Getaway van description dismissed in US sniper killings

11.45am

WASHINGTON - Two weeks after a serial sniper first struck the Washington area, instilling fear in the capital and surrounding states, police were no closer today to catching the elusive killer after promising leads dissolved.

Since October 2, the sniper has been linked to the shooting deaths of nine people and the wounding of two others in and around the US capital. The victims appear to be chosen at random at busy suburban crossroads, felled by only one shot from a high-velocity firearm.

Police on Thursday dismissed a witness description of a cream-coloured getaway van at the site of the last killing, but denied this was a setback in the case.

Officers were back at the scene of the latest shooting -- a parking lot outside a Home Depot store in Falls Church, Virginia -- searching for clues to the gunman who killed a 47-year-old FBI analyst with one shot on Monday evening.

The three-day hiatus since Monday's shooting is one of the longest in the case.

Authorities said previously that witnesses to Monday's killing offered hope of a breakthrough, but today they said a witness report about the vehicle allegedly used by the gunman was not credible.

"It's been determined through further investigation that the information provided by one of the witnesses at the scene of the shooting at the Home Depot, describing a cream-colored van with malfunctioning tail light is not credible," Police Chief Tom Manger of Fairfax County, Virginia, said at a briefing.

Manger also dismissed as unreliable several media reports on the specific weapon used in the attack and a reported description of the shooting suspect.

US military spyplanes have been authorised to join the manhunt, but they have not yet arrived in the Washington area.

So far, the task force that is investigating the shootings has released composite pictures of several vehicles linked to the crimes, and these remain part of the investigation.

However, witness accounts of the shooter have varied so much that no composite sketch of the killer has been released.

Even the kind of weapon and ammunition used have come into question.

Mike Bouchard, a special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said the kinds of ammunition linked to the shootings -- bullets of .221, .222 or .223 calibre -- can be used in more than 30 types of firearms.

Police Chief Charles Moose in Montgomery County, Maryland, where five sniper shootings took place, bridled when asked whether these latest developments are a setback in the case.

"I hope that people in the public didn't hear that word because it has not set back the investigation," Moose said.

Moose and other police chiefs around the region met on Wednesday for a strategy session, which Moose described as "extremely productive, extremely beneficial," but refused to provide any details.

In Falls Church on Thursday, more than 100 police recruits were at the scene of Monday's shooting, combing the area for evidence, ranging into the parking lot across the street from the killing site and inside the Home Depot store.

Four officers with rifles were posted on top of the parking structure, with agents of the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also on the scene, along with a police survey team.

The gunman with a high-velocity weapon has struck 11 times, killing a total of five people in Montgomery County, Maryland, one in Washington, and three in Virginia suburbs south of the city. A 13-year-old boy in Bowie, Maryland, and a 47-year-old woman in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, were critically wounded.

The victims, who have come from all walks of life and different ethnic groups, were picked off with single shots while carrying out daily tasks. Four of the victims were shot at gas stations.

The seemingly random shootings have had residents on edge and are beginning to take a toll on area businesses.

"Gas buying has dropped a fair amount," said Dawn Dowden, manager of a Shell station in Bowie, Maryland.

A spokesman for Simon Property Group Inc. the largest US mall operator with four centres around Washington, said the number of shoppers had also fallen.

"We're just hoping for this thing to come to an end soon," said Rand Goodman, marketing director at Washington's J.W. Marriott Hotel.

The killings have also increased Americans' sense of vulnerability after the September 11, 2001, attacks and the subsequent deadly anthrax scare.

The person who sent anthrax through the US mail to politicians and journalists is also still at large, a year after killing five people and infecting 13 others.

- REUTERS

Further reading:
The Washington sniper

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