Ballistic evidence shows sniper has shot 10

A businessman shot while a police officer stood just 50 metres away was the 10th victim of a sniper who has been stalking the Washington area, police confirmed today.

Ballistic evidence linked the killing of Kenneth Bridges, 53, to attacks that have killed seven other people and wounded two over the past two weeks, Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Maj. Howard Smith said.

Mr Bridges was shot in the back at a petrol station yesterday.

In each case, the sniper has fired once from a distance with a high-powered rifle at people doing things as mundane as mowing the lawn, shopping or filling their cars.

“One of the most valuable aspects of this investigation is the public’s involvement,” Virginia Governor Mark Warner said today.

“The eyes and ears of the public are some of our best assets right now.”

Smith said his department had received 1,900 tip-offs in the 24 hours after the shooting.

Two FBI geographic profilers were sent to Fredericksburg by helicopter to examine the scene.

Montgomery County police Chief Charles Moose said a special FBI unit had not yet finished a graphic aid for the public to help in the search. He did not say what it would show.

Near the Exxon station where Mr Bridges was killed, authorities knocked on motel room doors in their search for witnesses and possibly the killer.

One man who was questioned said investigators compared his face with a photo of a sandy-haired man.

“They thought I was the sniper,” said Hobert Epps, 36, of Athens, Georgia, who told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he was staying at a nearby motel.

Epps said investigators told him the picture was from a video surveillance camera near the scene of one of the shotings.

Smith refused to confirm whether investigators have such an image.

Authorities were today still searching for a white van witnesses reported seeing leaving the scene, but Col. W. Gerald Massengill, superintendent of Virginia State Police, cautioned the public not to focus only on such vehicles.

“We don’t want preconceived notions out there, but certainly you have to play the hand that you’re dealt and the information that has come to us is white vans,” Massengill said.

Mr Bridges co-founded a marketing and distribution organisation. His death stunned family and friends, who had been nervous about him travelling in the Washington area because of the recent shootings.

“He was the first person to welcome me when I moved into the neighbourhood,” said Estelle Staley, the family’s next-door neighbour. “He was very friendly, very friendly.”