Sniper Hunt Focuses On Truck

As residents of suburban Washington went about their Sunday activities amid a hunt for a sniper responsible for 10 attacks, eight of which have resulted in death, police were asking them to be on the lookout for a white box truck.

"We have witnesses from more than one location reporting this composite," Montgomery County police Chief Charles Moose said, of a wanted poster released Saturday that shows composite images of a white truck sought in connection to the investigation.

The witnesses say the truck is an older model with a loud engine, reports CBS News.

The two images, produced by the FBI based on witnesses from more than one shooting, show a flat-front white truck with a roll-up door in the back, a weathered paint job, a small dent in the back bumper and unknown dark purple or black writing on the side.

The images are the first of any kind to be released in association with the killer who has been stalking suburban Washington areas and targeting victims apparently at random.

The images were released as the reward for information in the case reached $500,000.

Moose said investigators are also working with witnesses to produce a similar composite sketch of a white Astro van with a ladder on the top that was reported seen leaving the scene of Friday's deadly shooting at a gas station near Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Asked if the separate sketches meant the sniper may be using more than one vehicle, Moose said it "is not our goal to make any suggestions at all. We're working with witnesses."

More than a week after the shootings began, a massive task force of county, state and federal officers still won't say if they know who they're looking for, or even if the sniper is acting alone.

Investigators hunting for the Washington-area serial sniper defended their limited release of information, saying Sunday they must strike a balance between enlisting the public's help and revealing too much to the killer.

Moose, who has become the public face of the probe, has refused to answer questions about any investigative detail, from whether a suspect has been spotted on surveillance cameras to whether any more notes have been left behind.

"Please rest assured, when we have something we are confident the media can help us with, we will use that," Moose said Sunday. "It is a fine balance, but we do understand the power we have with the media in the 21st century, but we also know that we must use that appropriately."

Since the shootings began Oct. 2, 10 people in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., have been hit, all with a single shot, all apparently at random as they went about their daily errands. Eight have died

A traveling businessman shot while a police officer stood just across the street was the 10th victim of the sniper, authorities confirmed Saturday.

Ballistic evidence linked the killing of Kenneth H. Bridges, 53, of Philadelphia, who was fatally shot once in the back at a gas station Friday, to sniper attacks that have killed seven other people and wounded two over the past two weeks, Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Maj. Howard Smith said.

Bridges was filling up his car at a Virginia gas station when he was shot to death Friday in the most brazen attack yet by the sniper.

The trooper heard the shot and saw the victim fall, but the gunman vanished into the gray drizzle.

"Obviously, we're dealing with an individual who is extremely violent and doesn't care," Maj. Smith said.

Like the other attacks, witnesses described a single shot, fired apparently at random at someone going about his everyday activities.

"The shooting certainly looks similar," said Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Charles Moose, who sent investigators to the scene.

Citing witness reports of a white van carrying two people, authorities immediately blocked traffic on nearby highways and checked vehicles. The roadblocks turned stretches of Interstate 95 into a virtual parking lot, backing up traffic for miles on the eve of the Columbus Day holiday weekend.

Bruce Bingham, who works at a gas station across from the Exxon station where the shooting happened, said he heard a single shot and saw an unmarked white van driving away from an intersection. Bingham said the light turned green right after the shot and he speculated that someone in the van might have timed the shooting to coincide with the light.

The sniper typically fires from a distance with a high-powered rifle at people going about activities as mundane as mowing the lawn, shopping or strolling down the street.

On another front in the investigation -- CBS News has learned that ballistics experts have looked at the slugs and shell casing recovered from the first ten shootings -- and compared them to evidence taken from old crime scenes. Thus far, they have found no match.

CBS News Correspondent Joie Chen reports police are also trying to find a pattern in the shootings. Similarities include: Eight of the shootings have been in busy shopping areas; four at gas stations; three at or near Michaels' crafts stores; and four within a few hundred yards of a highway interchange.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the near-daily shootings have become part of President Bush's regular FBI briefing.

Asked if the attacks could be connected to a terrorist group, Fleischer said: "We don't know it is or is not. Whatever the word you want to use to describe it, this is clearly terrorizing the people who are involved, and their families."

Across metropolitan Washington — an area of some 5 million people — Friday night football games at area high schools were canceled along with other outdoor activities.

Many were fearful and jittery. Tipsters overwhelmed the 911 center in Montgomery County. Police were called to an elementary school in Bowie, Md., after receiving a report of shots fired; it was apparently firecrackers. A parent, Elaine Henry, described the scene out the school as "near chaos. Parents were everywhere trying to get their children."

At a restaurant near the site of Friday's shooting, Rebecca Didion parked her car illegally against the curb to avoid walking across a parking lot and making herself a better target.

She said she kept her four children out of school and the words they are telling her have become increasingly desperate: "My 8-year-old said to me: 'If it's our time to go, it's our time to go, so why can't we just go on with our lives?'"