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Police Narrow In On Shooter And Weapon
October 4, 2002
Montgomery County police say they are "90 percent" certain that a high-powered hunting or assault-type weapon was used to shoot five people killed over a 16-hour period.
Whether one or many weapons were used, however, was still undetermined, police said.
Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said Friday that officers, meanwhile, were chasing down about 150 credible leads as they look for a "skilled shooter" suspected in the rampage that began Wednesday night. Four of the victims were killed in little more than two hours Thursday morning, police said.
Moose said the shootings appeared to be linked.
"We feel fairly comfortable that it is connected and being done by a single entity, whether that is one or two people," Moose said on NBC's Today Show.
None of the victims appeared to have been robbed, and police said race did not appear to be a motive. The victims were Hispanic, white and a cab driver from India.
"There's still no information to lead us to think our victims are associated," Moose said. "They don't appear to be anyone's enemies, just random targets."
Moose said police were responding to a flood of calls by frightened residents about loud noises resembling gunshots, but that no shots had been fired Friday morning.
"We're all human, we're all afraid," Moose said at a press conference. "I'm on edge, people in the community are on edge... We're responding, we're following up."
Officials are "90 percent sure" a high powered .223 round is being used, said Capt. Nancy Demme, a Montgomery County police spokeswoman.
Demme said detectives were still waiting for results from autopsies.
Police released types of weapons they believe could have been used, mostly semiautomatic rifles. Moose said handguns are also made to fire that caliber. He asked people to report any missing weapons.
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.
When asked about a video surveillance tape from the parking lot where the Wednesday night shooting occurred, Moose said it was being reviewed, but wouldn't discuss specifics.
Montgomery County schools are open, but outside activities were expected to be canceled again Friday, Demme said.
Moose said officers would be out in force, patrolling the area.
A single shot apparently was fired at each location, but it is unclear whether the shots were fired from a vehicle or at what range, police said.
"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 Moose.
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.
On Friday morning, police continued to search for white trucks and vans in the area. No stolen vehicles were reported, police said.
"We don't have a license plate," Moose said. "We feel like the one we're looking for is still out there."
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.
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.