Just confirmed on CNN!
Someone needs to monger this rumor, and I'm due.
Posted on 10/15/2002 1:40:44 PM PDT by Scalia Rules
Sniper Attack Yields Detailed Clues Tue Oct 15, 3:46 PM ET By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - An FBI (news - web sites) analyst who assessed terrorist threats was identified Tuesday as the ninth person killed by the Washington-area sniper, shot in the head in an attack investigators say has yielded the most detailed clues yet in the hunt for the gunman.
For the first time, witnesses were able to give information about license plates on vehicles seen fleeing the scene, including a light-colored Chevrolet Astro van with a burned-out rear taillight.
A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said another witness gave a description of a dark-skinned, possibly Hispanic or Middle Eastern, man in a white van.
"There was some additional information that we were able to get from last night's case, and I am confident that that information is going to lead us to an arrest in the case," Fairfax County Police Chief Tom Manger said.
Law enforcement sources said there were no indications the sniper targeted 47-year-old Linda Franklin because of her job. She worked for the FBI's Cyber-Crimes Division, created last year to focus on computer crimes as well as intellectual property cases.
Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Charles Moose, the head of the investigation, emphasized that Franklin was not working on the sniper case.
Franklin, a 47-year-old mother of two grown children, was killed Monday night as she and her husband loaded packages into their convertible in the parking lot outside a Home Depot at the Seven Corners Shopping Center. Ballistics evidence Tuesday connected the sniper to the slaying.
"Linda was a dedicated employee, and she will be missed," said FBI Director Robert Muller. "All of us are deeply shocked and angry over this tragedy."
An FBI chaplain at Franklin's Arlington home said Franklin and her husband were planning to move Friday to another home in the area and were at Home Depot to buy supplies for the move and the new house.
Robert Young, a Washington construction worker, returned to the shopping center Tuesday to talk with police. He said he heard a muffled gunshot and saw a white van.
Young said as he backed his truck out of his parking spot, a white Astro van with two men inside tried to turn into his lane. He said the driver appeared very agitated to find his way blocked and instead drove by a neighboring Chinese restaurant and out of sight.
Young described the driver as a short man of slight build who appeared to be Mideastern. He said, "I got a good look at the guy."
The driver "seemed to be excessively irritated because he couldn't pull into my lane," he said. "I thought this fool was going to want to get out of the van and duke or something. But he didn't. He kept on going."
Since Oct. 2, nine people have been killed and two others wounded, all of them cut down by a single bullet fired from a distance with a high-powered rifle as the victims went about their everyday tasks. The sniper's only apparent communication with investigators has been a tarot death card inscribed, "Dear Policeman, I am God."
In a continuing appeal for the public's help, Moose released composite images of a white van with roof racks that witnesses saw after Friday's slaying of a man at a gas station near Fredericksburg, Va.
Moose said there appeared to be similarities between the van seen at Friday's shooting and the light-colored van from Monday night's attack.
Manger would not say whether the witnesses to the latest attack were able to give complete license plate numbers to investigators.
"Each shooting has revealed more to this investigation. We're encouraged every day," said Michael Bouchard, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent.
The sniper escaped a huge dragnet that closed down a tangle of highways around Falls Church, 10 miles west of the nation's capital. Traffic was backed up for miles as police surrounded and searched dozens of white vans.
Tod Burke, a former Maryland police officer who teaches criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia, said the killer is either escaping before the dragnet comes does or has some kind of hideout where he can watch the chaos that erupts.
Outside the Home Depot, shoppers tentatively returned while officers made a last sweep for evidence and towed the victim's car away.
"Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place," Lorraine Burns said as she walked up to a Barnes and Noble bookstore.
___
Think those guys were sleepin' last night when all those folks saw 'em?
Two Hispanics Sought In DC Area Killings
By Paul SperryROCKVILLE, Md. -- Police in the Washington suburb where five people were gunned down in two days are looking for two "Hispanic" men in the fatal shootings, according to a police bulletin that federal authorities shared with WorldNetDaily.
Montgomery County Police in press conferences have described only the gender, not the race, of the two suspects -- one a driver and the other the shooter.
The be-on-the-lookout, or BOLO, alert that local police sent out earlier today to all law enforcement agencies also described in detail the "white box truck" used by the snipers.
The six-wheeled vehicle resembles a commercial delivery truck, police say. The cab is smaller than, and separate from, the large box-shaped cargo area, which is completely enclosed. The rear passenger side of the bumper has been damaged. And there is block-lettering on the side and rear of the truck.
A Montgomery County Police spokesman confirmed that the BOLO describes the suspects in the sniper slayings as "Hispanic."
But he cautioned that they could be another non-white race.
"We do not count on them being two Hispanic males," said Officer Derek Baliles. "Appearances can be interpreted. We do not want to limit anything at all."
"It's possible," he added, that the suspects could be Middle Eastern.
He also cautioned that their eyewitness account of the suspects is not solid. ....
Last night's sighting could also be just two innocent guys trying to get out of the area out of sense of danger because of the shooting.
But SHHHHHhhhhh!!! It's a secret!
What ever happened to "The Police Department will not comment on a case that is under investigation....
Maybe Chief Manger can wrangle a guest spot on the Today Show so he can play footsie with Perky Katie!
Just confirmed on CNN!
Someone needs to monger this rumor, and I'm due.
Talk about a blast from the past, I think I know this guy. He fell off the face of the earth about 15-17 years ago and I hadn't seen or heard from him since but I'd like to think by the "tone" it's the same Robert Young I used to know. The one I know lived in Maryland and was a little "loose" from overindulging and is now about 40 to 41 years old . Smart kid but didn't try at all but he could swim like a fish. Hmmmmm.....
Why was he speaking on condition of anonymity??? Was he threatened? Wha---???
Didn't they have NO PROBLEM previously releasing the description as white???
You mean no profiling until the only two people left alive in the United States are a New York Times reporter and some guy wearing a turban and carrying a rifle.
Maybe bad reporting by AP, maybe a misunderstanding by the press, maybe another variable in this most complicated case that has many of us in the DC area on edge. But, if this report is true and I read it right, WTF? Why did this guy wait until the next morning to report this. Everyone in this area is well aware of every description of each aspect of the unfolding drama. Something smells here - just MHO.
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