Sniper May Have Left A Message
Authorities believe the Washington-area sniper might be trying to communicate with them through a message left at the scene of Saturday's shooting in Virginia.
Task force investigators believe it may be the sniper who left them a message Saturday at the Ponderosa steakhouse where a 37-year-old man was shot and critically wounded in the parking lot, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The sniper is believed responsible for at least 11 shootings and nine deaths since Oct. 2.
Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose asked during a brief news conference that the person who left the message should contact law enforcement.
``To the person who 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,'' Moose said.
Moose asked the media to carry the message clearly and often, but did not take questions and did not elaborate. It was not clear how or where the message was left.
Officer Joyce Utter, spokeswoman for Montgomery County police, said of Moose's comments after the briefing:
``To the person who left the message, it should make complete sense. That is the only person Chief Moose wants to talk to.''
Investigators have wrapped up a methodical search around the latest shooting scene in Ashland, Va., and while they have yet to produce any forensic results, they are working on the assumption that this is the sniper's 12th attack.
Dozens of officers completed an inch-by-inch search of a wooded area near the Ponderosa restaurant where a 37-year-old man was downed by a single shot to the abdomen Saturday night. Investigators said little about what, if anything, they had found.
Some witnesses said they heard a shot coming from a wooded area near the restaurant, but nobody reported seeing the shooter.
If the shooting is linked to the sniper attacks that have killed nine and injured two since Oct. 2, it would be the first weekend attack and the farthest the sniper has traveled — about 85 miles south of Washington.
The longest previous distance from the Washington area was Spotsylvania County, about 50 miles south of Washington. It would also break the longest lull between shootings, about five days.
The most recent shooting confirmed sniper attack was the Monday night slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store in Falls Church. Authorities do not believe her job was related to the killing.
Larry Thompson, the deputy attorney general, said more than 1,000 law officers "are doing everything we possibly can to identify the person who is responsible for these horrible and evil acts."
Those involved in the investigation include local police, Virginia and Maryland troopers, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Secret Service and U.S. Park Police. The Defense Department has promised help from military surveillance planes.
The FBI has assigned some 400 agents, including trainees taking tips called into a national hot line. That makes it one of the bureau's biggest cases, short of the war on terrorism.
Residents were on edge in Ashland, a town of about 6,500. At the Virginia Center Commons mall, about 7 miles from the shooting, a normally busy food court sat half-empty Sunday. Shopper Nancy Elrod said she almost had been too afraid to come.
"We certainly felt sorry about all the people up north who were nervous and now it's down here and we're nervous too," said Elrod, 45.
Police said the victim, whose name was not released, and his wife were traveling and stopped in Ashland for gas and food. His wife told authorities the shot sounded like a car backfiring and said her husband took about three steps before collapsing.
Authorities were on the lookout early on for a white van with a ladder rack. Ashland Police Chief Frederic Pleasants Jr. said after interviewing witnesses, however, police had no suspects and no clear description of a vehicle that could be placed at the scene.
The man underwent surgery for three hours Saturday night at MCV Hospital in Richmond, hospital spokeswoman Pam Lepley said. Doctors said they did not try to remove the bullet in the first round of surgery, but would try to do so in a second round of surgery Sunday night.
Doctors had to remove part of the man's stomach, half of his pancreas and his spleen, said Dr. Rao Ivatury, the hospital's director of trauma and critical care. The man was conscious but unable to talk because he was on a ventilator, he said.
"The prognosis is still guarded, but since he is a very healthy man and he is very young, the chances are fair to good, I would say," Ivatury said.
Unless the bullet is removed, officials can't conclusively determine whether it was fired from the same rifle used in the 11 previous assaults.
However, it may be possible at least to determine if the bullet is the same size, .223-caliber, that was used in the earlier attacks, said Dr. Paul B. Ferrara, director of Virginia's Division of Forensic Science.
"It depends on the condition of the bullet and how badly fragmented it is," Ferrara said. "Sometimes a firearms expert can assess or approximate the caliber of weapon by looking at X-rays from different angles."
Russ Brickey, 26, a maintenance mechanic, said he had eaten at the Ponderosa many times and couldn't believe this type of violence had made its way to Ashland.
"This is like a high-tech Mayberry," Brickey said as he stood across the street from the restaurant. "Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen here — period."
School superintendents from three counties and the city of Richmond said schools would open Monday, but with lockdowns at individual schools and possible restrictions on outdoor activities. No specifics were released. School officials said they planned to address Friday football games and future activities later.
Authorities in Maryland, meanwhile, on Sunday continued testing a shell casing found in a white rental truck to determine if it could be linked to the sniper attacks. Police said it would be at least Monday before they could announce whether the casing is connected to the shootings.
A source close to the investigation, however, said Sunday that "it has nothing to do with this case." The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm reports that the shell was .30-caliber, a different size from the sniper's bullets, but said: "It's got caliber problems, it's got age problems."
The shell casing was found in a car seized at a rental agency near Dulles International Airport in Virginia, authorities said.