GAFFNEY, S.C. (AP) - SC law enforcement official says slain burglary suspect was the South Carolina serial killer.

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GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) - A man matching the description of a suspected serial killer was shot to death by North Carolina police early Monday, witnesses said, and South Carolina authorities were on the scene investigating.

Authorities didn't immediately say if the man killed was linked to five deaths in South Carolina last week, but a sport utility vehicle similar to the one police think the serial killer may have been driving was at the scene of the North Carolina shooting.

South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons said agents traveled to Gastonia after a burglary suspect was shot at about 3 a.m. local time. The shooting happened about a 30-minute drive north of Gaffney, South Carolina, a city terrorized by a suspected serial killer.

The killing spree in Gaffney occurred in a 10-mile (16-kilometer) 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.

The man slain in South Carolina first gave a fake name to officers and then pulled a gun on them when they tried to arrest him on a warrant from Lincoln County, North Carolina, authorities said.

The suspect was killed and an officer was shot in the foot, but is expected to recover, police said. The suspect's name has not been released.

Police came to the home near Gastonia after getting a call about a suspicious SUV pulling into a usually vacant home. The SUV matched the champagne-colored Ford police have said the suspected serial killer might have been driving.

The neighbors who called police, Mike and Terri Valentine, were on edge because Gaffney was just a short drive away.

They watched two people that sometime visit the home get out of the vehicle, followed by a third man who matched the description authorities have given for the serial killer. The man appeared to be very intoxicated, Mike Valentine said.

When officers went inside the home, Terri Valentine said she heard someone yell "put it down" and heard a gunshot.

Then "bam, bam, bam, bam. Next thing I know, all of Gaston County was here," she said.

Gaston County police said the other two people were in custody, but didn't indicate whether they were facing any charges.