Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The gunman may be getting more daring, as the eighth death happens across the street from a state trooper.
By MARY JACOBY and CARRIE JOHNSON
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 12, 2002
SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. -- A 53-year-old man pumping gas was shot to death Friday in what authorities suspect was the 10th attack by a sniper who has terrorized the Washington area.
A Virginia state trooper working an accident scene across the street heard the shot and saw the victim fall. But like other witnesses to the shooting rampage that began Oct. 2, he could do little but rush to the victim's side.
Witnesses reported seeing a white van, possibly with a ladder rack on the roof, leaving the scene on a drizzly morning. Bruce Bingham, 46, a mechanic at a Mobil station across the street from the shooting, said he looked up after hearing a large crack.
"We saw a white van just driving normal, and it turned and went south on Route 1," a commercial thoroughfare that runs parallel to Interstate 95, Bingham said.
The description was similar to that of a white box-type delivery van that another witness had described leaving the scene of an earlier shooting in Montgomery County, Md.
Authorities immediately closed three northbound lanes of the heavily traveled East Coast artery, slowing traffic to look for suspects. Many white vans were stopped there and across the region, but no arrests were made.
If ballistics tests on the bullet retrieved in Friday's shooting link the case to previous sniper attacks, the death toll will stand at eight. Two other victims were seriously wounded but survived.
Authorities say they are confident Friday's shooting is the work of the sniper, who had previously struck at three other gas stations.
"Any time we get a shooting right now we are going to treat it as if it's connected to this case," said Maj. Howard Smith, a spokesman for the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office.
The FBI identified the victim as Kenneth H. Bridges, 53, a father of six who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was co-founder of a marketing company.
He was killed at an Exxon station in an area of motels and fast-food restaurants catering to I-95 travelers just south of Fredericksburg, Va., in Spotsylvania County.
Coming 37 hours after another fatal gas station shooting Wednesday evening in Manassas, Va., and taking place within sight of the trooper, the incident suggested the killer was growing more bold.
"With a uniformed trooper directly across the street, we're obviously dealing with an individual who is extremely violent and who doesn't care," Smith said.
It appears the killer has adjusted his methods.
The first six shootings happened within a few miles of each other in Montgomery County, Md., and the District of Columbia. They occurred away from major highways and during evening and morning rush hours when traffic clogs the roads.
By contrast, the eighth, ninth and 10th shootings occurred near on-ramps of major highways, suggesting the killer is now primarily concerned with making a quick getaway.
On Friday, FBI agents were searching through bushes outside a Ramada Inn near the crime scene. Reporters saw officers put a yellow piece of paper into an evidence bag.
Smith, the sheriff's spokesman, declined to comment on the piece of paper. A Virginia state police helicopter flew the paper and other evidence to a lab in Baltimore.
An FBI helicopter also landed at the scene, carrying two geographic profilers who are working up a theory of the case based on where the sniper has struck.
Area schools remained for an eighth day in "lock down" status, with all outdoor and after-school activities canceled.
Residents of the normally quiet Washington suburbs are shaken.
"I'm unnerved. I really hope they catch this guy. All kinds of things are going through my mind, especially that this will be bad for business," said Helene Blake, 52, a front-desk clerk at the Heritage Inn near Friday's shooting.
Martin Cane, 44, said he often stops at the Exxon station to fill up his red Honda motorcycle. "That could have been me," he said, looking at the crime scene from a gas station across the street.
"It's getting so you can't even do anything around here without fear," Cane said.
Ironically, suburban residents are feeling safer in an area many have feared as a magnet for crime and potential terrorist bombs: downtown Washington.
"A lot of people are talking about how they feel safer downtown," said John Dowd, a legal assistant from Stafford, Va., who works less than a mile from the White House.
The sniper has been "careful enough to be in a position to get away. Here it's not so simple. Your line of sight is not very far," Dowd said, gesturing at the tall buildings that line Connecticut Avenue, where he works.
The sniper has been shooting from 100 yards or more away using a high-powered hunting or military-style rifle.
Dowd said his wife works in Fredericksburg near Friday's shooting and near another incident in which a 43-year-old woman was shot in the back but survived.
Standing outside her office recently for a smoking break, Dowd's wife and other smokers heard a vehicle backfire on nearby I-95. "They all hit the ground," Dowd said.
The victims of the rampage have been of all ages and races, including a 13-year-old boy shot in the chest on his way to school Oct. 7 in Bowie, Md. The boy, whose name is being withheld because he is a witness, survived and remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Officials say they do not believe the sniper or snipers are part of an international terrorist network.
While saying he is not ruling that possibility out, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday, "Whatever the word you want to use to describe it, this is clearly terrorizing the people who are involved, and their families."
-- Information from Times wires was used in this report.