Published: November 02, 2009 10:19 am      

MORNING UPDATE: Man charged with killing 4 in Mayberry model town

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. — Police arrested a convicted kidnapper early Monday in the slayings of four men shot in a parking lot in a North Carolina tourist town.

Marcos Chavez Gonzalez was charged with four counts of murder in the shooting late Sunday outside a TV store in Mount Airy, about 100 miles north of Charlotte, Mount Airy police said.

The town with a population of approximately 8,700 was the inspiration for the idyllic community of Mayberry in television’s “The Andy Griffith Show” and hometown of Andy Griffith. It has built a tourist trade on nostalgia for the 1960s show that continues to thrive in syndication.

Police said Gonzalez was arrested without incident at a motel in Henry County, Va., about 50 miles northeast of the town.

Authorities received information about his whereabouts around 2:30 a.m., according to a statement. Details haven’t been released.

Gonzalez, 29, was being held in the Henry County jail, though it wasn’t clear whether he had an attorney, jail workers said.

Mount Airy Police Chief Dale Watson said at a news conference Sunday that the victims were shot outside Woods TV, less than a mile from the police station. He said the victims and the suspect were at the store for a reason.

“We don’t feel this was a random event,” Watson said. “We do have an idea why (they were shot), but we won’t be releasing that.”

Alerts were issued in North Carolina and Virginia to be on the lookout for Gonzalez after the shootings.

State prison records show Gonzalez was released two years ago after serving more than four years on a 2002 conviction for kidnapping a minor. State records show the felony required Gonzalez to register as a sex offender.