Sniper Still On The Loose

A sniper linked to four killings and suspected in two others in the Washington area last week is still on the loose -- and that makes local authorities "very anxious."

Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose says the rush hour could be a "target rich environment."

There's an increased police presence in the Washington suburb. Moose says Maryland state police will be at 28 local schools. But he says it will be a normal school day, with normal activities.

Moose says investigators are following up on almost a thousand credible leads in the sniper killings.

He also says criminal profilers have provided police with "bountiful" information. Police are using a geographic profile -- working on the theory that the shooter may live or work in the area where the victims were killed.

Maryland police and FBI agents were pouring over maps and putting together a psychological profile to hunt down the killer and decode the apparent connection behind last week's sniper deaths.

As they 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, an Indian-born cabbie.

Nephews, nieces and cousins spoke to hundreds of mourners at the Takoma Park funeral, recalling the quiet, hard-working man they will remember as "Prem Uncle."

Walekar, 54, was one of five people shot to death in Montgomery County in a 16-hour span Wednesday and Thursday. A sixth victim was killed Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old woman slain while sitting on a Post Office bench, was to be laid to rest Monday morning in a private service in Silver Spring among members of her family.

Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, a 25-year-old nanny shot while vacuuming her van at a service station, was to have a wake Monday in Silver Spring 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.

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 victims in the Washington suburbs 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 pedestrian in Washington, was shot to death Thursday as he stood on a street corner. Each victim was shot once from a distance. There were no known witnesses to the killings.

Investigators said Saturday that ballistics evidence also linked the Maryland murders with the shooting of a 43-year-old woman in Spotsylvania County, Va., on Friday. She was shot in the back in a parking lot at a Michaels craft store in Fredericksburg, Va.

She was in fair condition late Sunday at INOVA Fairfax Hospital.

A window of a Michaels store in Montgomery County was shot out 45 minutes before the first killing, but ATF agent Michael Bouchard said Sunday that a bullet obtained from that scene was too badly damaged to be of any use in the investigation.

Moose said Sunday he suspects all the shootings are linked.

Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan appealed to residents to continue calling police with any information that might be helpful, noting that about 4,000 calls so far have led to 800 leads.

Duncan said schools would operate on a normal schedule Monday and outdoor activities would be held. The county executive said he spoke with the pastor at Sunday's funeral for Walekar, who told him he purposely went to the supermarket where one of the shootings occurred.

"He said `I didn't do it because I wanted to be courageous. I wanted to take back what evil has taken away,"' Duncan said.