WASHINGTON, 21 October — Police yesterday were treating the shooting of a 37-year-old man at a highway restaurant in Virginia as the latest attack by the sniper who has killed nine people and sown fear throughout the US capital region.
The victim, who has not been identified, was said to be in critical but stable condition after three hours of abdominal surgery at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. However, doctors have not yet been able to remove the bullet from his stomach. Only when they have done so will forensic examination establish whether or not it came from the same weapon already used to kill nine victims.
Local police and federal agents as well as local police investigators from Maryland and Virginia where other shootings have taken place rushed to the scene. But a massive search operation, which blocked the main East Coast highway and other major roads into the small hours yesterday, appears to have yielded nothing.
If Saturday night’s attack is linked to the sniper it would be the first time he has struck at a weekend, and end a five day interval since the previous shooting last Monday, the longest such gap in the series of attacks that began Oct. 2.
It would also be the furthest he has struck from Washington DC. The victim was gunned down at Ashland, 145 km (90 miles) south of the capital, as he left a restaurant with his wife just off Interstate 95, the main highway running from Florida to the Canadian border.
The shooting bears all the sniper’s hallmarks. He selected his target in an open area, close to a major highway, allowing him to make a speedy escape. A single shot was fired, apparently from a wooded area some 35 yards from the exit as the victim was leaving the Ponderosa steak restaurant with his wife where they had just eaten.
Top officials said authorities were investigating but had found no evidence to link the string of attacks to international terror groups. Secretary of State Colin Powell, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," said it was conceivable but unproven that the attacks were connected to the Al-Qaeda organization. "We’re looking for every possible connection, but so far I’ve not seen anything that does tie it to Al-Qaeda."
President George W. Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, told CBS’ "Face the Nation" officials were vigorously looking for a link between the sniper and terror groups but had found none. (The Independent)
