Police investigating another shooting in Washington area 
10/22/2002
ROCKVILLE, Md. - A man was shot in the chest in Montgomery County early Tuesday, and a police task force was investigating to see if the shooting was connected to the serial sniper who has killed nine people and critically injured three others this month.
Police put a widespread dragnet into place immediately after the shooting, clogging traffic on Connecticut Ave., one of the main arteries into Washington, D.C., just as the morning commute began. Police helicopters began flying over the scene.
The shooting appparently happened about 6 a.m. EDT adjacent to an apartment building and wooded area along Connecticut Avenue. The location is near the site of six other sniper attacks,
Units were dispatched for a reported shooting on or near a bus, Montgomery County Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer said. The victim was being airlifted via helicopter to a local trauma center, he said.
On Monday, the hunt for the Washington-area sniper turned into a case of high-stakes phone tag.
Police say they received a call about the shooting after the latest attack -- but the call was muddled. Investigators took to the airwaves and pleaded with him to call them.
"The person you called could not hear everything you said. The audio was unclear and we want to get it right. Call us back so that we can clearly understand," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who has been leading the hunt for the sniper.
Moose's plea came hours after Virginia authorities surrounded a white van parked near an Exxon gas station just outside Richmond and seized two men. They said later the case was unconnected to the sniper.
With a Saturday night shooting at a steak restaurant in Ashland, some 15 miles from Richmond, now linked to the sniper, school officials in the Richmond area closed schools Tuesday for a second day.
Moose did not disclose who received the muddled phone call that riveted authorities' attention, when it was made or other details. But investigators believe the call may have come from the sniper and that the caller was the same person who left a note and phone number Saturday night at the scene of the latest shooting, a law enforcement source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
On Sunday, Moose publicly pleaded with the note writer to call authorities.
Then in the first of two televised statements Monday, the chief said: "The message that needs to be delivered is that we are going to respond to a message that we have received. We are preparing our response at this time."
Separate reports Tuesday shed more light on the message. The Los Angeles Times and Richmond Times-Dispatch said it contained a threat directed toward schools. Several media outlets reported that the killer demanded money.
The Los Angeles Times also reported Tuesday that unidentified federal agents said the letter was "very lengthy" and poorly worded, bordering on broken English.
The latest attack came Saturday night in a steakhouse parking lot in Ashland. The victim, a 37-year-old man, was felled by a single shot to the stomach.
He remained in critical but stable condition at a Richmond hospital Tuesday after doctors removed his spleen and parts of his pancreas and stomach. Surgeons retrieved the bullet after a second round of surgery Sunday, and ballistics tests linked the slug to the ambush killer.
Witnesses said officers in bulletproof vests converged on the van and dragged out a man before slapping him in handcuffs. Authorities did not say how the second man was arrested.
Hours later, the lead fell apart. A Justice Department official said deportation proceedings had begun against the 24-year-old Mexican and 35-year-old Guatemalan.
Several newspapers reported Tuesday that the men apparently made the mistake of driving the white van up to a phone booth being watched by police. The phone booth had been traced to one that the letter writer had used.
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/102202dnnatsniper.61ed0.html
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