This from CNN just now shows possibility 2 cars types suspected...and remember the composite of the white truck from a few days ago... Like your idea of a "partial decoy".....
Hopefully, the person doing this is acting alone, and is just a totally sick fruitloop. BUT, my intitution is telling me that this isn't correct. I'm really thinking that there are: at least 3 males, American but sleeper terrorists.
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Police look to witnesses in latest sniper killing
Woman slain in parking lot outside Home Depot
Tuesday, October 15, 2002 Posted: 2:24 PM EDT (1824 GMT)
Spotsylvania County, Virginia, authorities released new composites of two vans seen near the shooting Friday.
Suspect vehicles:
White Chevrolet Astro-type minivan with a ladder rack on its roof; Ford Econovan with a ladder rack on its roof; white box-type truck
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (CNN) -- Police said Tuesday they were working with witnesses to the latest Washington-area sniper shooting and might be able to produce a sketch of a man who aroused suspicion at the scene, as well as license plate information on a van seen in the area.
And Spotsylvania County, Virginia, authorities released new composite pictures Tuesday of two vans seen near Friday's shooting close to Fredericksburg, Virginia. One is a Chevrolet Astro and the other is a Ford Econoline van. Both have ladder racks on the roof.
Police said ballistic evidence had conclusively linked Monday night's fatal shooting to the sniper attacks. The victim, identified as Linda Franklin, 47, from Arlington, Virginia, was slain by a single gunshot in the parking area of a Home Depot store.
Law enforcement sources said Franklin worked as an analyst for the FBI.
"There was some additional information that we were able to get from last night's case," said Fairfax Police Chief Tom Manger, "and I am confident that ultimately, that information is going to lead us to an arrest in this case."
At the request of federal law enforcement, U.S. military officials are looking at providing surveillance and reconnaissance equipment to help in the investigation. Civilian law enforcement officials would work with troops who would operate the equipment and point out targets. (Full story)
Manger said there were several witnesses to Monday night's shooting, but he would not say whether they saw the sniper.
Based on witness accounts, police were on the lookout for a light-colored Chevrolet Astro van with the left taillight out and a silver ladder rack on top -- a vehicle similar to a white van witnesses reported seeing shortly after the sniper struck Friday near Fredericksburg, Virginia. (Suspect vehicles)
Some witnesses in Falls Church said they saw a cream-colored van driving around the area after the shootings. Witnesses got license tag numbers and gave them to authorities.
"We received license plate information from several witnesses -- different information on different tags," Manger said. "We're following up on all that information. We are not ready to release any tag information about a suspect vehicle."
Nine dead, two injured
The sniper has now killed nine people and wounded two over the past 13 days, each victim shot with a single .223-caliber bullet.
Monday night's shooting makes Fairfax County, Virginia, the sixth locale in and around Washington in which the sniper has struck. Other shootings took place in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, in Spotsylvania and Prince William counties in Virginia, and in Washington.
Manger said investigators were still looking for the origin of the shot in Monday's attack. He would not say whether it appeared the shot was fired from a distance, as has been the case with the other shootings.
The shooting happened about 9:15 p.m. at the Seven Corners Center on U.S. Highway 50 in Falls Church, Manger said.
Manger said Franklin had finished shopping at the Home Depot and was at her vehicle on the ground level of a two-story parking garage outside the store when she was shot once in the upper body. She was dead at the scene.
According to Ellen Qualls, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Governor's Office, Franklin was with her husband.
Raymond Massis, a witness, said he heard a shot as he approached the front of the Home Depot.
"People started panicking -- I was one of them. A few seconds later people started running. We heard the sirens," he said. "I looked back toward Route 50, which is about 20 to 30 yards away from me, and saw the body laying down." (More from the scene)
Roadblocks set up after shooting
Authorities blocked off Interstate 495 -- the so-called "Beltway" -- and set up roadblocks along U.S. Highway 50, which leads from Virginia into Washington and connects to I-495. They also closed the George Washington Parkway, the American Legion Bridge and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
Officers were writing down the license plate number of every vehicle moving through the roadblocks. Police helicopters with searchlights hovered over the interstate and other nearby roads. At least one motorist was in tears as armed officers, taking no chances, searched her van -- a Chevrolet Astro like the one sought by investigators.
Police began easing the roadblocks several hours after the killing.
In the same shopping center as the Home Depot is a Michaels craft store. The sniper began his shooting spree on October 2 at a Michaels in Aspen Hill, Maryland, but missed his intended target. The sniper wounded a woman at a Michaels two days later in Fredericksburg, Virginia. |
