Woman Is Detained in Sniper Hunt

Associated Press ^ | Wed Oct 9, 1:11 PM ET | By DAVID DISHNEAU, Writer

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ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - Investigators searching for a sniper terrorizing the Washington suburbs found a tarot card with the words, "Dear policeman, I am God," near a bullet casing outside the school where a 13-year-old boy was critically wounded, a source familiar with the investigation confirmed Wednesday.

Police were also searching a wooded area behind a school in Prince George's County after reports Wednesday of a man seen carrying a long black bag. A woman driving in the area was detained for questioning.

"We don't know whether or not she was the person who dropped the subject off but we are talking to her trying to find out why she was here," Prince George's County Police Cpl. Diane Richardson said.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who has been leading the investigation, wouldn't comment on the card but said he was concerned that unapproved information was being leaked.

"I need to make sure I don't do anything to hinder our ability to bring this person or these people into custody," Moose said Wednesday.

The taunting message left on a tarot card known as the Death card, first reported Tuesday night on WUSA-TV and then by The Washington Post, was confirmed by a source Wednesday to The Associated Press.

The shell casing was being checked against the National Ballistics Identification Network, a database of crime-scene firearms evidence maintained by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The motive for the seemingly random crimes still eluded police Wednesday, one week after the first of six slayings. Nearly 200 investigators were working their way through 1,600 leads culled from 8,000 tips.

"We need just a shred of evidence," Prince George's County Police Chief Gerald Wilson said.

Police sources told the newspaper that the tarot card was found next to the spent shell casing in a wooded area about 150 yards from the school entrance in an area of matted grass, suggesting the gunman had lain in wait.

Prince George's County police issued a statement saying: "We're not commenting on any potential evidence that may have been located." Joseph Riehl, an agent for the ATF, also declined comment.

Wednesday morning, police began searching the wooded park behind Friendly High School in Fort Washington after receiving a report of a suspicious man wearing a baseball hat and carrying a long black bag, Richardson said. She said surveyors, carrying long black bags containing tripods, had been seen in the area earlier in the week.

A Prince George's County school spokeswoman said students were being kept inside as county schools remained locked down. Friendly High School is about 20 miles from Benjamin Tasker Middle School, where the boy was shot.

Even as they discarded one lead — a man was released after police questioned him about at least one rifle in his home — investigators wondered whether the sniper might have struck weeks earlier, on Sept. 14, when a liquor store employee in Montgomery County was wounded by an unknown assailant.

Bullet fragments recovered from the clerk who was wounded at a shopping center in Silver Spring have been examined, but the analysis has proved inconclusive.

"We are not linking it, we are not ruling it out," ATF agent Michael Bouchard said of the shooting in the Hillandale Shopping Center.

In Montgomery County, where five of the deaths occurred, Moose urged people to keep calling in tips. The reward swelled to more than $237,000.

"We feel like someone has information that will help us bring this situation to closure," Moose said.

Gov. Parris Glendening took a confrontational tone, repeatedly calling the shooter "a coward" during a news conference.

Police believe the sniper has shot eight people, including a woman wounded 50 miles away in Virginia. One death occurred on a Washington street; the others came within five miles of each other in Montgomery County.

Investigators say the sniper apparently picked victims at random and fired from a distance with a high-powered hunting or military-style rifle. All the victims were felled by a single bullet.

The Sept. 14 shooting occurred outside the Hillandale Beer and Wine store. Owner Arnie Zelkovitz said police interviewed him about the incident, in which his 22-year-old employee was shot in the back.

Zelkovitz said he believes the man was another sniper victim: "It just seems too coincidental."

The 13-year-old boy, who police have not identified, was in critical but stable condition Wednesday with a wound to the chest. He was shot early Monday after his aunt dropped him off at Benjamin Tasker Middle School.

Ballistics tests found that the bullet that struck him was of the same caliber as those that killed some of the others and wounded a woman in Virginia. That woman was released from the hospital Tuesday.

Dorothy Prather, a teacher at Tasker, said she was impressed by how well students responded to the traumatic events. "The only ones who seemed really concerned were the parents," she said.

At a nearby mall, employees at a Coldwell Banker real estate office noticed shoppers were edgy.

"They don't get out of their car without looking around, then they dash in the store," Polly Rogers said. "You don't see people on their porch, or playing tennis. We're not used to this — we think Bowie is the safest place."

[CobaltBlue]

Thanks. The one last night was, again, on a major road intersecting with an interstate highway.

When I drive on the interstate system, seems like every tenth or twentieth vehicle is a white box van. Many, many thousands of them in the DC metro area.

[SkunkPunk]

YEA THAT'S THE POINT...FUSHNICK

[PFKEY]

YEA THAT'S THE POINT...FUSHNICK

What is FUSHICK?

Can you say or should it be restricted to Freepmail?

