Washington sniper vanishes after signature killings

7.30am

ROCKVILLE - Amid reports today that a killer terrorising the United States capital has been sighted, police said they did not want to jeopardise their investigation by releasing an inaccurate sketch of the suspect.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose was asked to comment on reports that the sniper, who is believed to have killed eight people and wounded two in the Washington area, had been spotted. Struggling for the right words, Moose said he did not want to "muddy the waters" by releasing an image to the media too soon.

"Please rest assured that when we have something where we are sure that the media can help us we will use that," Moose said on Fox News Sunday.

"The concern is that we pollute the whole thought process, we cause people to have tunnel vision, think they see what they heard on TV and mix that up with reality."

The power of the media has taken centre stage in the hunt for the shooter -- or shooters -- who has used a high-velocity rifle to slam a single bullet into 10 victims since October 2, eluding the largest federal, state and local manhunt in the history of the Washington region.

On Saturday, Moose released a composite image of an older model, mid-sized commercial truck, with light damage to its right rear bumper and black lettering -- a row of large black block letters above a row of smaller letters -- on each side.

Moose said the white truck, which has a roll-up door at the rear, was seen at more than one of the shootings by more than one witness and he asked the media to distribute it widely. He declined to discuss any of the witnesses further.

"None of the witnesses have been able to give us the exact wording" on the truck or its license plate number, Moose said at a news briefing.

The chief said today the picture has been generating new leads. "Maybe he has had this vehicle repaired," he offered, calling on mechanics and body shop workers to think back.

Investigators are working on a sketch of a second vehicle, described as a white Chevrolet Astro van, seen near the latest shooting on Friday, Moose said. "We're working with a sense of urgency" to get that photo to the public, he said.

Physical evidence has been scant, with one taunting clue apparently left by the shooter near where a 13-year-old victim was shot: A Tarot "Death" card with the words "Dear Mr Policeman, I am God" scrawled on the back.

The killer, who picks off random victims while concealed at a comfortable distance, claimed his 10th victim and eighth fatality on Friday.

Kenneth Bridges, 53, a businessman and father of six, was killed on Friday at an Exxon petrol station near a busy interstate highway in Virginia.

The first five sniper shootings occurred in a bloody 15-hour spree that began October 2 in Montgomery County, Maryland, a prosperous and bustling northern suburb of Washington.

Sniper attacks also killed one man in Washington and another in Virginia. The sniper wounded a woman in Virginia and the 13-year-old boy outside his school in Prince George's County in Maryland. In each case only one shot was fired.

The killings have stunned the region and re-energised the debate, in the media if not among politicians, over gun control in the United States.

Police have not disclosed any credible eyewitness sightings of the shooter, although the attacks occurred in public places, and all but two were in broad daylight.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that police in Spotsylvania had briefly detained a 36-year-old Georgia man described as a white male of medium build with sandy brown hair and a moustache.

"They said I looked like the picture of someone at another shooting," the man, identified as Hobert Epps, told the Post.

Profilers say the shooter is probably in his 20s or 30s, may have grown up with guns or been trained in the military. His actions peg him as neat and methodical, precise and unhurried. He appears to plan ahead meticulously.

Unlike most serial killers, who crave intimate, often sexual, contact with victims, or mass killers, who may be angry with a co-worker, boss or relative, this killer appears to be targeting people with no connection to himself or each other.

Moose earlier called on people in the region to watch out for others acting unusually, including "someone that was not at work during the incident, has not been keeping their schedules ... (displaying) some sort of anger toward police."

At the briefing late on Saturday, Moose lashed out at the media for the second time in a week, saying news crews were stalking investigators and jeopardising the investigation.

Moose previously blasted the media for disclosing the existence of the Tarot card.

- REUTERS

Further reading:
The Washington sniper

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