ROCKVILLE, Md.- A bus driver was shot to death Tuesday as he was about to set out on his morning route in what authorities fear was the 13th attack by the Washington-area sniper. Police also revealed a chilling warning found at a weekend shooting scene: "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time."
Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose issued a new plea to the killer, urging the gunman to continue a dialogue with investigators.
"It is important that we do this without anyone else getting hurt," Moose said.
In an evening news briefing, the police chief suggested authorities had been in repeated contact with the sniper.
"We have researched the options you stated and found that it is not possible electronically to comply in the manner that you requested," he said. "However, we remain open and ready to talk to you about the options you have mentioned."
He said the sniper is seeking an 800 telephone number to talk with authorities, and offered to set up a private post office box "or another secure method."
"You indicated that this is about more than violence," Moose said. "We are waiting to hear from you."
He refused to take questions from reporters.
If Moose is talking about exchange of email messages, I suspect they are trying to discourage this method because it would indeed be untraceable.
However, an 800 number is the least anonymous: the calling number is automatically delivered with the call, and there's no need to do a trace.
What the heck does this mean?