CBS may delay sniper-themed episode of 'CSI:Miami' because of shootings around Washington

<br>LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The makers of the CBS drama ``CSI: Miami'' are producing a show in which crime fighters track down a sniper, but the network may postpone the episode because of the real-life

Wednesday, October 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The makers of the CBS drama ``CSI: Miami'' are producing a show in which crime fighters track down a sniper, but the network may postpone the episode because of the real-life shooting attacks around Washington.

The episode currently in production features a forensics team studying crime scenes from an attacker who kills people from atop a building.

``This is one of those bizarre cases where art collides with real life,'' CBS spokesman Chris Ender said Wednesday.

The story was conceived in August and a script was delivered last month, weeks before the real attacks began around the nation's capital.

Since Oct. 2, the sniper has killed 10 people and critically wounded three others in Maryland, Virginia and Washington.

``No decision has been made on when the episode will be broadcast,'' Ender said.

``CSI: Miami,'' a spinoff of the network's top-rated drama ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,'' stars David Caruso and Kim Delaney as forensic detectives in Florida.

Last week, 20th Century Fox indefinitely delayed the release of the movie ``Phone Booth,'' a thriller about a man who answers a pay telephone and finds he's the target of a faraway gunman he can't see.