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Serial
Killer Continues to Terrorize Washington as Latest Shooting Probed
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The latest victim of the shootings was gunned down yards away from police
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WASHINGTON
D.C., Oct 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Police widened their
dragnet for a brazen serial sniper who has killed seven and wounded
two, after yet another victim was fatally shot Friday just yards from
where a state trooper stood across the road.
Investigators
said Friday that a positive link had not yet been established between
the 9:40 am (1340 GMT) fatal shooting of Kenneth Bridges of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at a gas station in this town 50 miles
south of Washington and the nine earlier shootings in Washington DC
and the surrounding area.
However,
Major Harold Smith, a sheriff's deputy in Spotsylvania County, where
the latest shooting occurred, said: "Any time we get a shooting
now we are going to assume it's linked to these others until it's
proven differently."
He
said forensic evidence found at the scene was being analyzed by the
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and that local, state
and federal investigators were trying to link the latest killing with
other shootings.
Numerous
federal agencies, including the Secret Service, have joined the
manhunt, and the White House said President George W. Bush was getting
updates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in his daily
briefing.
"The
president wants to make certain the federal government is doing all it
can," White House spokesman Fleischer said. "This is an
important issue."
Police
have said evidence from ballistics tests and autopsies positively tied
the first nine shootings, which began the night of October 2, to the
same weapon: a 5.56-millimeter assault-type rifle.
The
victims included four people shot dead as they were filling up at
self-service gas stations, which require the driver to get out of the
vehicle.
"We
are working on a mathematical formula to see when he will try to
strike," said a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman who
declined to be named. "We are trying to find a sense of
logic."
Smith
said the latest attack fit the pattern of the sniper attacks, but with
a bizarre new twist.
A
Virginia state trooper was directly across the street from the filling
station working a routine accident scene when he heard the shot and
rushed to the wounded man, who died at a local hospital.
Police
said witness accounts indicated the sniper may have fired from a white
Chevrolet Astrovan with a ladder mounted on its roof, a vehicle seen
driving from the scene shortly after the shot rang out.
It
has also been reported that a similar white vehicle was seen at the
scene of two other related shootings.
They
said the accounts suggested the shot went over the trooper's head,
hitting Bridges as he filled the tank of his late model Buick sedan.
Police quoted witnesses as saying they saw two people in the white
van. A white van also has been seen near the scene of other of the
shootings.
Virginia
State Police cars quickly fanned out along Interstate 95, the nearby
north-south artery, stopping dozens of vehicles meeting the
description and causing monstrous traffic jams.
Smith
said that with a police officer virtually on the scene at the time of
the shooting, it was evident that the killer was "extremely
violent and obviously doesn't care."
The
sniper appeared to have taunted police before with a message left at
the scene of a shooting Monday. Scribbled on the "Death
card" of a Tarot deck, it read: "Dear Policeman, I am
God."
A
shell casing was also found on the grass at that scene, where the
sniper shot a 13-year-old boy as he was being dropped off at school.
The teen remains in critical condition in a Washington hospital.
"This
was a personal message to us, and the intention of the [sniper] was to
develop a relationship with us,” said one detective of the Tarot
card, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It
has been reported that the sniper gave specific directions for the
police not to reveal the existence of the message to the press, with
one New York -based radio news agency alluding that several casualties
could have been avoided had the message remained under wraps.
Police
in the affluent suburbs of Maryland north of Washington, where the
shooting spree began last week with five killings in 16 hours, said
the FBI would soon release a "graphic aid" on the sniper
case, without elaborating.
Schools
near the shooting sites have cancelled outdoor sports activities and
kept students indoors. Many of the area's shops and restaurants have
reported slower business as residents limited their outdoor time.
All
of the victims were carrying out everyday activities in the Washington
area, shopping or putting gas in their cars, when they were shot.
Five
people were killed within a 16-hour period from late October 2 to
October 3 in Montgomery County, which borders Washington. A sixth
person was shot in the chest and killed late October 3 while standing
on a Washington street corner close to the Maryland border.
On
October 4, a woman was shot in the back in the parking lot of a
shopping mall in nearby Fredericksburg, Virginia, but survived.
The
13-year-old boy was shot in Bowie, Maryland, while a 53-year-old man
was shot and killed late Wednesday while getting gas in Manassas,
Virginia.
The
reward for information leading to the killer's capture and conviction
has soared to more than $350,000.
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