The D.C. Sniper! Can you believe this?

[astralc]

I reckon that it is not the work of a serial killer, they usually want to know just how good they are and enjoy watching their affects on TV. For them it is an ego trip as well as a release of their internal tension. They make mistakes and rarely use accomplices like a driver.

But if it were hired killers, paid for by terrorists (or the CIA, NRA) then it could be professional hitmen. If so it will be far more difficult to find them.

If it were terrorists, then they will make mistakes, devotees to a spiritual belief system I don't think have the professional approach that a hitman has, they will be caught.

But then again, are we sure it is a 'him'? Could it be 'catwoman'?

Astralc


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
www.shoal.net.au/~astralc
"The marriage of the ancient arts of astrology, taoism, tantra and the modern science of psychology."

[Mobius]

Hey guys

Koshka, hey me no run away from gun debate. I had a bit of backup there in the gun debate, but the majority of people posting were pro gun (and american I might add), not surprising since the USA is the biggest producer & exporter of guns & the people who have the major shareholding in these armament businesses also have the major shareholding of CNN,Washington Post & New york times, so the information that gets broadcasted corresponds with the shareholder interest of these armament companies.

So it's no surprise that CNN broadcasts a very jingoistic,patriotic stance on "THE WAR ON TERROR". The more the american public are convinced to bay for blood, revenge, stop the terror, secure peace or whatever chest beating stuff they come up with, the more the gun sales go up & the wealthier these people who started it all in the first place, get. In these days of corporate collapses & unattainable profit rates, how do you think armament companies improve their bottom line & turn over? It's not like banks, where they just close down a few branches, sack employees & run some add campaigns that portray bankers as part of your family. Gun companies can't exactly do that. So how do you increase the bottom line of armament company & convince people they need more of your product?hmmmmmm

If the DC sniper was an Al Quada or Saddam goon, why would they target civilians? Why not political or business targets? that would really make a difference for them?

Blossom you are probably right for all we know, that your government ISN'T responsible for the Dc sniper. If it WAS some inside government setup, it would be highly unlikely any that ANY politicians would know about it. Our governments are set up so that everyone competes against each other & information is not available between each department.

WHY HAS MARIJUANA COME UP IN THIS DISCUSSION?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.................................................I like it,hehe.

Another product that has been manipulated & shut out because of big business. Anyone ever seen the documentary "The Billion dollar crop"? For thousands of years Hemp was used for sails, rope, paper, clothing, even the American flag & was far superior to other products like cotton & nylon. Marijuana as a drug has been used even longer than it's other material purposes. There has never been a recorded death with people overdosing on marijuana. Yet people somehow decide that alchohol & ciggarettes are allright. I'm sure everyone in here knows or has heard of someone dying from alchohol poisoning, choking on their own vomit.

The younger members in here might not realise it but alchohol was a banned substance in the early 1900's in America. The days of prohibition gave rise to people like Al Capone & underworld bootlegging gangs. Mr Annslinger was given the job of demonising alchohol in the publics minds & destroying underground brewers. When the government realised that so many of the public were ignoring their warnings & drinking anyway & the gangs had got so powerful they were buying politicians & judges, they had to legalise it, so they could at least make money from it themselves, instead of all the money going into gangsters hands.

When Mr Annslinger realised his whole department & he himself would soon be out of a job, he quickly moved his attention to something else that he could demonise & help perpetuate his lifestyle. All of a sudden, the product that was so useful to the american public (hemp) was determined to be "evil".

Fast forward to the present & you can see that it is NOT the consuming of marijuana the government is worried about, it's appeasing big business that they are worried about. There are many people that stand to lose if Hemp is allowed to be used again as product. The alchohol industry doesn't exactly want a competitor. Neither does the cotton, nylon industry & the petrochemical industries that supply fertilisers, pesticides,herbicides etc all of which Hemp needs very little of. The timber industry doesn't want people to know that our daily paper needs can be met by this fast growing annual crop, instead of their 10 -20 year old trees they cut down.

