Paneled Minivan Seen Leaving Area
(NBC, MSNBC And News Services) -- Authorities were looking Thursday for at least one person in a white minivan after a man was shot dead Wednesday night while pumping fuel at a Virginia gas station. Police were stopping vehicles that matched that description and investigating whether the slaying was tied to the sniper murders that have terrified residents of Washington, D.C., and its suburbs.
As police investigate a shooting late Wednesday near Manassas, Va., they are trying to understand the thought patterns of whoever is behind the sniper shootings. NBC’s David Bloom reports.
Investigators from the sniper task force rushed to Manassas, a historic city in Virginia’s Prince William County about 30 miles southwest of Washington.
The victim was identified by police Thursday as 53-year-old Dean Harold Meyers of Gaithersburg, Md.
Virginia State Police said a witness saw a white minivan leave the scene after the shooting. The witness said it looked like a Dodge Caravan but did not have side windows, suggesting it was a delivery van.
“We do not know whether it was involved in this incident or not,” county police chief Charlie Deane emphasized to reporters.
A police statement that the witness saw two men in the minivan was later downplayed by police, saying that part of the account might not be reliable.
Deane said the victim had just finished paying for gas and was traveling alone.
The shooting occurred about 8:15 p.m. ET. More than 100 law enforcement officials were scouring the area for clues, Deane said. Authorities blocked off several streets around the gas station and interviewed witnesses. “At this point, we cannot say if this case is related to those shootings,” Deane said at a news conference early Thursday. Advertisement
Douglas Duncan, the county executive in Montgomery County, Md., where six of the eight previous shootings occurred, said sniper task force investigators went to the Virginia scene because of similarities with the previous shootings, two of which took place at gasoline stations.
“Everything is very similar,” Duncan said.
Since the slayings began last week - six people have been killed and two others have been wounded, all by a single high-powered rifle shot - almost 200 local, state and federal law enforcement officers have scoured the Washington region for two men in a white cargo truck or van that was seen speeding away from one of the shootings last Thursday.
New Phone Hotline
Authorities on Thursday established a central hotline - 888-324-9800 - for any tips related to the sniper shootings. Previously, several hotlines existed because the earlier shootings happened in various jurisdictions.
Police have said publicly that they had few clues, and law enforcement experts suggested that investigators’ best hope was that the killer would make a mistake.
That could have happened Wednesday night at the Sunoco gasoline station about 7 miles north of Manassas. The station was monitored by a security camera, and a color videotape of the victim slumped on the ground was reported to exist.
Police also acknowledged media reports that they had found a bullet casing and a tarot card with the words, “Dear Policeman, I am God,” written on it at the scene where a 13-year-old Bowie student was critically wounded Monday.
The message, first reported Tuesday night by WUSA-TV, was left on a tarot card signifying Death. Unidentified sources cited by The Washington Post and The Associated Press confirmed the report.
The Washington Post on Thursday reported that the tarot card also contained a handwritten request from the sniper that it not be revealed to the media. Sources said some detectives had hoped that if they honored the request, the sniper might communicate with investigators again.
According to the reports, the tarot card was found about 150 yards from the entrance of Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie. The sources said it was discovered in a matted-down area amid the trees, suggesting that the sniper had lain in wait before picking out a target.
Authorities said the shell casing was from a .223-caliber bullet, the same kind used to kill six people and wound another in Washington and its suburbs in the past week. It was found at the same scene, in Prince George’s County, and was being checked against the National Ballistics Identification Network, a database maintained by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
$305,000 Reward
The Secret Service, the FBI, U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have joined state and local police in the investigation that spans four jurisdictions. So far, despite police efforts and a reward that has grown to more than $305,000, the key to finding the killer has apparently eluded authorities.
Investigators have discerned no pattern among the victims. One died on a Washington street, the five others within five miles of one another in Montgomery County. The student who was wounded in the torso Monday was in critical but stable condition, while a woman who was shot in suburban Virginia survived and was released from a hospital Tuesday.
All victims were hit by a single bullet fired from a distance. Police say the weapon was probably a .233-caliber rifle accurate up to 730 yards, the length of more than seven football fields.
Police have spoken of a single sniper but have not ruled out the possibility that more than one person is involved.
Other Possible Connections:
Authorities said investigators were also trying to determine whether a shooting outside a liquor store Sept. 14 in Hillandale in Montgomery County was linked to the sniper attacks. In that incident, a 22-year-old employee of the liquor store was shot in the back as he stood outside but survived.
Ballistics tests in connection with the shooting were inconclusive. Meanwhile, NBC affiliate WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Md., near Pennsylvania, reported Wednesday night that authorities were investigating the possibility that the rifle used in the shootings was purchased in Fort Loudoun, Pa.
Dale Holladay, 45, of Chambersburg, Pa., was arrested Tuesday on bad check charges after a check he used to buy a .233-caliber rifle bounced. Holladay, who told police he sold the rifle a few days later to another person, remained jailed Wednesday on $20,000 bond while local authorities coordinated their investigation with the D.C.-area task force, WHAG reported.
State Trooper Kristal Turner-Childs told the station that D.C.-area investigators were “aware of what is going on” and said local authorities were in “constant contact” with the task force.
Also Wednesday, Montgomery County police canvassed a home where shots were reported fired. A man was taken into custody but police later ruled him out as a suspect.