As I posted a week ago, I think the sniper killings in the US are the work of a terrorist(s).
Time will tell.
And absolutely not trying to make lite of it it is amusing that police are now urgeing people to "walk in a zig-zag" pattern
Can you imagine that on a busy street???
Chaos!
Sniper advice: zigzag
18oct02 AS hopes of an expected breakthrough fell through in the search for a deadly sniper, police have told fearful residents to zigzag when they walk.
Daily life is turning into a near assault course for residents of the Washington area since a sniper started picking off victims.
Schools are keeping children indoors, many adults are following the same regime and those that do go out dart into stores to avoid the line of fire.
Police have issued the following safety tips:
KEEP moving if you are outside because a moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one.
IF you must stand still, stand in the darkest part of the area to obscure yourself as a target.
WHEN outside, move quickly and walk in a zigzag pattern.
KEEP cover between yourself and any open areas. While filling up your car, keep the pump between you and the vehicle, and bend your knees to stay low.
IF you are fired upon, drop to the ground and roll away. Run for cover in short zigzags.
Hope of a breakthrough turned to disappointment yesterday as police revealed that eyewitness accounts from the latest shooting were not good enough to provide a solid description of the shooter.
At least two people had reported seeing a man gun down Linda Franklin Monday night in a shopping centre carpark.
The 47-year-old FBI employee was the ninth person killed in a two-week spree in the Washington area that also wounded two others.
But all that police would say publicly yesterday about the shooter is that he is male.
"There's so much disparity in their descriptions that there is no one description to put out," said police Captain Nancy Demme.
"Fairfax County police have worked with their witnesses, and unfortunately because of darkness and distance, and perhaps excitement and adrenaline at the time, they're unable to come up with a composite," she added.
One witness identified the sniper's gun as an AK-74 assault rifle, but authorities appeared cautious to reach that conclusion based on a single witness.
Separately, the Bush administration is looking into the feasibility of proposals to require "ballistic fingerprinting" of guns.
Individual guns leave distinctive marks and impressions on bullets when they are fired. Under ballistic fingerprinting, gun makers would test each gun and record these marks in a national database.
That way, investigators could use a bullet from a crime scene to trace the gun that fired it and the original purchaser of the gun.
