[Catspaw]

He also seems to be picking places with or near parking lots--the only exception is the man mowing the lawn, but I don't know if there was a parking lot nearby. It'd be a place to sit and scope the place before the shootings, even long before the shootings.

I have a feeling that he has a list of possibilities and picks a place to shoot depending on what's the most available to him at that particular day and time. It's like a crime of opportunity with some preplanning.

[DugwayDuke]

"He also seems to be picking places with or near parking lots--the only exception is the man mowing the lawn, but I don't know if there was a parking lot nearby. It'd be a place to sit and scope the place before the shootings, even long before the shootings."

Wasn't that guy mowing a strip of grass in front of a car dealership? Very much like a parking lot.

[bvw]

The DC metro area has some unique mobility features not common elsewhere. There are an awful lot of cul-de-sacs, and it's hard to get to A from B by backroads. It is very "planned" and unnatural in how it is developed -- the planning of shopping districts and business districts makes them harder to get in and out of than other places.

However the cul-de-sac and limited access nature of the traffic planning means a get-away that starts on foot can put the perp a few minutes and miles ahead of any pursuit.

I guessed that the shooter was running out of area before the weekend, but that guess didn't pan out, and he's still doing brownian motions around DC.

[Darlin']

I just heard on the news that investigators are concentrating on a wooded area and a park across from the school. They said the young boy had just gotten out of his aunt's car and was not far from the school entrance when he was shot.

This aerial photo shows a wooded area along the lower portion. It looks as if the school has two locations that could be called an entrance. The one in the near lower left seems fairly close to those trees. The other one by the temporary buildings seems a long way off. I wonder what the distance is from the wooded area to those entrances...