Moose Seeks Contact With Person Who Left Number, Police Assume Shooting the Work of Sniper
Sunday, October 20, 2002
ASHLAND, Va. — Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose on Sunday said a message had been left for authorities at the Ponderosa restaurant where a 37-year-old man was downed by a single shot to the abdomen Saturday night -- and asked the person who left it to contact law enforcement.
"To the person who left us a message at the Ponderosa last night. You gave us a telephone number. We do want to talk to you. Call us at the number you provided. Thank you," he said.
Moose, who asked that the media carry the message "clearly," did not take questions and did not elaborate. It was not clear how or where the message was left, who might have left it or for whom it was intended.
Investigators acting on the assumption that the Washington-area sniper has expanded his geographic range searched for clues at the parking lot shooting scene Sunday, while doctors said the critically injured victim has a reasonable chance of recovery.
Dozens of officers completed a methodical, inch-by-inch search of a wooded area near the Ponderosa. Investigators said little about what, if anything, they had found.
Some witnesses said they heard a shot coming from a wooded area near the restaurant, but nobody reported seeing the shooter.
If the shooting is linked to the sniper attacks that have killed nine and injured two since Oct. 2, it would be the first weekend attack and the farthest the sniper has traveled -- about 85 miles south of Washington.
The longest previous distance from the Washington area was Spotsylvania County, about 50 miles south of Washington. It would also break the longest lull between shootings, about five days.
Former FBI profiler Clinton Van Zandt said Saturday's shooting, if related, could show the killer's approach is changing in response to law enforcement tactics. For instance, reports last week that military surveillance planes would be used in the Washington suburbs probably prompted the sniper to move farther away, he said.
And since much had been made about the weekend lulls, "I think he reacted to that," Van Zandt said.
The most recent shooting confirmed sniper attack was the Monday night slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store in Falls Church.
Residents were on edge in Ashland, a town of about 6,500. At the Virginia Center Commons mall, about seven miles from the shooting, a normally busy food court sat half-empty Sunday. Shopper Nancy Elrod said she almost had been too afraid to come.
"We certainly felt sorry about all the people up north who were nervous and now it's down here and we're nervous too," said Elrod, 45.
Police said the victim, whose name was not released, and his wife were traveling and stopped in Ashland for gas and food. His wife told authorities the shot sounded like a car backfiring and said her husband took about three steps before collapsing.
Authorities were on the lookout early on for a white van with a ladder rack. Ashland Police Chief Frederic Pleasants Jr. said after interviewing witnesses, however, police had no suspects and no clear description of a vehicle that could be placed at the scene.
The man underwent surgery for three hours Saturday night at MCV Hospitals in Richmond, hospital spokeswoman Pam Lepley said. Doctors said hey did not try to remove the bullet in the first round of surgery, but would try to do so in a second round expected Sunday night.
Doctors had to remove part of the man's stomach, half of his pancreas and his spleen, said Dr. Rao Ivatury, the hospital's director of trauma and critical care. The man was conscious but unable to talk because he was on a ventilator, he said.
"The prognosis is still guarded, but since he is a very healthy man and he is very young, the chances are fair to good, I would say," Ivatury said.
Unless the bullet is removed, officials can't conclusively determine whether it was fired from the same rifle used in the 11 previous assaults.
However, it may be possible at least to determine if the bullet is the same size, .223-caliber, that was used in the earlier attacks, said Dr. Paul B. Ferrara, director of Virginia's Division of Forensic Science.
"It depends on the condition of the bullet and how badly fragmented it is," Ferrara said. "Sometimes a firearms expert can assess or approximate the caliber of weapon by looking at X-rays from different angles."
Russ Brickey, 26, a maintenance mechanic, said he had eaten at the Ponderosa many times and couldn't believe this type of violence had made its way to Ashland.
"This is like a high-tech Mayberry," Brickey said as he stood across the street from the restaurant. "Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen here -- period."
School superintendents from three counties and the city of Richmond said schools would open Monday, but with lockdowns at individual schools and possible restrictions on outdoor activities. No specifics were released. School officials said they planned to address Friday football games and future activities later.
Authorities in Maryland, meanwhile, on Sunday continued testing a shell casing found in a white rental truck to determine if it could be linked to the sniper attacks. Police said it would be at least Monday before they could announce whether the casing is connected to the shootings.
A source close to the investigation, however, said Sunday that "it has nothing to do with this case." The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm reports that the shell was .30-caliber, a different size from the sniper's bullets, but said: "It's got caliber problems, it's got age problems."
The shell casing was found in a car seized at a rental agency near Dulles International Airport in Virginia, authorities said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