Funny how heroin & Opium is so demonised also (BTW I don't advocate their use), but if it's called "Morphine", "Codeine" or "Oxycontin" it's allright. Now that afghanistan has been brought under US control, the levels of opium production have gone through the roof. That was handy wasn't it? that the guy who was scapegoated in 911 & CIA trained, Osama, happened to be in a country that was/is the largest producer of opium in the world. Now big business has a monopoly on that product, it only leaves oil & cocaine as the next biggest business targets, so after the oil has been secured & the american economy is saved, watch out Columbia.

Blossom, what is "reality" anyway? And isn't just being on this site a deviation from what mainstream people class as "reality"? Does that mean you would disagree with the use of alchohol or anti-depressants? After all, they change your perspective on reality don't they? Why do americans advocate so much the right to own guns & call that liberty, but sneer at others desire to have liberty & choose to do the things in life they want?

Btw all, Michael Moore has made a movie soon to be released (maybe allready released) called something like "........Columbine", promises to be very controversial & get right up the nose of the political & business elites of america. It's the side of things Bush & big business don't want you to see & from the sounds of things, most viewers leave the cinema pretty ticked of with politicians & big business.

Good journeys all

Mobius

[koshka]

Hey, Mobius, you got da vinegar.  What I said about the gun thing being a "discussion" instead of a "debate" has to do with my own doubts about all these things.  There was no more non-violent group than the ancient Essenes, for example.  They carried a small wooden spade in their belts, and long white caftans for use when they would answer nature's call.  They would dig a small pit in the sand and lay their hem all about so as not to pollute the eye of the sun: the sky was the tent of the Holy of Holies.  Yet their is an abundance of evidence that the main defenders of Masada were members of the Essene brotherhood.

You have let fall a couple of references to "Americans" and guns.  As I can read it, your point would seem to be that Americans are brainwashed and manipulated by and for the profit of the firearms manufacturers.  An interesting point.  I would agree: America is a brainwashed and manipulated society.  Smith and Wesson was the foremost vendor of personal firearms until what, PeacefulWarrior, a few years ago?  The British had purchased S&W a decade or more ago.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms coerced S&W into declaring that purchasers of S&W products really did not OWN those pieces, but had them on perpetual lease, subject to mandatory recall for refitting with IDs or "safety" devices as they were developed.  Gun buyers organized a boycott of S&W, driving them from #1 to #50 or something in market ranking.  Gun manufacturers are being pressured by governments everywhere to institute ID and disabling devices which gun savy civilians read as de facto and incremental civilian gun confiscation.  The profits for gun manufacturers has always been in war contracts.  Big war contracts now are being awarded to technology which disables civilian guns and ammunition, perfects military armor, night vision, "non-lethal" weaponry, electronic surveillance, etc. -- all the stuff that's out of the economic reach and interest of the ordinary populace.  Yet again, "ordinary" ordinance in the hands of millions of households is a strategically threatening situation to any potential military occupational force.  And that IS a scenario for some factors in government.  

I have read comments from Australia, U.K., Finland, Austria...suspicious of the U.S. government.  I am a new member, but I cannot recall many comments regarding governments other than the U.S. as subjects of suspicion.  Is it that these governments are not effectual -- that what they do does not matter?  The nation of Iraq has the population and gross national product about equal to the state of Kentucky in the U.S., for example.  Australia is generating a lot of the new generation of first rank movie stars.  There isn't much criticism or suspicion of these other governments being expressed by their citizens it seems.  Trashcan crude: Americans HAVE a tradition of private gun ownership (eroding), and they DARE to question their government.  The first national flag was a rattlesnake which spoke: "Don't Tread On ME."  By "Tread" one may read: chip, mark, inbed, invoice, implant, clone, irradiate....  "Don't."

