Beltway Sniper Claims Another Life - Man Shot in Montgomery County, Md.October 22, 2002
ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Beltway Sniper appeared to have struck again Tuesday morning, as a bus driver was shot and wounded in the Aspen Hill area of Montgomery County, Md.
The victim suffered a chest wound and was airlifted via helicopter to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., where Dr. Eugene Passamani later said he was in critical condition.
Capt. Nancy Demme of the Montgomery County police told reporters that the driver was about 40 years old and was shot while standing on the top steps of a Ride-On commuter bus that had stopped on a layover to fill out some paperwork.
Demme said the shooting took place at the intersection of Graham Tree Road and Connecticut Avenue, across the road from North Gate Park and just minutes from the border with Washington, D.C.
The bus was parked near an apartment building at a staging area where drivers get ready for their morning runs, state police spokesman Cpl. Rob Moroney said. He didn't know if anyone else was on the bus.
Although this latest shooting has not been definitely connected to the other sniper incidents, it occurred near the sites of six confirmed attacks.
"We don't know if this is related, but we're treating this as if it is," Demme said.
The first report of the shooting came into 911 at about 6 a.m. EDT, said Rob Sauerhoff, a 911 supervisor for Montgomery County Police.
Police put a widespread dragnet into place immediately after the shooting, clogging traffic on Connecticut Avenue, one of the main arteries into Washington, D.C., just as the morning commute began. Police helicopters began flying over the scene.
Demme said that I-495, the Beltway, had been shut down in Montgomery County.
Agents for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms combed the area. A police dog searched near a basketball court in a park, and police helicopters flew over the scene.
"I was getting ready to leave for work this morning. I heard a loud bang," said Kim Roberts, a carpenter who lives nearby. "It wasn't a pop like a handgun. If it was a gun, it was a high-powered weapon." He said he knew about the sound of weapons from his military service.
The traffic tie-up was blamed for the failure of congressional lawmakers to make it to Andrews Air Force Base for a scheduled trip with President Bush aboard Air Force One. Several House and Senate lawmakers were expected to take a ride with the president as he visited Pennsylvania and Maine on Tuesday, but only Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., caught the flight.
On Monday, the hunt for the Washington-area sniper turned into a case of high-stakes phone tag.
Police say they received a call about the shooting after Saturday's attack at a Ponderosa steak house in Ashland, Va. -- but the call was muddled. Investigators took to the airwaves and pleaded with him to call them.
"The person you called could not hear everything you said. The audio was unclear and we want to get it right. Call us back so that we can clearly understand," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who has been leading the hunt for the sniper who has killed nine and wounded three since Oct. 2.
Moose's plea came hours after Virginia authorities surrounded a white van parked near an Exxon gas station just outside Richmond, Va., and seized two men. They said later the two were illegal immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala and were unconnected to the sniper.
Moose did not disclose who received the muddled phone call that riveted authorities' attention, when it was made or other details.
Investigators believe the call may have come from the sniper and that the caller was the same person who left a note and phone number Saturday night at the scene of the latest shooting, a law enforcement source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Various news reports on Monday night and Tuesday morning said the note found Saturday demanded money to stop the attacks, threatened schoolchildren and was written in poor, broken English. Other reports said the caller to police disguised his voice and spoke with an indeterminate foreign accent.
The French defense ministry notified Interpol on Monday that a French army deserter and known marksman had gone missing while on vacation in North America.
Henrico County, Va., superintendent Mark Edwards said police information and parental concerns played equal roles in the decision to shut down Richmond-area schools. Ashland is Hanover County about 15 miles north of Richmond.
The victim in the Ashland shooting, a 37-year-old man, was felled by a single shot to the stomach. He remained in critical but stable condition at a Richmond hospital Tuesday after doctors removed his spleen and parts of his pancreas and stomach.
Surgeons retrieved the bullet after a second round of surgery Sunday, and ballistics tests linked the slug to the ambush killer.
The dramatic detainment -- and undramatic fate -- of two unlucky illegal immigrants in suburban Richmond on Monday illuminated the anxieties of the area since the sniper expanded his geographic reach south from the Washington suburbs.
Witnesses said officers in bulletproof vests converged on the white minivan and dragged out a man before slapping him in handcuffs. Authorities did not say how the second man was arrested.
Hours later, the lead fell apart. A Justice Department official said deportation proceedings had begun against the 24-year-old Mexican and 35-year-old Guatemalan.
Several newspapers reported Tuesday that the men apparently made the mistake of driving the white van up to a phone booth being watched by police. The phone booth had been traced to one that the letter writer had used.
Amid the day's chaos, the sniper's latest fatal victim was laid to rest.
FBI analyst Linda Franklin, 47, was killed Oct. 14 outside a Home Depot in Falls Church, Va., while loading packages with her husband. Franklin had survived breast cancer and was awaiting the birth of her first grandson.
"Whoever this perpetrator is has surrendered himself to darkness and evil," minister Larry Tingle told about 200 mourners at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, Va.
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