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D.C. Sniper May Have Left Message
AP ^ | Mon, Oct 21, 2002 | ALLEN G. BREED

Posted on 10/20/2002 10:02:59 PM PDT by Destro

D.C. Sniper May Have Left Message

Mon, Oct 21, 2002

12:30 AM

By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer

ASHLAND, Va. (AP) - Authorities believe the Washington-area sniper left a message with a telephone number at the scene of the latest shooting in Virginia, The Associated Press learned Sunday. Police appealed to the person who left the message to contact them.

"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," Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose said in a televised briefing.

Moose made his cryptic statement as sniper task force investigators said they were working on the assumption that the sniper has expanded his geographic reach after shooting 11 people, nine fatally, in the Washington area since Oct. 2.

Surgeons succeeded Sunday night in removing the bullet from the 37-year-old man shot at the Ponderosa in Ashland, Va., on Saturday night, and turned it over to investigators for testing. Hospital spokeswoman Pam Lepley did not know the bullet's condition.

The victim remained in critical condition after three hours of surgery. Lepley said doctors were cautiously optimistic but expect the man will need more surgery.

Public schools in the Ashland and Richmond area will be closed Monday, affecting more than 200,000 students, "based on the volume of parent and community concern," school officials announced late Sunday. After the earlier sniper slayings, schools restricted activities but did not close.

In Ashland, Randolph-Macon College announced it would cancel classes on Monday. The school, with 1,100 students, is about a mile from the latest shooting.

"We've been in close contact with local law enforcement agencies, and basically we're following their advice," said Anne Marie Lauranzon, director of marketing and communications for the college.

Moose refused to elaborate or take questions about the message left at the steakhouse or how it was left. But he asked the news media to "carry it clearly and carry it often."

After the briefing, Officer Joyce Utter, spokeswoman for Montgomery County police, said Moose's statement "should make complete sense" to the person who left the message.

"That is the only person Chief Moose wants to talk to," she said.

A law enforcement source close to the investigation said the person who left the message is probably the sniper who is responsible for the Washington area shootings.

Investigators who combed the area outside the Ponderosa finished their search Sunday but 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, 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 (news - web sites) 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 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 of Saturday's shooting, 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.

The victim underwent surgery for three hours Saturday night at MCV Hospitals in Richmond, Lepley said.

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.

"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.

Authorities in Maryland, meanwhile, 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.

___

AP Writer Stephen Manning in Rockville, Md. contributed to this report.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: dcsniper
I apologize if this has been posted already as breaking news. Please remove from breaking news section if that was the case.
1 posted on 10/20/2002 10:02:59 PM PDT by Destro
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To: Destro
"That is the only person Chief Moose wants to talk to," she said

If Moose keeps it up, Rocky is gonna develop a complex.

2 posted on 10/20/2002 10:06:42 PM PDT by hole_n_one
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To: Destro
"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.
...
spokeswoman for Montgomery County police, said Moose's statement "should make complete sense" to the person who left the message.

So whose number did he give them? I'm not sure I get it, but, then again, I'm not the gunman...

3 posted on 10/20/2002 10:13:10 PM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee
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To: hole_n_one
"Boris, dawlink, iz moose & squirrel."
4 posted on 10/20/2002 10:14:30 PM PDT by norraad
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To: Destro
"You left us a phone number"

I think it's likely that the snipper didn't think he was leaving a phone number, just the "message" "911". Police are using it to bait him into calling them. Pretty sharp if that's what's going on. They have already begged him to write to their POB.
5 posted on 10/20/2002 10:15:45 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: Destro
If the guy left a number, it causes me to move away from the Muslim terrorism scenario and back to the "homegrown nut" scenario.

Now if the note had 911 on it and the cops automatically conclude that is a phone number, well...

6 posted on 10/20/2002 10:18:48 PM PDT by twntaipan
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To: John Jamieson
That is the only answer that made sense to me, but he (they) are too smart for that.
7 posted on 10/20/2002 10:21:57 PM PDT by doglot
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To: twntaipan
The cops "made it" a phone number to bait him. There is a big, dangerous game going on.
8 posted on 10/20/2002 10:22:47 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: Destro
I hope this sniper gets a citizen or police bullet in him real soon. Trials cost us too much money on scumbag cowards like this guy.
9 posted on 10/20/2002 10:28:40 PM PDT by 2nd_Amendment_Defender
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To: John Jamieson
It's a Sneakyman Inc. game for sure, but dangerous?

Traffic accidents, death from medical mistakes etc., still way higher on the danger meter than this tomfoolery.

Must wonder, who iz "Mr. Big"

10 posted on 10/20/2002 10:29:11 PM PDT by norraad
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To: norraad
I apoligise if this has been posted but just heard the following on local news.

Virginia Newpaper is reporting that a substancial amount of text was found with the note last night and is believed to have been left by the sniper. They are also reporting that a taro card was found as well and that many taro cards have been founds at the shootings!
11 posted on 10/20/2002 10:40:14 PM PDT by ingodwetrust
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To: norraad
"Traffic accidents, death from medical mistakes"

This comes on top of those numbers. Would you have us wait until the numbers become comparable before reacting?

How many losses to terrorism (of any kind) are you willing to accept?
12 posted on 10/20/2002 10:48:00 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: ingodwetrust
They are also reporting that a taro card was found as well and that many taro cards have been founds at the shootings!

My first reaction to the tarot death card was that this was some soldier wannabe who was immitating the use of the ace-of-spades death cards in Vietnam. But if he's using other cards, maybe this falls apart.

from http://www.pokerproducts.com/ace.htm :

The Ace of Spades served a famous purpose in the war in Vietnam. In February, 1966, two lieutenants of Company "C," Second Battalion, 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, wrote The United States Playing Card Company and requested decks containing nothing but the "Bicycle" Ace of Spades. The cards were useful in psychological warfare. .

The Viet Cong were very superstitious and highly frightened by this Ace. The French previously had occupied Indo-China, and in French fortune telling with cards, the Spades predicted death and suffering. The Viet Cong even regarded lady liberty as a goddess of death. USPC shipped thousands of the requested decks gratis to our troops in Vietnam. These decks were housed in plain white tuckcases, inscribed "Bicycle Secret Weapon." The cards were deliberately scattered in the jungle and in hostile villages during raids. The very sight of the "Bicycle" Ace was said to cause many Viet Cong to flee.
13 posted on 10/21/2002 12:35:17 AM PDT by SicTransitGloriaMundi
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To: John Jamieson
Whoa, big fella, I'm on the same side of the circle as you.

Jus' alighting perspective that the hysteria is not useful & may play into the problem, depending on whose causing it.

The Great White Lie is one of many good books to read on the modern medical debacle which is really a bigger ongoing problem in terms of needless death & financial burden everyday for everyone.

It will touch us all long before any .223.

14 posted on 10/21/2002 8:42:27 PM PDT by norraad
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To: norraad
I've had some personal experience with problem myself!
15 posted on 10/21/2002 9:25:24 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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