Ballistics tests conclusively linked latest shooting to other sniper attacks

FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Ballistics tests conclusively linked latest shooting to other sniper attacks.<br><br>A businessman gunned down at a gas station was killed by the same sniper or snipers

Friday, October 11th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Ballistics tests conclusively linked latest shooting to other sniper attacks.

A businessman gunned down at a gas station was killed by the same sniper or snipers who have shot nine other people in the Washington area, authorities said Saturday.

``The ballistics evidence has conclusively linked the shooting yesterday in Spotsylvania County to the other shootings in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland,'' Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Maj. Howard Smith announced.

Police launched a massive manhunt on one of the country's busiest north-south arteries Friday after a man was shot and killed at a gas station near Fredericksburg, Virginia.

The Virginia Department of Transportation issued a notice to motorists of spot checks at blockades causing delays in north- and southbound lanes of the highway. Exits were closed, backing up traffic for miles on Interstate 95 south of Washington.

The man was killed at an Exxon gas station on U.S. Route 1 in Spotsylvania County, in the area of Exit 126 on I-95, about 9:30 a.m., according to Virginia state police and county police. No identification of the victim was made immediately available by law enforcement personnel.

The victim was shot while pumping gas. Video footage from the shooting scene shows police gathered around the victim's car, which still had the pump nozzle attached.

It was not known whether the killing was related to the recent Washington-area sniper shootings that have killed seven people and wounded two others. Three of the sniper shootings targeted people filling their cars at gas stations.

State police are looking for a white Chevrolet Astro-type minivan with ladders on top. The task force investigating the sniper shootings is sending investigators to the scene. Lucy Caldwell, Virginia state police spokeswoman, said witnesses reported seeing such a vehicle leaving the area.

The county sheriff said a state police trooper was near the gas station at the time of the attack. "The uniformed trooper was directly across the street and obviously we're dealing with an individual that's extremely violent and obviously doesn't care," said Maj. Howard Smith of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's department.

A witness to the shooting provided police with a description of two people inside the vehicle, Smith said.

"Thousands of officers are searching" the area, Caldwell said, adding that every exit ramp along I-95 is manned.

The commercial area where the Exxon station is located is familiar to frequent interstate drivers -- hotels, motels and restaurants clustered near woods and housing developments.

"I just saw a lot of police going toward the area," said a clerk at FasGas, about a block from the Four Mile Fork Exxon. "Then, all of a sudden, traffic just stopped. Traffic is still stopped."

Bruce Bingham, who works at a gas station across the highway from the Exxon, said he heard a single shot.

Police in neighboring counties were slowing traffic at checkpoints along Interstate 95, and were stopping and checking white vans up and down the highway.

Closer to Washington, police in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Alexandria said police were also stopping traffic.

The Spotsylvania County Public Schools school board said all schools are in lockdown -- meaning outdoor activities are canceled -- and that there are deputies on every campus.

"It's a very difficult thing to believe is going on," said Jerry Hill, Spotsylvania County Public Schools superintendent. "I believe they're as safe in the school with a lockdown, certainly safer than they would be out in the community right now."

Stafford County, just north of Spotsylvania County, and Fauquier County, farther north, also locked down schools.

Jeanne Miller, an Exxon/Mobil spokeswoman, said the station where the shooting occurred has been shut down.

"Our store is currently closed at this time, and we are cooperating fully with the police and all the local authorities in any way we can."

Geographic profilers have been studying the locations of at least nine confirmed sniper shootings in an effort to draw a better picture of the sniper.

The site of Friday's shooting is just four miles from the scene of a similar shooting in the parking lot of a Michaels craft supply store seven days ago which left a woman wounded. She was released from a hospital on Tuesday.

That shooting has been linked by police to seven other sniper attacks about 50 miles to the north in Washington and in the city's surrounding Prince George's and Montgomery counties.

Meanwhile, an FBI team is developing a "graphic aid" to be released to the public that police hope will help capture the elusive sniper or snipers.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said investigators have received "very helpful" information from witnesses as the hunt widens.

"We're very hopeful that the special projects unit will have that information ready," Moose said. "We'll have that aid as soon as possible and then get it out."

Fear throughout the district has led schools to place restrictions on outdoor and extracurricular activities.

The sniper case has baffled and tested investigators, but FBI Special Agent Gary Bald praised the public input.

"We do have information that is very helpful to us. It's not as much information as we would like to have and we have appealed to the public. I'm very confident that there are people that have observed the shooter or shooters and that they -- some of whom we've heard from, not necessarily the people that have given us complete descriptions, but we have the information from citizens," Bald said.

Moose also said "people are talking to us" and urged potential witnesses to contact authorities if they think they have a viable tip.

Ballistics evidence confirmed a man killed Wednesday night at a gas station in Manassas, Virginia, was a victim of the sniper. Police were scouring the area for clues, talking to witnesses and trying to gather surveillance video from the filling station where the killing took place.

"As a result of the autopsy, ballistics evidence has linked these cases," said Prince William County Police Chief Charles Deane.

Forensics evidence, including ballistics tests on the bullets, have shown that each of the nine confirmed sniper victims, seven of whom have died, was hit once with a .223-caliber bullet fired from a rifle from a relatively long distance.

The victim was alone when he was shot and was hit once in the upper body. He was identified as Dean Harold Meyers, 53, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, who was the third person to be shot at a service station.

In the other deaths, five people were killed in Montgomery County during a 16-hour period from October 2 into the next morning. A sixth victim was shot dead the night of October 3 on a Washington street.

In addition to Meyers, two of the Maryland victims were killed at gas stations.