Sniper kills FBI worker
The woman was an employee of the FBI, a senior law enforcement source said yesterday.
Linda Franklin, 47, of Arlington was shot in the head on Monday night as she and her husband loaded packages into their car at the Seven Corners shopping centre.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were no indications that she was targeted because of her job. Detail on her job description was not immediately available.
Ms Franklin was killed outside a Home Depot at the Seven Corners shopping centre, Fairfax County police chief Tom Manger said.
Some witnesses were able to give police license plate numbers of vehicles seen leaving the scene, he said.
"There was some additional information that we were able to get from last night's case and I am confident that that information is going to lead us to an arrest in the case," he said.
Police closed highways around Falls Church, about 10 miles west of the nation's capital after the shooting, and said they were on the lookout for a Chevrolet Astro van that had a burned-out left rear tail light and a chrome ladder on its roof. The highways were reopened in time for rush hour. "There are a fair number of ways to leave the area," Mr Manger said.
The shooting spree that has terrorised residents in the Washington area began on October 2 in Montgomery County, Maryland. With Monday's shooting, the toll has grown to nine people killed and two seriously wounded in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
"Ballistic evidence has conclusively linked this case to the other murders in the area," Mr Manger said.
Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose, who is leading the task force investigating the shootings, was on the scene of the latest shooting.
Mr Manger declined to confirm reports about a specific description of a possible suspect, saying only that several people contacted police after the shooting and that investigators were still interviewing them.
"We have been receiving quite a bit of information from witnesses," he said. "Information is always the key in solving cases like this."
Monday's killing occurred at one of northern Virginia's busiest intersections, where major arteries come together to form seven corners. Virginia State Police said the van was last seen travelling east on Route 50 from Falls Church. Interstates 66 and 95 are nearby.
Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler, said the location sets the slaying apart from the others. "This is not bold, this is brazen," he said. "It's a much more highly congested area, even under the cover of darkness."
The victim was felled by a single shot about 9.15pm as she stood in the parking lot of the blocks-long shopping centre. All the other deaths in the sniper spree were caused by one shot.
Police scoured the parking lot for evidence and interviewed witnesses early yesterday. There were a number of people in the parking lot when the shooting occurred.
Shopper Raymond Massas said he "heard one shot. Not very loud, like a snap. After that I heard people start panicking." Two police helicopters circled the scene.
"It hasn't been this frightening since 9/11," said Bob Bakley as he stared across Route 50.
Investigators have refused to discuss details of the manhunt. But they have logged some consistencies: the killer favours suburban gas stations; takes down each victim with a single bullet; doesn't kill on weekends; and, judging from a fortune-telling tarot card left at one of the shootings, appears to enjoys taunting police. The card read: "Dear Policeman, I am God."
Earlier Monday, the longest lull yet in the sniper's killing spree brought little relief as jittery residents flooded police with calls after hearing a car backfire, firecrackers or breaking glass.
US President George W Bush said the "cold-blooded" attacks have made him sick to his stomach.
"The idea of moms taking their kids to school and sheltering them from a potential sniper attack is not the America that I know."
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