[DBtoo]

I agree. And these are strange days alright.

[Shermy]

Just heard on the radio that the "I am God" statement might be a response to media chatter saying the "suspect thinks he's God" - so that might undermine some of the import of the statement.

[DBtoo]

The more time goes on the more I think it is some kind of funny business which will have an end result of banning many types of guns. The Dear Policeman is too polite, too old-fashioned; it seems like a false lead of sorts, and whoever left that wanted them to think it is a deranged teenaged boy.

[DBtoo]

Isn't Hillandale where the old Hot Shop used to be? It closed down some years ago.

[aristeides]

The shooter clearly either lives in Montgomery County, works there, or has a connection there.

I agree. The location of the Hillandale shooting is extremely suggestive.

[aristeides]

Isn't Hillandale where the old Hot Shop used to be?

Sorry, don't know.

[tall_tex]

I think that we are both on the correct trail.. Mr. Policeman, not a home grown salutation. We just need to have all FReepers, with more information to post thier thoughts, there are a lot of great minds here, military, law enforcement, politicians and every day very bright AMERICANS.

We all know that the lefties, want to take all guns away from the American people and our police, just like Great Britton, took the guns away from the "bobbies". I think they they may well be thinking over that long ago poor decission.

[tall_tex]

I do not think this a teen age American boy, might be a teen age Islomic boy, but I do not think that the teen age thing works.

I still think that they are, or should be, looking for an Islomic male, be he white, brown, yellow or black, between the age of 18 and 45. He has been well trained, although his marksmanship, is not outstanding based on our current technology is working for him.

I qualified as an expert marksman in the Army with a M1, peep site, using pop up petes, not maggies drawers, with the range up to 300 meters.

He is not a great shooter, nor an expert, he takes easy shots, so far it is working. Sad...

[DBtoo]

I am starting to think it's not a teenage boy. I was wanting to ask someone who knows about guns and marksmanship what kind of a shot this person would have to be, and it looks like I've stumbled across the right person! So it does not take an expert shooter to do what this guy has done. I was assuming that to down people with one shot from a distance(?) he would have to be a very good shot. I do now think it is an adult male. If it's two of them, it's more likely a staged event with an agenda in mind, not the work of a nut.

[Da_Shrimp]

Turns out Geoffrey Holder became an artist.

An artist? Who'd have thought it? I remember seeing 'Live and Let Die' when I was about 11 and his character scared the hell out of me!

[Indie]

FROM THE WEBSITE: SUPERSCOPE.COM
"Tarot beginnings are obscured in ancient history. Theories of origins include Moroccans designing cards and The Tarot interpretations perhaps around 1200 A.D. Fez, Morrocco was at the time a scientific and literary capital of the world. The Tarot represented a culmination of thoughts and ideas at the time how daily lives were influenced by primary forces and our own attitudes. Another theory holds ancient Egyptians invented The Tarot as a repository of occult lore. The translation of Tarot from ancient Egyptian means Royal Path of Life.Even earlier is the connection of The Tarot to the Cabala. This is a body of occult doctrine by various anonymous authours. The most important work in the Cabala is the Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation). This book was written in Hebrew, probably in Babylonia between the third and sixth centuries A.D."
=======
It seems to me folks that all 3 of these places are Muslim.
Strange coincidence??

[Indie]

The Islamonazis have indeed already threatened "random" and "widespread" attacks on mundane everyday targets in at least ONE news story I read and of course can no longer find!

[Elenya]

Check out the Google result for "Dear Mr. Policeman" + "I am God": The whole page is quite interesting, but go to the 2 highlighted parts, both further down the thread. I think the perps are too smart to leave the police a message with stuff they wrote on the internet, so I'd assume the perps have been lurking on that site and got the idea for their message from the posts . They could be trying to set them up too...

**SNIP**

I've said all along "Dear Mr. Policeman: I know where you live, where your wife shops and where your kids go to school. Have a nice day!" ......

Do ya'll remember Detective Mark Fuhrman during the OJ Simpson trial? (He's the one who lied about saying the "N" word)...Remember what he said? "Out there I AM God!".... ALL cops think alike. Those who don't, quit.....

**SNIP

LINK

[tall_tex]

The most difficult thing to do with todays technology is to prepare the weapon. A scope has to be zeroed in, learn how to deal with the wind and what happens to the bullet based upon the range to the target. Learning how to breathe and not jerk, but squeeze the trigger.

That said the rest would be his mental attitude, must be in control of himself, no excitement, stone cold, to keep the cross hairs of the site on his target.

Is this guy a good shot, yes, stone cold yes, and expert, possibly. Hope this helps. Tom

[tall_tex]

Strange indeed, thanks for the post..

[Shermy]

The character also had a sense of humor, which I think made him so memorable.

[Indie]

That is one HELL of a DAMN GOOD letter!! (And I'm an ex-cop!)