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Woman Is Detained in Sniper Hunt
Associated Press ^ | Wed Oct 9, 1:11 PM ET | By DAVID DISHNEAU, Writer

Posted on 10/09/2002 12:43:13 PM PDT by dead

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."


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland; US: Virginia
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To: okie01
TYVM!

"Profiles Pressed While You Wait"

Yep. Darn quick. Perhaps if I worked slower, say spend three days, I would think up a profile that the writing style and errors were really purposeful, the idea of a middle aged-white male in the biodefense industry to deflect attention from himself.

< /sarcasm>

61 posted on 10/09/2002 3:13:54 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: dead
Miss Cleo perhaps ?
62 posted on 10/09/2002 3:15:13 PM PDT by Dallas
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To: tall_tex
As to the Tarot card, the choice of that particular card is uninspired. Furthermore, it was probably left next to the shell casing by a passerby rather than by the shooter himself. The passerby may know something, but is not willing to testify, does not want to be involved.

When I heard of the Tarot card, I thought it was a joke, a parody of the events. But now that it has been verified, I think there is a witness who will not come forth. Ever, but not because of fear, just because of being one of those who watch our comedy from a distance.

63 posted on 10/09/2002 3:24:42 PM PDT by RightWhale
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To: paix
I wonder if the card thing was staged.
64 posted on 10/09/2002 3:35:39 PM PDT by DBtoo
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"Dear policeman, I am God,"

the culprit is:

hillary!

65 posted on 10/09/2002 3:37:14 PM PDT by bandlength
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To: bandlength
This sniper must be a sexist, though. Otherwise, the sniper would have written, "Dear Police Officer:". (Come to think of it, shouldn't the salutation be plural?)
66 posted on 10/09/2002 3:38:43 PM PDT by LPStar
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To: concerned about politics
I think it is misdirection myself. When this guy is cornered and killed, I am suspecting we are going to find a male Muslim between the ages of 16 and 40, from one of the Arab countries -- possibly an Iraqi.

I would be delighted to be proved wrong, but I have a gut feeling I won't be.

67 posted on 10/09/2002 3:47:44 PM PDT by Ronin
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To: dead
The "child-like" phrase could be any number of things.
It is very similar to the letters mailed with anthrax.
Maybe the sniper is trying to throw off the FEDs, and actually found the card on the ground at the local 7-11.
Maybe this was his last hit for a while and he figures throwing off "Mr. Policeman" will cover his tracks.
Maybe he really is just a nut-job tarot-card-reading-mo-fo.
If we don't here from him for a while, I believe he is a Jihad terrorist and thought this would confuse everybody...and it looks like it has.
68 posted on 10/09/2002 3:59:15 PM PDT by SkunkPunk
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To: DBtoo
I still lean toward a foriegner, or Foriegn National. Key words if it is the shooters are important. "Our teenagers, for the most part, here in the US are not very polite, words like please, thankyou, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Jones, Policeman are seldom words that one hears from them.
69 posted on 10/09/2002 3:59:26 PM PDT by tall_tex
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To: Shermy
Not a native English speaker - or at least American English.

But maybe English-English. Use the word 'Policeman' over here is VERY common.

70 posted on 10/09/2002 4:00:25 PM PDT by Da_Shrimp
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To: GummyIII; Route66; Peach; Bella; Pete; areafiftyone; brigette; harpseal; Merovingian; ...
Thanks Gummy!

maryland watch ping
71 posted on 10/09/2002 4:03:01 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: Da_Shrimp
Use the word 'Policeman'

Use of the word...

72 posted on 10/09/2002 4:03:03 PM PDT by Da_Shrimp
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To: SunnyUsa
I agree. We would talk in terms of plurals reguarding the LE's. Unless the shooter has developed a liking for Sherrif Moose, and he is sending him priviate notes.
73 posted on 10/09/2002 4:08:03 PM PDT by tall_tex
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To: CobaltBlue
That Hillandale store is indeed in Montgomery County, but it is extremely close to the boundary with Prince George's County. The shooting on Thursday evening was also close to a jurisdictional boundary, just yards from the boundary between D.C. and Montgomery County. In both cases, a few seconds' drive takes you out of the jurisdiction.
74 posted on 10/09/2002 4:10:25 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: Da_Shrimp
But maybe English-English. Use [of] the word 'Policeman' over here is VERY common.

You mean, you folks don't still go "Tally ho, Constable!"< / sarcasm>

75 posted on 10/09/2002 4:26:47 PM PDT by andy_card
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To: Ronin
"I am suspecting we are going to find a male Muslim between the ages of 16 and 40, from one of the Arab countries -- possibly an Iraqi."

I can't say I have the same gut feeling about this...but if you are right, what's going to make me mad is it will be said "It's not terrorism...It's a random - loner, unrelated event"
islam = peace ad naseum!

76 posted on 10/09/2002 4:33:10 PM PDT by SunnyUsa
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To: Ronin
My gut says the same thing.

Perhaps a Black Muslim (converted) originally from the Caribbean? Former Armed forces vet?

Isn't (wasn't) there nearby a stronghold of black muslims who had links to the middle east? Some camps, villages, or the like?

Yes, I'm reaching, too. Just irritated and annoyed.
77 posted on 10/09/2002 4:34:09 PM PDT by MonroeDNA
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To: Da_Shrimp; okie01
But maybe English-English. Use the word 'Policeman' over here is VERY common.

Veddy Interesting! How about a Jamaican, Bahamian, etc.?

BTW, how common is the use of the word "Da" and "Shrimp" in the UK?

Another BTW. Where has this man been since "Live and Let Die?" Just wondering...

78 posted on 10/09/2002 4:34:42 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: tall_tex
FWIW.The "I am God" reminds me of the man that was reported to have changed his name to "I am who I am".

IIRC there was an article on FR within the last several days about this guy but I can't be sure as at the present time my Doc has me very pleasantly doped out of my gourd.

79 posted on 10/09/2002 4:38:35 PM PDT by Free Trapper
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To: Da_Shrimp
Turns out Geoffrey Holder became an artist.

Geoffrey Holder


80 posted on 10/09/2002 4:41:51 PM PDT by Shermy
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