Steve Quayle News Alerts

October 7, 2002

B O W I E, Md., Oct. 7 — A 13-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded outside a middle school in Prince George's Co., Md., today arousing fears that the sniper who shot seven people, six fatally, in the area last week was back at work.

The boy was shot at 8:09 a.m., police said, and less than 90 minutes later, police responded to a report of shots being fired at a Wal-Mart department store near the school.

The store shooting report appeared to be a false alarm, but police said it was too early to determine whether the shooting outside Benjamin Tasker Middle School was connected to the sniper attacks last week.

"At this point, other than we don't have a suspect … I don't have anything to take me over the edge to say 'Dog gone it, we have another shooting," Prince George's Co. police Chief Gerald Wilson said. "At this point we don't have any leads."

Police were questioning students who were outside the school at the time of the shooting, hoping they could offer some clue as to how the shooting occurred, Wilson said.

"We have no positive information to tell us that the shooting in Prince George's County is connected to the shootings here," Montgomery Co. police Chief Charles Moose said, adding that 80 people from his county, where five of the seven shootings last week occurred, would be sent to the Tasker school to help police there with the investigation.

Moose denied there was any evidence linking the school shooting to the others, but his concern was obvious. "It's personal now," he said, fighting back tears.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was sending specially trained dogs to sniff for gunpowder residue around the school, ATF special agent Michael Bouchard said.

The ATF was doing a geographic profile of the shootings before the incident today, but Bouchard said he could not comment on how the school sniper attack might fit into the pattern of the seven shootings last week.

He Said He’d Been Shot

The boy shot today underwent a lengthy session in and was in a critical but stable condition, with one gunshot wound to the chest, Children's National Hospital spokeswoman Jacqueline Bowens said.

The boy had just been dropped off at school by a guardian, who was starting to drive away when she heard a loud noise, looked back and saw the boy slumped on the ground, Wilson said. The boy told her he thought he had been shot, the police chief said.

The guardian took him to Bowie Health Center, a small hospital, and a Maryland State Police helicopter then flew the boy Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., which specializes in traumatic injuries in children.

Initial reports were that the boy had been shot in the chest and abdomen, which would have been a change in the pattern the sniper set last week, when each of the seven victims were shot just once.

"We don't want to rush to judgment," Moose said.

The middle school where the shooting occurred was ordered closed for the day, and frightened parents rushed to the school to take their children home, but the other schools in the district were to remain open, though with all outside and after-school activities canceled, said Iris Metts, the chief executive officer of Prince George's County schools.

"We don't need to panic. We need to let our children know that we're there for them and remain secure during these incidents," Metts said.

Police were stationed at the district's other schools, to try to maintain security there, Wilson said.

The Terror Question

The FBI is working to come up with a psychological profile of whoever has been shooting people with a high-powered weapon in the suburbs of Washington.

Six people have been killed and another wounded in a series of sniper attacks that began Wednesday night in Montgomery County, then spread to Washington and suburban Virginia.

There were no new shootings over the weekend, but authorities said this morning that they feared the beginning of a new work and school week could offer the shooter an "enhanced target-rich environment."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the attorney general, the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have all been "very involved on the ground and have lent support and equipment."

He deflected questions about whether the shootings could be the work of terrorists, though.

"I've not heard anything like that, but the fact of the matter is that people are trying to determine who the shooter is, or shooters are, and we continue to help local officials in that endeavor," Fleischer said.

School Worries

Schools have not been closed since police announced Thursday that they believed the seemingly random shootings last week were connected, but on Thursday and Friday all outside activities were canceled.

Before the shooting this morning in Prince George's County, Montgomery County authorities had said outside activities would not be canceled today, but after the new incident they changed their minds.

"At this point, the schools will function as they did on Friday, which means they will close recess and they will close lunch," Moose said in a news conference after the shooting.

Police were investigating whether the shooting of a boy outside a school in Bowie, Md., was related to the shooting of five people in Montgomery County and two other sniper attacks last week. (ABCNEWS.com/ Maps.com)

There will be increased security at the schools, with local and state police stationed at all of them.

"Their specific assignment, much like the patrol officers from the county, is to be visible, to be diligent, to be aware," Moose said. "Hopefully [they will] provide some comfort to the parents, to the young people."

Unconnected Victims

The string of attacks began Wednesday around 5:20 p.m., when a single shot was fired near Michael's, a craft store in the town of Aspen Hill. It was the only miss.

Forty minutes later, James Martin, 55, was killed in a parking lot at Shoppers Food Warehouse in Wheaton, Md., about 15 miles north of Washington.

Thursday morning, four more people — James L. "Sonny" Buchanan, 39; Prenkumar Walekar, 54; Sarah Ramos, 34; and Laurie Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, — were killed within a three-hour period at nearby locations.

Pascal Charlot, 72, died after being shot once in the chest at around 9:15 p.m. on Thursday in Northwest Washington, and on Friday, a 43-year-old woman was shot in Fredricksburg, Va., as she loaded packages into her car in a store parking lot. She remained hospitalized today in fair condition.

Police are offering a $50,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and indictment of the individual or individuals responsible for the shootings. Anyone with information is asked to call a hotline at (240) 777-2600.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/marylandshootings021007.html