US: Police said last night that the shooting of a man at a petrol station west of Washington on Wednesday evening was consistent with eight other shootings around the US capital by a sniper using a high-powered rifle.
The latest cold-blooded slaying drove up the anxiety level in large swathes of suburbia around Washington, where several million people now live in fear of being shot as they go about routine activities outdoors.
This was the ninth time a victim was felled by a single bullet fired from a distance, the eighth in a busy shopping area, and the third at a petrol station.
The first shootings last week occurred in Montgomery County north of Washington. On Monday the killer struck in Prince George's County to the east. The latest was in Prince William's County to the west.
A witness saw a white van containing two men speeding away after the shooting, which occurred at 8.00 p.m. at the Battlefield Sunoco station off Interstate 66. The vehicle was described as a white panel van with no side windows, similar to that seen after a shooting in Silver Spring in Montgomery County last week.
The victim, Mr Dean Meyers (53), from Gaithersburg, was standing beside the petrol pump, where he had just filled the tank of his grey Mazda, when he was hit in the upper part of the body. He crumpled between the pumps and the car, the nozzle of the pump still in his hand.
Chief Charlie Deane of Prince William County police told reporters at a press conference late yesterday that the "overall circumstances" were consistent with the other sniper shootings, though forensic tests still had to be completed. In contrast to earlier police briefings, the press conference was held indoors as a security precaution.
The killer has appeared to taunt the police with a tarot death card found along with a .223-caliber shell casing at the scene of the shooting of a 13-year-old school boy on Monday, with the words written on one side, "Mister Policeman, I am God".
The Washington Post reported yesterday that this may have been an attempt by the suburban sniper to establish a rapport with the police. The card also contained a request to law enforcement that his message not be revealed to the news media. It was however leaked to a local television station, much to the fury of senior detectives who had hoped that if they honoured the request, the sniper would have communicated with them again.
The 13-year-old boy shot outside Bowie Middle School was the eighth victim in the series of shootings that began on October 2nd. His adult cousin, Mr Wayne Curtis, said yesterday that he was in critical but stable condition.
Tarot cards are used in fortune telling and may have originated with Gypsies in 15th century Europe.
The death card usually does not mean physical death, but a symbolic change or transformation, experts said.