Police Investigating ‘As if it Is Related’ to Sniper Attacks
By Hamil R. Harris and Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post
A Ride-On bus driver was shot and killed today while standing on the steps of his bus in the Aspen Hill area of Montgomery County, and police immediately dropped a major dragnet that snarled traffic throughout the Maryland suburbs.
Montgomery County Police Capt. Nancy Demme said police are “investigating the shooting as if it is related” to the string of sniper attacks that has killed nine people and injured three since Oct. 2.
The unidentified man was 40 years old, according to Demme. A Montgomery County fire department official said he had been shot in the upper stomach area. He was rushed to Suburban Hospital, where he went immediately into surgery, but a hospital official announced about 10:30 a.m. that he died.
The victim was the operator of the Ride On bus, which was stopped in an area where buses prepare for their morning routes, Maryland State Police Cpl. Robert Moroney said. The bus driver was standing on the top step of his bus at the time of the shooting, Moroney said. He declined to say whether the driver was alone in the bus.
Demme said the attack occurred in the 14100 block of Grand Pre Road, just off Aspen Hill Road, about a half-mile from where police believe the first shot of the spree was fired on Oct 2., and within a mile of two of the sniper’s early killings on Oct. 3. The area is near a large wooded tract and police were searching that this morning.
If connected, it would be the sniper’s first attack in Montgomery County since Oct. 3, when police believe he killed four people in the county and one in Northwest Washington.
Schools were still open in Montgomery County but under code blue, which means the children do not go outside, field trips were canceled and the doors are locked. Afternoon pre-kindergarten classes and kindergarten classes have been canceled.
There were many reports of buses being caught in the traffic jams and being quite late picking up students.
However, a number of private schools in Montgomery County decided to close this morning on the advice of police, including four private Catholic schools.
Jennifer Reed, spokesman for the Superintendent of schools in the Archdiocese of Washington said those schools are Holy Redeemer in Kensington, St. Bernadette in Silver Spring, St. Jude in Rockville, Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Wheaton.
Traffic was starting to move again around 9 a.m. as many of the roadblocks were opened. But the massive police probe had closed down traffic throughout the Maryland area almost immediately after the 6 a.m. shooting. Most major arteries had police roadblocks and even many secondary routes were closed. Traffic was stopped at the Legion Bridge and backed up for miles. The only other crossing from Maryland to Virginia in that area is Whites Ferry, and operators there said wait for a ferry was 60 to 90 minutes.
David Buck, a spokesman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, said early this morning, “I can’t even begin to suggest an alternate route right now if you’re in Montgomery County.” He said officials were treating the situation like a winter blizzard and asking people to stay home this morning.
Ed Beck, 39, of Sykesville, Md., said it normally takes him about 20 minutes to go to his job in Beltsville. Just before 9 a.m., he had been on the road for about two hours, but he wasn’t complaining.
“I don’t care about waiting in traffic as long as they can get this guy,” he said. “They’ve got to catch this guy.”
If the shooting today is linked to the sniper, the attack would mark a geographic switch north of almost 100 miles from the killer’s most prior shooting, which happened Saturday night in Ashland, Va., outside Richmond.
And, if linked, the attack would mark a return to the assailant’s initial pattern of shooting in the morning. Three of the last four shootings have taken place in the evening.
The attack comes in the midst of ongoing attempts by police to conduct a bizarre dialogue with the killer - issuing cryptic comments at press conferences in response to a message they believe was left by the sniper at the scene of Saturday’s shooting and to phone calls they believe he has placed to them.
If today’s shooting is connected to the sniper, it will be his 14th attack in 20 days.