US: The victims of the Washington shootings have been ordinary people going about their daily business.
The first was 55-year-old James Martin of Silver Spring, Maryland, who was killed in the parking lot of a supermarket just after 6 p.m. on October 2nd. It was a brazen as well as brutal act, taking place right across from a police station.
Next morning, Sonny Buchanan (39) was killed cutting grass near a car sales showroom.
Half-an-hour later, a 54-year-old taxi-driver, Prem Kumar Walekar, was killed buying five dollars' worth of petrol: his daughter recognised the taxi on the TV news and went to identify the body.
The first woman victim, Sarah Ramos (34) was shot dead shortly afterwards, outside the Silver Spring post office.
Another woman, 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was slain as she vacuumed her van at a petrol station.
Age was not a consideration for the merciless killer or killers whose next victim was Pascal Chariot (72) as he stood on a Washington street.
This was five killings in one morning, but bloodlust was not slaked and over the next two weeks there would be three more deaths, bringing the total to nine, with three people wounded, including a 13-year-old boy.
They were just ordinary people, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nearer home, we have seen similar shootings in Northern Ireland, usually with a sectarian or paramilitary motive.
But no clear motive could be discerned in the US attacks, unless it was to make an already-nervous population even more jumpy.
The killings had certain features in common.
They were for the moment confined to a single geographical area, namely, the vicinity of Washington DC.
The killings bore a number of trademarks: a single shot from afar, in a commercial rather than residential area, at a victim apparently chosen at random and, then, a quick getaway before roads were closed off.
But none of this information appeared particularly helpful. Public anxiety was growing, along with the fear that the attacks could spread elsewhere to, say, New York or San Francisco.
Accustomed to feeling safe in their fortress for so long, Americans now have a whole new sense of vulnerability since September 11th and the subsequent Anthrax powder scare.
The circumstances of the shootings contributed to people's fears. Anyone could be filling their car with petrol or emerging from a shop or restaurant.
It was a case of: "You know not the day nor the hour."
The killer or killers also seemed conscious of this aspect, leaving a Tarot card representing Death at the scene of one shooting, with the message: "Mister Policeman, I am God."
Was this an expression of religious fanaticism or just a macabre joke?
And was there just one "shooter" or did he or she have a "spotter" to pick out the victims? It seemed a white van was being used as the getaway vehicle.
Serial killers generally select their victims at random.
Unlike most murderers, they target people they have never met.
But the killings rarely take place at such speed and frequency as in this case.
The victims, male and female, are widely disparate in age and come from different ethnic groups, so it is not a case that he or she did not like women or old people or African Americans.
Pressure on the police has grown as people wonder how long the killings can continue.
Taking an extreme case, Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber", remained free for 17 years, killing three people and injuring 29 with his parcel bombs.
Theories grow more and more speculative.
It was reported that France had alerted international authorities about the disappearance of a 25-year-old military cadet in the US. Could there be a link, people wondered?
An estimated 1,000 police and government officials have been involved in the manhunt including, it was reported, units of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, US marshals, state police, members of the Secret Service and FBI.
Indeed, one of the fatalities was an FBI official, Linda Franklin (47), who was not actually working on the case. Ballistics investigators are examining the bullets, the FBI are using computer graphics to reconstruct the crime scenes and researchers are said to be combing through military files for trained snipers discharged from the US Army.
Normal life in the Washington area is seriously disrupted. Public events such as school sports are being cancelled and examinations called off. And puzzled children ask their equally mystified parents what is going on.