Rodent Regatta

This morning we awoke to news that a man was shot while standing on the top step of a city bus in Montgomery County, Maryland. This is likely to be (pending ballistics confirmations) the 13th known shooting by a killer in the Washington D.C. area since October 2, 2002.

There is another shooting that dates to September 13 or 14 that seems linked to the rest, but there wasn’t enough ballistics evidence to absolutely tie this one to the others. For 24 hours we have heard news reports and press conferences where law enforcement officials were using the media to send messages to the killer. Apparently, the killer was then using the FBI’s call center to respond.

Much of this new dialog gave people hope that these murders might be nearing an end. However, for yet another day, we follow a pattern – a single shot, a wounded or killed victim, a police dragnet that shuts down an area minutes after the ”report of the shooting.” Following all of this is endless speculation by the news services about who this might be, whether or not it’s a terrorist, why the police can’t him or them, etc.

Following each shooting and the talking heads conversations, the killer appears to alter his geography or the profile of his victim or some other minor aspect of his mode. Saturday night he struck 90 miles south of D.C. This morning he returned to Montgomery Co. where the majority of his shootings have occurred. As the news media pinpoints where each shooting has happened and posts those on a map, you see that the first 12 shootings worked generally North to South and alternated (somewhat) from East to West.

Now, he’s apparently starting over. Several of his shots have been taken from wooded areas. It seems that ever since the Defense Department announced that some of its high tech surveillance planes would be scanning the D.C. area, he has not altered much about the way he operates.

Let’s hope that the type of surveillance being done can identify movement into and from this wooded area for a period of several hours. The break that is needed just might come through.