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U.S. Police Appeal to Sniper After Message from Latest Shooting Scene

Moose to sniper: "We do want to talk to you. Call us at the number you provided"

WASHINGTON, October 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The mystery surrounding deadly sniper attacks in the U.S. capital area appeared to be deepening early Monday, October 21, after investigators disclosed they had found a message left for them at the scene of the latest suspicious shooting.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said the message had been left at an Ashland, Virginia restaurant – where a 37-year-old man was seriously wounded Saturday, October 19, and contained a telephone number.

"To the person that left us a message at the Ponderosa last night: You gave us a telephone number. We do want to talk to you. Call us at the number you provided. Thank you," he told reporters. The police chief did not take any questions.

Investigators are trying to determine if the shooting is linked to the other attacks, in which nine people have been shot dead and two wounded since October 2.

But a police official told Agence France Presse (AFP) that as of 3:15 am (0715 GMT) Monday, such linkage had not been established yet.

Some veteran investigators suggested the elusive sniper might now be trying to make contact to negotiate his surrender.

But others cautioned the probe could be led down the wrong path again, reminding that only last week, an ex-convict seeking reward money allegedly gave police false descriptions of the suspect, his weapon and getaway car.

A police official who asked not to be named said the message was being treated by Moose and his team with utmost secrecy and that lower-ranking investigators did not know its exact contents.

"We don't know whether it has come from an intermediary of the bad guy," the official told AFP.

The official said Moose believed it was very important that the media carry his statement exactly the way he phrased it, without any alterations.

According to CNN's online news service, one of Moose's assistants told CNN after the briefing that the chief's words would "make sense" to the person who left the message.

Meanwhile, experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms examined Monday a crucial piece of evidence from the Ashland shooting that they believe would allow them to determine whether the crime was linked to the sniper attacks.

The 37-year-old man was shot Saturday night as he left the Ponderosa restaurant with his wife in Ashland, Virginia, a suburb of Richmond about 90 miles south of Washington on Interstate 95, said CNN, adding that police described the man and his wife as out-of-towners who had pulled off the highway "to get gas and something to eat."

As they walked through the dimly lit parking lot, the woman heard a noise she thought was a car backfiring, officials said. "About that time her husband declared he had been shot and went to his knees," Colonel Stuart Cook, the Hanover County Sheriff, told CNN.

During surgery late Sunday, a bullet was removed from the body of the victim, who remained in critical condition after being shot in Ashland, 90 miles (150 kilometers) outside Washington.

"Surgeons have been able to successfully remove the bullet, and it's now in the hands of law enforcement," hospital spokesman Joe Kuttenkuler said in a telephone interview, adding that the patient, who had already undergone a three-hour operation Saturday, may require more medical intervention.

According to Kuttenkuler, the bullet sliced through his spleen, which had to be completely removed, and ravaged his pancreas and stomach.

The pancreas had to be partially removed during one of the two operations.

"He has a lengthy recovery ahead of him," Kuttenkuler said. The identity of the victim has yet to be released.

The spokesman said the patient was not out of the woods yet, and doctors were "very concerned" about the possibility of post-surgical infection setting in.

Local police officials spent Sunday combing a wooded area behind the restaurant, from where it is believed the shooter had fired his weapon, and interviewing witnesses.

But Lieutenant Douglas Goodman, of the Hanover County Sheriff's Department, admitted the witnesses had been unable to provide any valuable information.

With the elusive sniper remaining on the loose, the shell-shocked Washington area community hunkered down even more, as new schools announced cancellations of more activities.

The board of education in Richmond, just south of Ashland, announced that local schools would go into lockdown mode for the near future, following the lead of Washington-area schools that have already suspended outdoor activities.

CNN reported that superintendents in five area school districts announced their schools would be closed Monday because of "the volume of parent and community concern in the Richmond region."

The heads of the public schools in Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Goochland, Henrico and Hanover also encouraged other school districts to follow suit. And they urged parents to monitor their children's activities and routines, said CNN.