No government in the world allows marijuana to be "legal."  Some places are more "liberal" than others about tolerating flaunting of the law, but it's still in chains BECAUSE it's use undermines groveling to authority.  Have you seen the film "Men With Guns?"

I like Michael Moore.  His new film seems to be anti-gun.  I would like to see what he has to say.  

There is a difference between guns in the belt and guns in the hand.  Intent.  Capability.  The free individual has the capability of pulling the gun, but the presence to leave it in.  This DC PsyOps blood theatre is meant to obliterate confidence in the presence and inalienability of the individual, and stampede the public into demanding what the Police State planners already have waiting in the wings: block by block surveillance camers, implanted weapons "owned" by implanted citizen-subjects, with indexed finances and...souls.

Do they have something in mind so horrible that they must see the confiscation of a kid's 22, or even a "Wrist-Rocket" sling-shot as they have in Australia?  Task the search engine for images in the mural of the Denver International Airport for a clue.  Perhaps just (some) Americans wonder about this.

[astralc]

Mobius and Koshka

great discussion, good input. I might add that there has been no debate whatsoever in the media about gun control in the US, why is that? When we had the Martin Bryant masscre in 1996 it was everywhere. You couldn't pick up a paper without reading about gun control.

Why has the Amercian public allowed the censorship of its rights to an existance free of the threat of being gunned down by a punk who just went out and bought himself a gun that afternoon? This is plain crazy, guns are a privalage not a right. And for the average American to fear being popped off by an angry motorist for cutting across in front of him on the street must be a violation of their personal rights too.

Gun control for the yanks, take money off the gun manufacturers and put it into welfare for the starving street sleepers in New York where it is needed.

Astralc


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
www.shoal.net.au/~astralc
"The marriage of the ancient arts of astrology, taoism, tantra and the modern science of psychology."

[clandestino]

Hi Koshka and others ! nice to see this discussion has opened again, unfortunately under the current sad climate.

just a couple of points :
Koshka :
"I have read comments from Australia, U.K., Finland, Austria...suspicious of the U.S. government. I am a new member, but I cannot recall many comments regarding governments other than the U.S. as subjects of suspicion. Is it that these governments are not effectual -- that what they do does not matter? "

Yes, most comments do appear to be suspicious of the US govt. I genuinely believe that this is because the US govt's foreign policy, allied with their financial clout, affects too many other nations and individuals, often in ways that those nations \ individuals would never have wished for.

E.g. the US bombing dams in N Korea in 1954, resulting in the flooding of rice fields and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people  through starvation. A blatant war crime.

Unfortunately, we could go on and on and on and on with examples like the one above (OK the above is by far the worst instance), where the US has "intervened" and caused misery; this is the reason why MOST OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD harbour suspicion over US govt motives.


Sorry.....back to the gun discussion. I heard a comment on the radio last night, which surely ISN'T TRUE...just thought I'd share it with you guys anyway.....here goes...

The DC sniper is a us govt operation, designed to facilitate gun control in the US....the reason ? To prevent Americans invoking the Patriot act, which allows them to overthrow their govt by force if they feel that their govt is not acting according to their wishes. What with the US / UK about to invade Iraq against their citizen's wishes, the US govt will takes steps to secure themselves.

All very ridiculous.

[Qui-Gon Jinn]

Clandestino, what you heard on the radio I read a few days back at http://www.rense.com/general30/sdnip.htm - well it relates to what you heard anyways...  it being a US government sniper TEAM..  if this would be true, it can´t be the "official" gov., but you never know what the shadow government is up to...  and believe me, there IS a shadow government..

Oh and Daniel, what you said on the first post uner this topic; "Can you believe this? It's horrible and has to be stopped."
 Sure I can believe this, in fact I do not understand why things like this happens more often, considering humanity as a species accept for example thousands of children EACH day starving to death, thousands of dogs a day being ´skinned´ ALIVE in front of their absolutely terrified friends lying on each other in a small cage a few meters away waiting for their turn, as part of the completely unneeded fur industry etc. etc.
  You are right, the DC killing is terrible and has to be stopped - but there are far crueler ´things´ going on at a daily basis (like the ones I mentioned)  that needs to even more (if you can use the word more in this context) be stopped...  
 
