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.