Police hunting Washington sniper seize truck

9.35am

BETHESDA - US authorities have seized a white box truck in which a shell casing was found, a possible lead in the 17-day hunt for a sniper terrorizing Washington.

Police were alerted to the truck on Saturday by an unidentified rental car agency near Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia, said police Capt. Nancy Demme of Montgomery County, Maryland.

She said it was too soon to say whether the truck or the casing had anything to do with the sniper killings of nine people and wounding of two others in the Washington this month.

But police have said a white box truck was seen at several of the crime scenes in Montgomery County on Oct. 2, when the shootings began.

The shell casing was being examined, she said, and findings could be available within several hours.

The last killing was Monday, and the five-day break in shootings is the longest so far in the case.

No suspects have been arrested yet, but on Friday police arrested a man accused of lying about what he saw at the scene of the last attack, at a parking lot outside a home improvement store in Falls Church, Virginia, west of Washington.

Matthew Dowdy, 37, reported seeing a gunman with an assault rifle escaping in a beige van after shooting from only 30 yards away, police said.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said Dowdy may have been seeking a share of the NZ$1,000,000 reward.

"There are checks and balances that will keep people from receiving that if they are just making things up," said Moose, who heads the task force investigating the attacks.

Anxiety was running high in Washington and the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, where the ordinary acts of life now seem to carry extraordinary risk, because the fatal attacks have occurred at such prosaic locations as gasoline stations and shopping centre parking lots.

One attack was at a school, wounding a 13-year-old boy, and most area schools have eliminated outdoor activities and tightened security since that shooting.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, where the first five killings took place, the popular youth soccer games of Montgomery Soccer Inc. have been sidelined through the weekend, affecting some 15,000 young people.

"Thank you for your continued support as we make difficult decisions in cooperation with local authorities and in the best interest of our children's safety," read a message on the soccer group's website.

Across the Potomac River in Virginia, where three people have been killed by the sniper, the Virginia Youth Soccer Association warned all its clubs to comply with local school regulations -- most of which prohibit outdoor play on school fields during the weekend.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, where Monday's killing took place, officials approved the resumption of high school football games, but not on their home turf. The games will be held elsewhere in the state, as far as 150 miles away.

The Bethesda Row Arts Festival was cancelled in Maryland due to "the unfortunate circumstances around the recent sniper shootings."

An annual foot-race, the Army Ten-Miler, was to go on as scheduled Sunday morning, with more than 18,000 runners expected. But there will be heightened security along the route, which starts and ends at the Pentagon in Virginia. Spectators and runners will have to go through a security checkpoint at the start and finish lines.

- REUTERS

Further reading:
The Washington sniper

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