Witnesses who saw sniper shoot fail to provide likeness
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Your support makes all the difference.Police hunting for the Washington sniper yesterday said eyewitness accounts of a man leaving the scene of the latest shooting were not clear enough to produce a sketch.
Investigators said the shooting of Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst, yielded the most detailed clues yet, including licence plate information and a description of a man in a white, Chevy Astro van with a burnt-out or broken left tail light. But the reports, some of which described the man as dark-skinned or Middle Eastern, were not consistent.
"The only common denominator thus far is male," Montgomery County Police Captain Nancy Demme said. "We don't have a refined description to go by. I know that's not what the public wants to hear.
"There are a couple of people who believe they saw a man shoot. Unfortunately distance and darkness and perhaps adrenaline have made them unable to give a clear description."
One witness said the sniper used an AK-74 rifle to kill Mrs Franklin, 47, on Monday night outside a DIY store in Falls Church, northern Virginia. Police said the weapon could fire the .223-calibre round recovered from some of the shooting scenes.
Nine people have been killed and two wounded by the sniper in Maryland, Virginia and Washington in two weeks.
Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, agreed on Tuesdayto provide military surveillance aircraft in the hunt for the killer, a Pentagon spokesman said. The US army also is searching its records for people with sniper training.
Tom Ridge, the Homeland Security Director, said investigators were hesitant to rule out the possibility that the killings were the work of a terrorist because there was no hard evidence of a motive. (AP)
* 20th Century Fox has confirmed that because of the shootings it will delay the release of Phone Booth, a movie about people being pinned down by a sniper.
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