US police hunt sniper after latest shooting

VIRGINIA - A man was killed in a Virginia gasoline station shooting as police desperately hunted for an elusive sniper who has killed seven people and wounded two, spreading fear in the Washington area.

Virginia State Police said the shooting happened at 9.30am (2.30am Saturday NZ Time) at an Exxon station off the busy I-95 highway south of Washington but that it was too early to link it to the string of sniper slayings.

A Virginia state trooper was dealing with a traffic accident across the street from the gasoline station at the time of the shooting and rushed to help the victim, who was later confirmed dead at an area hospital.

"With a uniformed officer across the street, we are obviously dealing with someone who is very violent, and doesn't care," Howard Smith, of the Spotsylvania County police, told reporters at the scene.

Police said they were looking for a white Chevy Astro van and had a description of the driver and passenger. Witnesses said the van had a ladder rack.

"We're not sure if that van had anything to do with the shooting, but we do have a description of the two people inside the van," said Smith.

It was the fourth shooting at a gas station and the second to take place only metres away from a police station. Police say the sniper was firing a high-velocity rifle and chose his victims at random, killing them with one shot.

Five people were murdered in Montgomery County, Maryland -- three men and two women, ranging in age from 25 to 55. A 72-year-old man was shot to death in Washington. Two other people, a 43-year-old woman in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and a 13-year-old boy in Prince George's County, Maryland, were

On Wednesday, 53-year-old man Dean Meyers from Gaithersburg, Maryland, was killed at a gas station in Manassas, Virginia, a slaying police have linked to the other shootings.

Many sporting and cultural events in the area this weekend have been canceled for fear the sniper could be drawn to attack crowds of people or pick off children playing on fields.

Exits along I-95, the major interstate up and down the East Coast were shut down in the Virginia area, and police were hoping traffic would slow the van they were hunting.

State and federal investigators have searched for the sniper who has killed seven people and injured two more since October 2.

Police in Montgomery Country, Maryland, where most of the shootings have occurred, said they would release a "graphic aid" later on Friday in an effort to advance the investigation.

"The special projects unit of the FBI is working on a graphic aid and we intend to make that available to the media and the general public this afternoon," Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose told a news briefing.

Moose declined to discuss the graphic further.

Police Chief Charlie Deane of Prince William County, Virginia, told reporters the bullet that hit Meyers was fired from "some distance," but he declined to discuss details about any evidence that may have been recovered.

Deane said police were reviewing video surveillance tapes from businesses near the crime scene looking for leads.

No witnesses have reported seeing a gunman, although all the attacks occurred in public places and, and all but two in broad daylight.

The killings have unnerved residents in the capital and its usually tranquil suburbs, who are still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the anthrax letters sent soon afterward.

Few details of the investigation have been released and a skittish public has alerted police to a series of false alarms since the first shooting, many of which have been linked to noisy car exhaust systems or gunshots related to Virginia's hunting season.

The reward fund for information leading to the arrest of the sniper now tops US$330,000 ($696,643).

- REUTERS

Further reading:
The Washington sniper

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