         Be well //Rikard

- Your focus determines your reality -

[koshka]

Qui-Gon, Clandestino...

HBO produced a documentary a number of years ago about the uglier aspects of culturally condoned (humanly unfelt) cruelty to animals.  An ordinary day at work in a South China restaurant: a worker goes out and clubs one of the numerous stray cats running the streets -- a fluffy white female.  Back at the kitchen the dazed cat (the clubbing didn't kill her) is skinned of her fluffy coat and tossed into a huge cauldron of boiling hot water.  We can clearly see her sinking slowly, trying to paddle to the surface, her mouth opening for breath or a scream, but only an air bubble escapes.  She wasn't worth even a second, merciful club stroke.  These are "little," working people who did this that day -- and every day before and since.

What about the "big" people: the Rothschildes, Rockefellers, Warburgs, etc.?  There is a website called (I think) www.sauductionofwashington.org -- or the organization is called "The Sauduction of Washington" ("Sauduction" after Saudi Arabia).  Families who have lost children, fathers, uncles...to State Department and Department of Justice protected abduction by the Saudis, formed this organization.  The Saudi Royal Family: fond friends of George Bush.  Children as sexual bon bons for the rich trash of the World....  American veterans as status symbol slaves for exhibition.... (Other news stories about modern slavery, ritual atrocities, missing children, engineered violence...  are archived at www.infowars.com .)

Clandestino, the "USA Patriot Act" has been attacked by civil liberty groups of both the Left and Right in this country as an encyclopedic codex of tyranny.  The Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights already established Americans' obligation to throw off tyranny when it becomes intolerable and lethal.  This Act which was voted in WITHOUT THE CONGRESS BEING ALLOWED TO READ IT (can you believe THAT!?).

I haven't checked out the new book Children of the Matrix yet.  Where are our children going?  Why are so many of them becoming autistic...?

I'm running short of time right now.  Let me put it this way about guns.  Let the government keep us "safe" by keeping all the nasty guns from the mob (us).  Let everyone know the nature of these "protectors" -- that's all.  Know the ENTIRE extent, depth...anatomy and physiology of the Evil you're leaving yourself naked to.  It will not buy you peace or security.  "How humble should a person be?" someone once asked Gandhi. " More humble than the dust," answered Gandhi, "for even the dust can be crushed beneath the wheel of the cart."  Non-violence meant cracked heads, prison, and worse for those fighters in Gandhi's army.  They knew what they were taking on, and agreed to the crusade -- the sacrifice.  So far, the proponents of gun control don't believe that they'll be called upon to sacrifice anything.  They seem to think it's all win -- all free -- all easy.      

[Qui-Gon Jinn]

Koshka> It is horrific what is going on with the animals (and no, not only the animals) in the world...  I made myself - forced myself even though I knew I would have nightmares about it - watch a documentary showing how the animals are being treated in Asia, so I would know....  it makes it hard for me to sleep sometimes, and it makes me just cry when I think of it...  and although I am a non-violent person I really don´t know if I would be capable of NOT killing someone treating an animal (same for a person of course, but they usually aren´t skinned/cooked alive) like this in front of me.

  I feel like a cowardly egotripped poor bastard really, I mean going on living my life while these things occur globally every single day, and I often think to myself to give it all up to be able to stop it, but the thing is I do not know where to start, after all words are not enough....  although I am not powerless, I feel that way when it comes this...   just think if we all decided to live in peace with each other, respecting all beings from all walks of life, accepting one another for whoever we choose to be and learning to appreciate the full diversity of life.....  so simple, yet it feels so "impossible" here on earthy..

