

Terry and Michael Valentine called police when they saw a suspicious SUV pull up to the vacant house across the street in the middle of the night. Michael remembered reports that the Gaffney killer drove a Ford Explorer just like it.

"I'm so glad that we just had the insight to look out there and see that there was something going on that should not have been going on and had the good sense to call the police,” Terry said.

That SUV was taken to Cherokee Co., S.C. Tuesday, investigators will search the vechicle for more evidence linking Burris to the five homicides.

Three Gaston County police officers responded. The said Burris at first gave a fake name to officers. They said they then discovered he had an outstanding warrant for being a habitual felon from nearby Lincoln County, and when they tried to serve the warrant, he pulled out a gun and opened fire on the officers. Police said Burris shot Officer J.K. Shaw of the Gaston County Police Department in the foot at about 2:45 a.m. The other officers fired back and killed the man.

Shaw was taken to Gaston Memorial Hospital where he was released several hours after the shooting. He is expected to be OK.

It’s still not clear how those few moments inside or outside the house played out, what was said, or whether officers knew who they were dealing with.

Officers took the other two people they confronted into custody and spent Monday questioning them.

The killing spree in Gaffney occurred in a 10-mile area over six days. A peach farmer was killed June 27, an 83-year-old woman and her daughter were found bound and shot four days later and the next day a father and his teen daughter were shot in their family's furniture store.

People throughout the northwestern South Carolina region have armed themselves, locked their doors and reported anything suspicious.

Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton has said physical evidence linked the five killings in this 54,000-person county known for mills and peach orchards, but he has not elaborated.

Investigators won't give a motive for the killings. They said they haven't determined if the killer knew any of the victims or whether anything linked the five people killed.