WASHINGTON (REUTERS) — A woman was shot and killed Monday night in a suburban shopping mall near Washington, and police are investigating whether the killing was linked to a sniper who has killed eight people and badly wounded two others, traumatizing the nation’s capital.
Police hunted for the shooter after the woman was hit in the upper body in a parking garage near a Home Depot store in Falls Church, Virginia, west of Washington. The woman, described as a white female, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Employees working in the shopping center heard a single shot. One-bullet attacks have been a hallmark of the sniper so far.
“I know the question in everyone’s mind is: ‘Is this shooting related to the others that we’ve had in the area,'” police chief Tom Manger told a news conference, adding: “It’s too early to tell at this point. However, we are working it and investigating it with that potential in mind.”
Major traffic arteries were shut down as dozens of police cars converged on the area and helicopters flew overhead. At least one police bloodhound searched the parking lot for clues as several witnesses were interviewed by investigators.
Police were looking for a vehicle seen leaving the crime scene. “We have some lookout information . . . This vehicle may be involved . . . a cream-colored Astro van with the right rear tail light out,” Manger said.
The Washington-area sniper, who uses a high-velocity rifle to pick off random victims from long range, remains at large despite a massive law-enforcement dragnet, including the FBI.
Physical evidence has been scant, with one taunting clue apparently left by the methodical shooter near where a 13-year-old victim was shot: A Tarot “Death” card with the words, “Dear Mister Policeman, I am God” scrawled on the back.
The last fatality linked to the sniper who has terrorized Washington, D.C. and its normally tranquil and affluent suburbs in neighboring Maryland and Virginia was Friday, at a gas station in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
The victims have been linked by ballistics experts.
The first five sniper killings took place in a 15-hour period over Oct. 2 and Oct. 3, in Maryland’s Montgomery County, one of the most prosperous counties in the United States. Another victim was killed in Washington and two others in the southern suburbs of the city in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
The sniper injured two people: the 13-year-old schoolboy in Bowie, Maryland, northeast of Washington, and a woman in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to the south.
In all cases, the victims were felled from a distance. Most shootings were near busy highways, while victims were performing the most ordinary activities: mowing a lawn, pumping gasoline, entering a school, cleaning a car.
The shootings cast a pall that reached to the White House.
“The sniper attacks, first of all, I’m just sick — sick to my stomach — to think that there is a cold-blooded killer at home taking innocent life,” President Bush told reporters. “I weep for those who have lost their loved ones.”
Montgomery County executive Douglas Duncan said county citizens have only one goal in this case: “Their message is catch him. Catch him as fast as you can, catch him, catch him . . . We will not be at peace in this community until we catch whoever’s doing this.”
Duncan said a reward for information leading to the sniper’s capture has reached $500,000.
At many schools around the Washington area, children have been kept inside the school buildings during recess, with high security and a heavy police presence around the buildings.