- Your focus determines your reality -

[koshka]

Qui-Gon --

I guess that's where it starts: tears.  I have mentioned the psychiatrist and writer (really a revolutionary), Dr. M. Scott ("Scotty") Peck before.  My favorite book of his -- favorite because I experienced what he proposed -- is The Different Drum: The Creation of True Community -- The First Step to World Peace.

Peck was an Army psychiatrist working in the Pentagon during the latter part of the Vietnam diabolism.  He was assigned to experience and research ALL forms of the "encounter group" (e.g., Esalen Institute at Big Sur), AA, transformational groups, churches, dojos....  This was the time of "Acid Tests," communes, and "happenings," etc.  Perhaps the Army thought it could ID and exploit whatever "magic" these groups were able to produce.  Scotty Peck, however, discovered his own spirituality after attending the whole plethora of human gatherings.  In this book he explains the 4 phases that EVERY group cycles through in arriving at a sacred place called
(True) Community.  ("Any organization which calls itself a 'community,'
probably isn't," writes Peck.)

I discovered that a fellow worker was a fan of J. Krishnamurti (Peck quotes Krishnamurti in Drum).  I knew that a "Community Building Workshop" was being held at Santa Maria, California, close to Santa Barbara and Ojai.  We agreed to visit Krishnamurti's home (and site of his devastating Enlightenment Experience some 60 years earlier), and participate in the two-day, 16-hour workshop in Santa Maria as well.

We visited the old ranch, headquarters now for the Krishnamurti Foundation of America and the Oak Grove School he started there.  Being inside that house and on the grounds, we both experienced the energy like a super hyperbaric chamber -- very palpable.  The next morning back in Santa Maria we began the community experience work.

Peck says that the first phase of a group is the superficially polite, falsely civil so-called "community,"  like a cocktail party.  About 25 diverse people gather in a circle of chairs.  Sooner or later, someone will step on someone else's ideological toes, and things froth up into a healthy, beautiful chaos: the second phase.  

Everyone tries to "convert and heal" everyone else.  As the process whirls along, however, the reality dawns on one and then another that no one is going to adopt anyone else's version of truth, homeostasis, or "heaking."  Enter third phase: "Emptiness."  Profound quiet.  

This phase is sometimes so un-nerving that people elect to try and return to Chaos, or demand that the facilitator take control, establish a plan, organize action -- anything.  A dictator strongman may indeed establish laws, but True Community cannot appear out of tyranny that way.  The group individuals must dwell stoicly with this emptying, wilderness experience.

Something mystical begins to come about, like a dawning, or the descending of the Holy Spirit.  True Community.  Peck says that a group at this point constitutes the most intelligent creature on the face of the planet.   Any problem placed in its midst will be solved easily.

When our group began bobbing into True Community Consciousness at about 10 o'clock the second morning, where no one is a leader and ALL are leaders, I experienced dazzling and infinitely detailed architectural visions EACH time I even blinked -- a whole different vision for each blink of my eyes!  It was a big juicy bite of world piece right there in my mouth and mind.  If the group had so decided, we could have absolutely laid hands on someone and healed them....  Nowadays I hear that a third day has been added to allow the Community to utilize its coherent, authentic, loving intelligence on what it might.

There's more to say, but I'll leave it there for now.

[koshka]

To add --

Peck wrote that the phases of Community Building DO resemble Dr. Kubler-Ross' stages for dealing with death.  First sage: Denial.  Second stage: Anger.  Third stage: Depression.  Fourth stage: Acceptance.

Peck says that part of America's sin is it's refusal to admit Emptiness/Depression.  It has never faced nor accepted defeat in Vietnam, for example.  Instead, it has scape-goated, then abandoned veterans of that era, both soldiers and counter-culture activists.  It has abandoned the veterans of the first Gulf War.  

