Terror link to Maryland shootings? Experts divided whether killing spree work of al-Qaida

Though al-Qaida training videotapes and manuals captured in Afghanistan specifically show the planning of attacks on Americans in drive-by shootings, experts who have analyzed those materials are cautious about concluding the murder spree outside of Washington yesterday is connected in any way to terrorism.

But John Holschen of Insights Training Center, who produced a report on the tape for military and law enforcement officials, said the rash of shootings in a small area of suburban Washington in a short period of time is unusual but not altogether unique.

"It's not inconceivable that this will turn out to be a terrorist attack," he said. However, he cautioned against jumping to any conclusions without more information.

The training video captured in Afghanistan shows al-Qaida operatives practicing the following kinds of assaults:

Skip Gouchenour, a licensed detective in Pennsylvania who has analyzed the videotape and other training materials and made a presentation on them for the Pennsylvania Detectives Association, agreed that the Maryland shooting and murder spree is very unusual.

"I'm not dismissing the possibility of a terrorist connection," he said. "It's strange, indeed."

Gouchenour specializes in investigating murder cases for district attorneys, defense attorneys, police agencies and private citizens. He says he has run across similar murder sprees in his career, but finds some of the details of this case unusual.

Police across the Washington area are searching for what they describe as "a skilled shooter" who killed five people in a random death spree beginning Wednesday night and continuing yesterday morning in Montgomery County, Md.

The shootings took place at two shopping centers, two gas stations and on the lawn outside an auto dealership along Rockville Pike. The victims were ordinary people doing ordinary things on a seemingly ordinary day.

As a result of the attacks, children were kept indoors at schools in the county.

"We do have someone that so far has been very accurate in what they are attempting to do, and so we probably have a skilled shooter," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose yesterday. Police said they are looking for a small, slightly damaged white truck that may have black lettering on the side. Witnesses to the shootings said they saw a truck matching that description leaving some of the crime scenes.

Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles said police suspect the shooter was armed with a rifle.

About 40 minutes before the first killing, a shot was fired through a window of a Michael's craft store in the 3800 block of Aspen Hill Road. No one was hurt, but Montgomery County police said they believe the incident may have been related to what followed.

The first fatal shooting occurred Wednesday night at 6 o'clock, when James Martin, 55, of Silver Spring was killed in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse at Randolph Road and Georgia Avenue in Wheaton. By yesterday morning, the stores in the area were open for business as usual. A security tape from a camera that monitors the lot had been turned over to police.

Then about 7:40 a.m., James Buchanan was pushing a lawn mower over a narrow strip of grass in front of the Fitzgerald Auto Mall on Rockville Pike when he was shot.

The next victim was Premkumar A. Walekar, a part-time cab driver. It was about 8:10 a.m., at a Mobil gas station on Aspen Hill Road at Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, when the killer struck and Walekar died pumping gas.

About 8:30 a.m., Sarah Ramos, 34, was sitting on a bench at the shopping center near the Leisure World retirement community off Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring when the killer next took aim and fired.

It was just before 10 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Kensington and Lori Lewis-Rivera, 25, was vacuuming her minivan. The station, at the corner of Knowles and Connecticut avenues in the heart of Kensington, is visible from all directions. But again the killer struck as if coming from nowhere.

Throughout the day the manhunt intensified, but as night fell there had been no arrests. Though authorities have downplayed the possibility of terrorism, the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Secret Service have all been involved in the investigation.

Thursday, October 03, 2002
By Tamara El-Khoury

WHEATON, Md. — The first bullet fired in a shooting spree that killed five people in Montgomery County Wednesday and Thursday, narrowly missed Ann Chapman, who was working at Michaels arts and crafts store in Northgate Shopping Center.

It's a miracle no one was hurt after the bullet cut a dime-size hole in the display window, nicked a light fixture, pierced two posterboard signs and hit a metal rack holding rows of mini-books at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday.

But the amazing thing is what the bullet stopped next to, the store's employees said: a book called Inspiration for the Heart from the Prayer of Jabez, by Bruce Wilkinson.

The book flap says, "A simple daily prayer from the heart can inspire you to seek God's constant favor, power, and protection."

