Parents take students to school in Washington suburbs, fearful of another sniper attack

Tuesday, October 8th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BOWIE, Md. (AP) _ Anxious parents in the suburbs around Washington accompanied their children to school and guarded intersections Tuesday, a day after a sniper linked to the murder of six adults critically wounded a middle-school pupil.

â€œI can't stop going to work, the children can't stop going to school,â€ said Henry Ollie, 48, leading his 12-year-old son, Charles, to the front door of Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, where the latest shooting happened. Ordinarily, Charles takes the bus.

But it appeared many parents decided to keep their children home as Monday's shooting fueled heightened anxiety for families in already nervous suburbs.

Some buses arriving at schools carried fewer students than usual. Schools where parents usually line up their cars to drop off youngsters had no traffic problems.

Prince George's County, the scene of the latest shooting, sent two helicopters to patrol the county as schools opened and had police officers at every school. Police in neighboring Montgomery County, where five people were killed last week, also guarded schools.

â€œAs a community we clearly remain anxious,â€ Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said Tuesday morning. â€œWe have a very visible patrol in and around our schools, a very visible patrol around our freeways because of rush hour.â€

Police Prince George's served a search warrant during the night, but the police chief said no arrests were made. No further details about the warrant were offered.

â€œAll of us will have to fight,â€ Prince George's County police chief Gerald Wilson said Tuesday morning. â€œWe cannot allow one individual to shut that spirit down in us.â€

The 13-year-old Benjamin Tasker student was shot as his aunt dropped him off Monday morning.

The teenager was in critical but stable condition at Children's Hospital in Washington after the bullet entered his abdomen and chest. Doctors said they were optimistic he would survive.

Sharon Healy had just sent her 12-year-old son, Brandon, off to the same school on his bicycle when she heard of the shooting. She said she ran and pulled him out of class.

â€œYou think you're safe, but you're only as safe as your next step,â€ Healy said. Said her son: â€œI was scared.â€

A task force including local and state police, the FBI and the Secret Service mobilized to pursue the sniper, but police acknowledged having few clues or eyewitness accounts to solve one of the most frightening serial killings in memory. Moose said Tuesday that police had received 1,250 credible leads from 6,025 calls.

The sniper has shot eight people since Wednesday, killing six; police have discerned no pattern among the victims. One died on a Washington street, the others within five miles of each other in Maryland's Montgomery County.

The latest attack Monday morning was 20 miles farther east, in neighboring Prince George's County north of Washington.

Ballistics tests found the bullet that struck the teen was identical to those that killed some of the others and wounded a woman in Virginia, said Joe Riehl, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

All victims were hit by a single bullet fired from a distance. Police have spoken of a single sniper, but have not ruled out the possibility that more than one person is involved.

President Bush denounced the attacks as â€œcowardly and senseless acts of violenceâ€ and ordered FBI profiling experts and ballistics analysts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to assist local police.

Police and federal agents searched the grounds around Benjamin Tasker, sorted through thousands of tips, pored over maps and put together a psychological profile to hunt down the sniper.

They also began to use a geographic profile submitted by investigators that uses crime locations to determine where the killer feels comfortable traveling and may live. A $150,000 reward has been posted for help in solving the attacks.

All the victims were shot in public places: the boy outside school, two at gas stations, two in parking lots, another outside a post office, another as he mowed the grass and the eighth on a street corner.

Dr. Martin Eichelberger, director of emergency trauma service at Children's Hospital, said doctors working on the boy made a special effort to find a portion of the bullet to give to police.

Ballistics evidence also linked the Maryland slayings with the wounding of a 43-year-old woman Friday. She was shot in the back in a parking lot at a craft store in Fredericksburg, Va., 50 miles south of here, and was in fair condition.

The high-velocity rounds used in the shootings are common military ammunition and are also a favorite of recreational shooters. They can be used in many types of guns.

The bullet that struck the 13-year-old student damaged his spleen, stomach, pancreas, lung and diaphragm, parts of which had to be removed.

In Lanham, Dana Buckner picked up her two children at Seabrook Elementary School as the school day came to a close. They normally ride the bus.

â€œI felt better having them with me,â€ Buckner said. â€œI'm worried. I'm going to have to send my kids to school tomorrow.â€