No debates about gun control, or any of the other critical issues which are screaming for attention like so many starving orphans?  That's Denial, boys and girls.  America is told (covertly) that it is a hopeless, chronic bi-polar patient.  It is bounced and shaken between the poles of false and silly pseudo community (Denial), and terror and Chaos (Anger), as if these are all there is to life.  But people ARE hungry for the truth.  Tears and Depression?  The social shrinks prescribe proto-psychotic drugs such as Prozac to maintain one in the drift between Denial and Anger.  The DC Sniper.

Shall we demand tyranny to "save" us from Emptiness?  Shall we face our sins, on the other hand?  Interesting times.

[PeacefulWarrior]

Now that the sniper is caught everyone seems to have already lost interest.  Who would have guessed?  It makes sense now though, right?

I'd like to hear what people think about the individual and about how this is going to affect or not affect us as a society.
D

fides quaerens intellectum

[Qui-Gon Jinn]

"I'd like to hear what people think about the individual and about how this is going to affect or not affect us as a society."

I obviously don´t know the individuals but I know one thing and that is they´re angry at the world...  It´s one hell of a wicked way of showing it though.  
Is it going to change us?  I think not, afterall things just as ´evil´ occur all around the globe, at a dialy basis, only this event was one of those that made more people afraid than ´normal´ and draw big-time media attention....
... tomorrow or the day after there will be another event that will occupy peoples mind...  and sadly it probably won´t be of a positive kind, since media seem extremly relluctant to cover all the good going on......

     Have a nice day //Rick


- Your focus determines your reality -

[Lysear]

i think what these people did is absolutly disgusting and to kill children ! sometimes I despair. However one of the more chilling factors is that it shows how easy it is to do and that scares me more than anything.

                 lysear

[PeacefulWarrior]

The following news you've all probably seen already, but what do you think?  Can you believe this?  It's horrible and has to be stopped.  
Oh yeah, and what do you make of the Tarot card he left (death)?

Man shot and killed at Virginia gas station
Friday morning 'emergency situation' on I-95
Friday, October 11, 2002 Posted: 11:23 AM EDT (1523 GMT)


Police inspected vehicles and questioned motorists Friday on I-95 just south of Washington.  
 
 SUSPECT INFORMATION:
Tip line:
888-324-9800
$350,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people involved in the shootings.
Reward contribution line:
240-777-8970

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suspect vehicle:
White van, possibly an Isuzu or a Mitsubishi, with black lettering on the side.



 

MANASSAS, Virginia (CNN) -- A man was shot and killed at a gas station near Fredericksburg, Virginia, Friday morning. Police responded by launching a manhunt on Interstate 95, closing exits and stopping vehicles.

The man was killed at an Exxon gas station on U.S. Route 1 in Spotsylvania County, in the area of Massaponax, Exit 126 on I-95, about 9:30 a.m., according to Virginia state police and county police.

It was not known whether the killling was related to the recent Washington-area sniper shootings that have killed seven people and wounded two others.

Three of the sniper shootings targeted people filling their cars at gas stations.

State police are looking for a white Chevrolet Astro-type minivan with ladders on top. The task force investigating the sniper shootings is sending investigators to the scene.

Closer to Washington, in Alexandria, Virginia, police reported making a traffic stop of a person in a white van, and officers have surrounded the van.

FBI calls for help
Meanwhile, an FBI team is developing a "graphic aid" to be released to the public that police hope will help capture the elusive sniper or snipers.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said investigators have received "very helpful" information from witnesses as the hunt for the shooter widens, but gave no hint that authorities are close to bringing the shootings in the Washington D.C.-area to an end.

"We're very hopeful that the special projects unit will have that information ready," Moose said. "We'll have that aid as soon as possible and then get it out."

Fear throughout the district has led schools to place restrictions on outdoor and extracurricular activities.

The sniper case has baffled and tested investigators, but FBI Special Agent Gary Bald praised the public input.

