Profilers Say Maryland Shooter Will Strike Again
Killings Likened To 'Emotional Heroin'
UPDATED: 10:56 p.m. EDT October 3, 2002
Randomly shooting victims one at
a time is like "emotional heroin" for whoever gunned down five
people in suburban Washington, D.C., over the course of 16 hours.
Two former FBI profilers say the suspects won't stop killing
until they're caught.
Clinton Van Zandt and Robert Ressler say one person probably did
the shooting while another drove the getaway car.
Van Zandt says they're probably still on the move, and loving
it. He says it's "get-even" time for two guys who "feel like
they've been ditched by the world."
The profilers say the fugitives are probably white men, in their
mid-to-late 20s or early 30s, with ties to the area -- Montgomery
County, Md.
Both experts say crimes like this are generally solved by people
who know the suspects and notice they've disappeared.
Five people were shot and killed in a Washington, D.C. suburb over a 15-hour period and police are trying to figure out if they are connected.
Police in Montgomery County, Md. say the shootings took place Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. A police spokeswoman says the timing and location of the shootings indicate that there is a "strong possibility that they are all connected."
Police said they are looking for two men in a white Isuzu SUV, a box truck with black lettering on it with damage to the tailgate.
Montgomery County executive Doug Duncan says they are using "every possible law enforcement resource" to find the killer of five people. Duncan says a reward of up to $50,000 is being offered for the arrest and indictment of the killer or killers.
County police chief Charles Moose a hotline number -- (240) 777-2600 -- will be staffed to take information and tips into the shootings.
Police spokeswoman Capt. Nancy Demme told reporters that there is "an ongoing crime (spree) that we have not experienced before." She says numerous trucks are being stopped, but none were related to the shooting.
Demme says numerous police agencies, including the Secret Service, FBI and the Maryland State Police Department, are involved in the investigation and search for the suspects. Demme says there has been "no common denominator between the victims."
The first person killed was James Martin of Silver Spring, 55, who was shot in the parking lot of a Wheaton grocery store about 6 p.m. Wednesday.
A man riding a lawnmower, James "Sonny" Buchanan of Arlington, 39, was killed about 7:45 a.m. Thursday in the White Flint area, and another man, Prenkumar Walekar of Olney, 54, was shot at 8:15 a.m. while pumping gas at a Mobil station in the Aspen Hill area. He died at the scene.
About a half-hour later, Sarah Ramos of Silver Spring, 34, died at a post office next to the Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring. She was shot in the head, according to a spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Department.
In the fifth shooting, Laurie Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, was shot and killed at 10 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Kensington. Mechanics at the gas working said they heard the shots but didn't see the person or persons who killed her as she was vacuuming her van.
Police believe the shootings may be related to a separate incident that occurred earlier Wednesday night. A shot broke a window of a craft store in Wheaton.
Schools in Montgomery County will be opened on time Friday morning.
Victims Of Sniper Shooting
James Martin, 55, of Silver Spring, Md. Killed about 6:04 p.m. Wednesday, in the parking lot of Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store in Wheaton, Md. Martin, a Civil War buff and an amateur genealogist, was a program analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration James L. "Sonny" Buchanan, 39, of Arlington, Va. Killed about 7:41 a.m. Thursday, while mowing the grass at Fitzgerald Auto Mall in White Flint, Md. Buchanan's company provided landscaping services for the dealership Prem Kumar Walekar, 54, of Olney, Md. Killed about 8:12 a.m. Thursday, at a Mobil gas station in Aspen Hill, Md., while filling his cab with gas Sarah Ramos, 34, of Silver Spring, Md. Killed about 8:37 a.m. Thursday, outside a post office in Silver Spring, Md. Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, a nanny, of Silver Spring. Killed about 9:58 a.m. Thursday at a Shell gas station in Kensington, Md. Pascal Charlot, 72, of Washington Killed around 9:20 p.m. Thursday on a Washington street corner A 43-year-old woman Wounded Friday in the parking lot of a Michaels crafts store in Fredericksburg, Va. She was in fair condition Monday at Inova Fairfax Hospital A 13-year-old boy Critically wounded about 8:09 a.m. Monday as his aunt dropped him off at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Md. |
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Md. Shooting |
Copyright 2002 by NBC4.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.







