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Child shot { October 7 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53960-2002Oct7.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53960-2002Oct7.html
Child Shot Near School in Md. Suburb
By Derrill Holly
Associated Press Writer
Monday, October 7, 2002; 10:30 AM
BOWIE, Md. –– A 13-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded Monday outside a school, authorities said. Police in neighboring Montgomery County hunting for a serial sniper rushed investigators to the scene.
The boy was shot in the chest and abdomen outside Benjamin Tasker Middle School shortly after 8 a.m., Prince George's County emergency officials said.
His mother took him to Bowie Health Center, a small hospital in this suburb northeast of Washington, D.C. A Maryland State Police helicopter was to fly the child to Children's Hospital in Washington for treatment of traumatic injuries, authorities said.
"The child is suffering from extensive blood loss and is in critical condition," said Mark Brady of the county fire department.
On Wednesday and Thursday, five people were shot to death by a sniper in a 16-hour span in Montgomery County. A sixth victim was killed Thursday in Washington, D.C. On Friday, a woman was shot and wounded in Virginia.
"We are certainly very concerned about this situation in Prince George's County," Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said. But he stressed that it was too early to know whether the shooting was related.
Montgomery County investigators were being sent to Bowie, Moose said.
A short time later, police responded to an unconfirmed report of a shooting at a Wal-Mart near the school but later determined that no one had been shot.
Montgomery schools had planned a normal schedule with extra security, but after the shooting in Prince George's, officials decided to keep students inside during recess and lunchtime, Moose said.
In Bowie, police cars surrounded the building and officers put up crime scene tape and searched the campus. Parents streamed in to pick up their children.
Police and FBI agents were poring over maps and putting together a psychological profile to hunt down the killer. They also stepped up patrols Monday as people began returning to school and work.
"Clearly, we are at a level of anxiety," Moose had said earlier. "The rush hour, the number of people who come out on a Monday morning certainly tells us it's an enhanced target-rich environment."
Irene Kelly, 60, who was visiting her daughter in Rockville from Pennsylvania, spent part of Monday morning running errands. She said she had "big concerns, very big concerns."
"I'm more aware of what's happening," she said. "I try to get in and out and get home. You have to be aware of your surroundings."
As officials struggled to solve the puzzle, families and friends gathered together at funeral services, honoring their loved ones and trying to find some good in the midst of such seemingly random violence.
"There's one bad man, but there's so many good people who are showing their blessings and prayer," Saroj Isaac said at the funeral of her brother-in-law, Prem Kumar Walekar, a quiet, hard-working cabbie known to his family as "Prem Uncle."
Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old woman slain while sitting on a Post Office bench, was to be laid to rest Monday after a private service. Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, a 25-year-old nanny shot while vacuuming her van at a service station, was to have a wake Monday before her body was flown back to her native Idaho.
Investigators said Sunday they had thousands of tips, but they conceded it would take time to track down who is responsible for the attacks.
Police have begun to use a geographic profile submitted by investigators that uses crime locations to determine where the killer feels comfortable traveling and may live. Moose said police also were awaiting an FBI psychological profile of the shooter.
Geographic profiling is a fairly new investigative tool, used first in 1990 in Canada, said Kim Rossmo, who compiled the latest profile and is director of research for the Police Foundation, a nonprofit research organization.
If a series of rapes, for example, occurs over a 10-square-mile area, geographic profiling can often narrow the area in which the attacker is likely to live to within half a square mile, Rossmo said.
The purpose of the tool is to determine "if there is a pattern there," Rossmo said. "If we can understand the pattern, we can decode it."
Moose said investigators were making progress, but added, "Some of the more desirable smoking gun leads just aren't there."
Tests conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confirmed that the same weapon was used to kill Walekar and three other victims.
The five slain victims were gunned down in broad daylight in public places: two at gas stations, one outside a grocery, another outside a post office and the fifth as he mowed the grass at an auto dealership.
The sixth victim, a 72-year-old man, was shot to death as he stood on a Washington street corner. Each victim was shot once from a distance. There were no known witnesses.
Ballistics evidence also linked the Maryland slayings with the shooting of a 43-year-old woman Friday in Spotsylvania County, Va. She was shot in the back in a parking lot at a Michaels craft store in Fredericksburg, Va.
She was in fair condition Monday at INOVA Fairfax Hospital.
Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan appealed to residents to continue calling police with any information that might be helpful. About 4,500 calls so far have led to more than 950 credible leads.
© 2002 The Associated Press
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