"We do have information that is very helpful to us. It's not as much information as we would like to have and we have appealed to the public. I'm very confident that there are people that have observed the shooter or shooters and that they -- some of whom we've heard from, not necessarily the people that have given us complete descriptions, but we have the information from citizens," Bald said.

Bald urged witnesses to come forward.

"I'd like to encourage the people that are out there that, I believe, have seen the shooters, perhaps in his vehicle, in their vehicle," Bald said. "We are interested in the information. We are not interested in the individual's identity. And I would like to encourage the citizens to contact us as they have."

Also, Bald was asked about the profile investigators are developing of the sniper. He said investigators have received "significant information" from witnesses and crime scenes. "I don't want to comment specifically on the profile, but it has been of assistance." (Full story)

Moose also said "people are talking to us" and urged potential witnesses to contact authorities if they think they have a viable tip.

"People need to be open-minded in what they saw and what they think they know," Moose said. (Moose profile)

In the latest shooting, ballistics evidence confirmed a man killed Wednesday night at a gas station in Manassas, Virginia, was the latest victim. Police were scouring the area for clues, talking to witnesses and trying to gather surveillance video from the filling station where the killing took place.

"As a result of the autopsy, ballistics evidence has linked these cases," said Prince William County Police Chief Charles Deane.

Forensics evidence, including ballistics tests on the bullets, have shown that each of the nine victims, seven of whom have died, was hit once with a .223-caliber bullet fired from a rifle from a relatively long distance. (Trail of the sniper)

Police said the bullet was fired from "some distance" away, similar to all the other cases. (Tracing the bullets)

The victim was alone when he was shot and was hit once in the upper body. He was identified as Dean Harold Meyers, 53, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, who was the third person to be shot at a service station.

At one of the earlier sniper shootings, a witness reported seeing a white boxy van speed away from the scene, and police were continuing to look for that vehicle. No one has been able to report a license plate number.

Police said a white minivan being sought earlier with a possible connection to the crime had been found, and its driver was being interviewed, but it appears as if the driver was "innocently there." No other vehicles are being sought in Wednesday night's killing, Prince William Police Chief Charlie Deane said.

Investigators say there was no communication from the sniper as there apparently had been in Monday's shooting, when a 13-year-old middle school student was shot and critically wounded. An unidentified source said a Tarot death card had been found at the scene with the message -- "Mister Policeman: I am God."

Donors from 20 states have contributed $350,000 to a reward fund for information leading to the capture and indictment of the killer.

A source said authorities had planned to comply with a reported message on the card asking police to keep the contents of the message a secret to build rapport and possibly begin a dialogue with the person who dropped the card.

Moose was angry Wednesday that the information about the card was leaked to the media.

The evidence was taken to an FBI lab for fingerprint and DNA tests as well as analyses of the handwriting, spelling and the card's origins.

The card was the one depicting death in the deck used by fortune tellers. The death card, which often shows a skeletal figure on a horse, represents endings, transitions, eliminations and the experiencing of inexorable forces.

Authorities said the card could have been left by a prankster.

A week of killings
Wednesday night's killing in Virginia came exactly a week after the first shooting was reported in Montgomery County.

Five people were killed in Montgomery County during a 16-hour period from October 2 into the next morning. A sixth victim was shot dead the night of October 3 on a Washington street.

Two of the Maryland victims were killed at gas stations. (Victims' profiles)

A woman was wounded last Friday in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was released from a hospital Tuesday.

Wayne Curtis, the cousin of the boy shot Monday at Benjamin Tasker Middle School, made a short statement Thursday regarding his relative, who is still at Children's National Medical Center in critical but stable condition.

Curtis thanked law enforcement and the public for their support and asked the media to respect the family's privacy.

He said the family hopes to be more forthcoming as the boy's recovery continues and said the family doesn't want to place the boy at risk or hinder the investigation.

"He's a fighter," Curtis said of his cousin, who has not been identified. "We remain optimistic."



fides quaerens intellectum