The bullet has not been recovered.

Chapman, 43, points above a display of autumn bouquets. The bullet hole is obvious.

The one-year Michael's employee was standing just a few feet from the window when she heard a loud bang.

"I had just gotten rid of a customer. I thought a light bulb blew up," Chapman said.

When she saw smoke, her next thought was that the computers had started malfunctioning. She never thought about a bullet until she saw the hole.

"Our first concern is for our associates and customers that are affected by this," Michaels corporate spokesman Tom Clary said. "We are shaken a little bit and we have some concern. We are doing everything we can."

Many of the Aspen Hill store's high school and part-time workers were shaken up by the incident and were allowed to take Thursday off, Clary said. For the most part, however, the store kept its normal routine.

"Right now we are trying to conduct business as usual," he said. "This appears to be ... a random firing into a store."

Michaels The Arts and Crafts Store is headquartered in Texas. It has about 600 stories in 48 states, Canada and Puerto Rico.

FNC

Friday, October 04, 2002

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Police were searching frantically Friday for the killer or killers who gunned down five people in 16 hours in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Police said three men and two women were shot dead, one by one and apparently at random, in public places Wednesday night and Thursday morning in Montgomery County.

While cautioning that the slayings had not definitely been linked, police said it was a strong possibility and a "skilled shooter" was involved.

None of the victims appeared to have been robbed, and police said race did not appear to be a motive. The victims were Hispanic and white; one was a native of India.

A single shot apparently was fired at each location, but it is unclear whether they were fired from a vehicle or at what range, police said.

Police said they did not have any eyewitnesses to the shootings, but one person reported seeing a white van with two occupants speed from the scene of one shooting.

"We do have someone that so far has been very accurate in what they are attempting to do, and so we probably have a skilled shooter," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose.

Late Thursday, police continued to stop white trucks and vans in the area. No stolen vehicles were reported, police said.

Gov. Parris Glendening committed 140 state troopers, a helicopter and whatever additional aid is needed, a spokesman said.

The FBI, Secret Service, and ATF also were involved, and officers were stopping all white cargo vans in their search for the killers, police said.

Officers collected security camera videos from businesses near the shooting scenes, including two grocery stores. They also set up a tip hotline and offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the suspects.

"The phone lines are full," Capt. Nancy Demme, a Montgomery County police spokeswoman, said Thursday night. "People are calling."

She said detectives were still waiting for results from autopsies and ballistics experts.

Montgomery County schools canceled Thursday outdoor activities and locked down school buildings. But classes continued all day and the schools were expected to open at regular times Friday.

The killings began early Wednesday evening. Around 6 p.m., James D. Martin, 55, of Silver Spring, a program analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was shot in the parking lot of a Wheaton grocery store.

Around 7:45 a.m. Thursday, James L. "Sonny" Buchanan, 39, Arlington, Va., was killed while cutting grass at a car dealership in the White Flint area. He stumbled toward the building before collapsing as dozens of employees ran toward him.

"I just put my hand on his shoulder and said, 'Help is on the way,"' service director Al Briggs told The Washington Post. "But he was already gone."

Prenkumar Walekar, 54, of Olney, was shot about 8:15 a.m., while pumping gas into his cab at a Mobil station in the Aspen Hill area.

About a half-hour later, Sarah Ramos, 34, of Silver Spring, died at a post office next to the Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring.

Dolores Wallgren said she saw Ramos slumped over on a bench, bleeding from the head, when she arrived to go to a beauty shop nearby.

"She was sitting on the bench, just sitting there," Wallgren said.

In the fifth shooting, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, of Silver Spring, was shot and killed about 10 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Kensington. Mechanics said they heard the shot but didn't see who shot Lewis-Rivera, who was vacuuming her van.

Late Thursday, someone placed two small lit candles and a bouquet of carnations on the concrete base below the vacuuming machine.

The killings brought the number of homicides in Montgomery County to 25 this year, the most since 1997.

The last time as many people were killed in one day in the county was in July 1995, when a handyman's assistant killed podiatrist David Marc Goff, his three daughters and a contractor at Goff's home in Potomac. Bruman S. Alvarez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six consecutive life terms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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