By Francis X. Clines and Christopher Drew, The New York Times
WASHINGTON, -- Detectives tracking the deadly suburban sniper raced to a shooting near Richmond, Va., on Saturday night as the police reported that a man had been wounded by a single shot in a parking lot outside a shopping center restaurant.
Investigators pursuing the sniper, who has killed nine people and wounded two so far this month, emphasized it was not immediately known whether the shooting, of a 37-year-old man outside a Ponderosa steakhouse in Ashland, Va., 90 miles south of Washington, was part of the spree that has frightened the Washington area since Oct. 2. Advertisement
Chief Frederic Pleasants of the Ashland police and other authorities in Hanover County said the victim was hit by a single shot - the sniper’s signature mark - after he left the restaurant with his wife about 8 p.m. The man, who was not immediately identified, was at a local hospital in critical condition this morning.
“The shot came out of the darkness,” said the Hanover County sheriff, Stuart Cook, at a news conference in Ashland.
Asked if the shooting was part of the sniper spree, Sheriff Cook said, “We’re going to treat it as if it is until we know it’s not.”
A dragnet was put into effect with the news of the shooting, centered on nearby Interstate 95, the main East Coast highway where leaders of the manhunt have focused.
“We’re not taking any chances,” Sheriff Cook said.
Witnesses in the new shooting said they thought the shot had come from a wooded area bordering the shopping center. This led to speculation that the gunman’s method was similar to the shootings in the Washington area. But there was no confirmation of fears that the sniper might have enlarged his range significantly beyond the Washington Beltway area.
The shooting set off a late-night alarm across the Washington commuter region. Immediately, there was speculation that the sniper, who had previously not been active on weekends, might be changing his method.
The shooting was one of several during the day in which tense teams of investigators awaited the deadly sniper’s next move.
The frenetic manhunt focused on a white truck once more on Saturday as the police, making no claims of a breakthrough, examined a truck seized in Virginia that they said contained a shell casing.
With forensic tests still under way, the police said there would be no firm word until later in the week on whether the find might be related to the sniper who has killed nine and wounded two this month.
But the truck’s discovery on Friday at a rental agency near Dulles International Airport, west of the Washington Beltway, supplied a fresh focus of hope for hard-pressed investigators and excitement for the many reporters camped outside Montgomery County police headquarters, where the search is headquartered. A white cargo truck has been urgently sought by the police since the first killings.
With 200 detectives and hundreds of uniformed police invested full time in the manhunt, the investigation ground forward this weekend across five counties and hundreds of square miles of the Washington suburbs. The unified local, state and federal police task force was braced for another possible attack by the gunman, who last struck on Monday.
Manhunt leaders continued pleading with the public for more information about a neighbor, a stranger or a troubled family member that might lead to the killer’s identity. They made a show of force this weekend along the complex ribbons of commuter roads that the sniper has been able to master even as the police vetted traffic with drawn guns.
“It’s a whodunit at this point,” Chief Charlie Deane of the Prince William County police admitted on Oct. 10, after the sniper killed a seventh person in eight days, shooting a man in the head as he was filling his gas tank in Manassas, Va.
Nine days and two more deaths later, the identity of the gunman remains no less mysterious.
One member of the manhunt team, just before fresh hope arose with the finding of the truck in Virginia, described the investigation as “unbelievably quiet” at its heart, despite all the energy being poured into it by rolling teams of detectives.
Lacking similar evidence in the other shootings, some detectives theorize that the sniper might more often have fired from his vehicle, driving off with evidence like spent shell casings. This made the forensic tests on the white truck especially important this weekend.
Detectives are known to be pursuing all the most frequently mentioned theories of the engrossed, if fearful, public and many more besides.
Some involve the four gas stations where patrons were shot: Was there something more to it in the gunman’s mind than the inviting settings and the nearby escape roads?
Others involve the fact that Michaels craft stores, part of a chain, have been at or near three shopping center shootings; the police have combed employee and customer records for possible clues.
Another active focus is the 50-mile corridor between the northern Montgomery County suburbs where six were killed and the southern commuter fringe in Fredericksburg, Va., where the sniper shot two. Does he live at one end and work at the other?
The terrorism hypothesis recycles on slow news days, with the police firmly playing it down, noting that there has been no hard evidence to support it or open political messages typical of terrorists. These questions are being addressed in a singular police nerve center here that flashes with big-screen data and rows of computers glowing with information. Gleanings from tens of thousands of tips phoned in by the public are put into a special computer system by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Investigators file reports on witness interviews and property searches to analysts working here, and the most critical information is quickly passed on to the investigation leaders. They are Chief Charles A. Moose of the Montgomery Police Department, the head of the task force by dint of his county’s having suffered the first five homicides, and two ranking agents, Gary M. Bald of the F.B.I. and Mike Bouchard of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The three held another tight-lipped news conference on Saturday, declining to reveal details on any critical part of the investigation. The single-room command center is designed for flexibility more than chain of command, officials say.
“There’s no real bureaucratic structure,” said Douglas F. Gansler, the state’s attorney in Montgomery County, who helps set up search warrants and keeps an eye on possible prosecutions.
“When you’re in there, you have the sense there are no turf issues,” Mr. Gansler said. “It’s almost as if all the separate people from separate law enforcement agencies have been stripped of their parochial uniforms and are wearing the same uniform because they have a single focus. You never hear the words, `Hey, I’m in charge here.’ ”
The A.T.F. role has been crucial in confirming the most important line of evidence developed so far, which has tied most of the shootings to a single gun.
Alarmed residents may not realize it, but there have been any number of arrests of illegal gunmen being steadily made by A.T.F. agents in the manhunt that blankets the region. None of those arrested has yet proven to be the roving sniper.
The arrests, prompted by anxious callers suspicious of gun-bearing neighbors and strangers, are a sidebar of Americana involving gun enthusiasts who illegally own high-powered hunting and military assault weapons.