Here is an article I found on the subject.
ROCKVILLE, Md. (Oct. 4) - Police linked a sixth death to the sniper killings of five Maryland residents and said Friday the same high-powered rifle was used to kill at least four of the victims.
Police were searching for two men in the slayings and investigating whether a seventh shooting outside a Virginia store was part of the same terrifying crime spree.
The sixth victim, a 72-year-old Washington, D.C., pedestrian, was killed by the same weapon used to kill at least three of the Maryland victims, said Special Agent Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Forensic testing was still under way in the two other Maryland shootings.
``This brings us to a higher degree of recklessness by this suspect or suspects,'' Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said.
Bouchard also said ATF agents would examine evidence collected from the scene of a Friday afternoon shooting outside a crafts store in Fredericksburg, Va., 55 miles south of Rockville. A 43-year-old woman was shot in the back and in serious condition.
Police were looking for two men in a white van with dark lettering, a description that came from a witness to one of the killings. Police pulled over white vans Friday and plastered orange stickers on the back to show the vehicles had been checked. Moose said investigators were chasing more than 500 leads.
Each Maryland victim was felled by a single bullet, apparently from a high-powered rifle or handgun. Police said evidence indicated the killer was some distance away and used .223-caliber bullets.
The search Friday went on amid a mix of fear and defiance among residents of the economically and culturally diverse slice of the suburban Washington county where most of the shootings occurred.
All over Montgomery County, people did what they usually do on a Friday, but they moved slowly and quietly, glancing at trees, bushes and rooftops. Many said they were afraid but wouldn't stop getting groceries, going to work or leaving their children with a baby sitter.
``I had to shop. I need to eat. I can't stay at home all day,'' said Kira Leonova, who works at a bookstore near one of the slaying scenes. ``I have to work and I have a family.''
Dexter Evans, 20, scanned the traffic as he waited for a bus to Rockville, and he took a second look at every white truck. ``You can't even walk down the street without looking over your shoulder,'' he said.
Schools opened with extra police patrols and calls poured into 911 dispatchers about suspicious noises.
The five Maryland victims died within five miles of one another during a 16-hour span Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. All were gunned down in broad daylight in very public places: two at gas stations, one outside a grocery, another outside a post office and the fifth as he mowed the grass at an auto dealership.
The sixth victim, Pascal Charlot, was fatally shot as he stood on a corner in northwest Washington near the Montgomery County line Thursday night, nearly 12 hours after the fifth Maryland shooting.
Authorities said the same rifle was used to kill Charlot, the women outside a post office and the two people at the gas stations.
``There's still no information to lead us to think our victims are associated,'' Moose said. ``They don't appear to be anyone's enemies, just random targets.''
Carin Saez, 27, found herself going back to school Friday to pick up her 12-year-old niece, deciding it was too dangerous. Saez said she would not let her own children go back to school until the killer was caught.
``I was petrified to even go to the store last night,'' Saez said. ``My kids were scared. They didn't even want to go outside. They're more scared now than on September 11.''
Officials at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville canceled a Friday night pep rally and police were posted at the football game against rival Wooten High. Dani Young, a 17-year-old senior, said: ``It kind of ruins the mood of homecoming.''
In Bethesda, Mary Patterson said as she leaving home for a hair appointment: ``I'm not afraid. After all, I'm 81 years old - my time could be anytime.''
10/04/02 23:55 EDT
OMG, one of the victoms was a child!
Profiles of Maryland Shooting Victims
.c The Associated Press
SILVER SPRING, Md. (Oct. 4) - James Buchanan usually stopped by Fitzgerald Auto Mall on Fridays to tend to the landscaping.
This week, he came early Thursday and was mowing when he was shot to death in what police believe was one of five random sniper attacks in the Washington suburbs.
''I think he was just in the wrong place in the wrong time,'' said Dottie Fitzgerald, who runs the dealership.
Buchanan, 39, worked as an independent landscaper, but he was also an amateur poet and volunteer who worked with underprivileged children through local Boys and Girls clubs, she said. He had recently sold his nearby home and planned to move to a Christmas tree farm he owned in Virginia.
''He always said that you help the underprivileged because if they don't get a helping hand, the cycles perpetuate,'' said his sister, Victoria Snider.
Fitzgerald said he helped children by teaching them how to garden.
''He would help them plant a seed, nurture it and watch it grow,'' she said. ''He would teach that if you do that with people, they will grow, too. He was doing that with them.''
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James Martin, the father of an 11-year-old boy and leader of his Boy Scout troop, was in the parking lot of a grocery store when he was fatally shot.
''He was a wonderful person. It's really tragic,'' said Ann Smid, who lived across the street from Martin for over a decade in a middle-class neighborhood of Silver Spring.
Martin, 55, a program analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office of marine and aviation operations, was a Civil War buff and an amateur genealogist. Co-workers said he married late in life and was devoted to his wife and son.
He volunteered at Shepherd Elementary School in Washington, judging the school's science fair and arranging for the donation of computers, which he delivered himself.
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Premkumar A. Walekar, a part-time cab driver, didn't normally start his day early.
But with a forecast Thursday of sunshine and highs in the 80s, he rose early, figuring he'd do his work and then enjoy the rest of the day.
He was killed while pumping gas into his taxi at a Mobil station in the Aspen Hills area.
''Normally, he doesn't go out that early,'' said his daughter Andrea Walekar, 24, a business student at the University of Maryland. ''He wasn't supposed to be there.''
Walekar was born in Bombay and immigrated to the United States to study at Montgomery College. His brother arranged his marriage to a woman who already in the country.
''They had never met until two or three days before the wedding took place,'' said his brother, Vijay Walekar of Gaithersburg. ''After the marriage, there was love.''
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Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera doted on her preschool-aged daughter, said neighbor Janine Rocah, crying as she sat on the front steps of their apartment complex in a working-class section of Silver Spring.
''She was her sweet little princess,'' Rocah said. ''The mom provided everything for her.''
Lewis-Rivera, 25, was killed early Thursday at a Shell gas station in Kensington. She worked in Washington and had moved into the garden apartment about a year ago with her daughter and husband, but dreamed of moving to a house, Rocah said.
Their children played together, she said, and Lewis-Rivera's daughter had a room filled with games and toys.
''She was a very nice and sweet lady. Like any human being, she had dreams.''
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Sarah Ramos had gotten off a bus at the Leisure World Shopping Center and sat down on a bench to read when she was shot in the head.
Family and friends of the 34-year-old from Silver Spring declined to be interviewed to discuss her life.
By Thursday afternoon, a bouquet of flowers had been placed on the bench where she was killed.
AP-NY-10-04-02 0945EDT
Edited by - Lilacs on 5 October 2002 1:22:23
