[Dog]

This isn't connected to Michaels... ...I will bet anything.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I concur.....

[Miss Marple]

I have no idea. At first I thought not, but the proximity to so many of the shootings may indicate a tangential connection, such as deliveries. Also Michael's tends to locate near major highways, so it may be a coincidence that the stores are near areas that provide a good way to get away.

[mhking]

This isn't connected to Michaels... ...I will bet anything.

I'm inclined to agree - I think it's more a matter of "hitting America in the 'heartland' with killings of 'innocents' where they least suspect it." My fear is that this could be followed up by more shootings and bombings not only in the Capitol region, but elsewhere across the land.

[Miss Marple]

How interesting. Police spokesman brings up anthrax scares.

[mitchbert]

This isn't connected to Michaels... ...I will bet anything

I tend to agree. Without seeing actual layouts of the Michaels locations I'm just speculating, but I'd guess it has more to do with the layout of the plazas. Are the stores located in a spot close to a possible getaway route as opposed to being surrounded by other big box stores or something like that? Were the sites designed or built by the same development company? Often they lay out locations similarly in different places. If there was a Michaels connection how does one explain the other shootings?

Sure smells like jihadist terrorism to me from here...apparantly NOT a lone perp, and I'd expect a crazy nut to have slipped up to some degree by now. JMO.

[Gorilla44]

Maybe they should be giving Moataz al-Hallak a call. Do a search on "hijackers laurel maryland" for more info.

In the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI investigators discovered that the five men who hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 from Dulles Airport and crashed it into the Pentagon stayed at the Valencia Motel from Aug. 23 to Sept. 11. Two of Flight 77's hijackers picked up their tickets at Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI), which is about a 20-minute drive from the motel. Authorities don't know why the terrorists chose to stay in Laurel, but some speculate they were attracted by the presence of Moataz Al-Hallak, a Muslim cleric who works at a local Islamic school and whom federal prosecutors have accused of having ties to Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Hallak has denied any involvement with bin Laden.