Friday’s attack at a Spotsylvania County, Va., gas station, if ultimately linked to the string of sniper shootings in the region, would represent the most brazen assault yet by a gunman who has eluded a massive manhunt while seeming to taunt his pursuers, experts said Friday.
The fatal shot, striking a man within 50 yards of a Virginia state trooper working an accident scene, added to the picture of a killer who enjoys not only taking lives but also the enormous response to his acts by police, news organizations and ordinary people. Experts say the shooter in his most recent series of attacks has offered a direct challenge to those who have criticized him–or begged for him to stop.
“The first shootings, that was a nice, big, fast spree. After that, they’re all reactionary. He’s reacting to the press,” said Brent Turvey, a forensic scientist who wrote a textbook on profiling criminals. “He’s proving to everybody that he’s not a coward, he’s not a loser. … The thing that started him off, that was spent on the first day.”
Authorities were trying to determine whether the attack that killed a 53-year-old salesman from Philadelphia is the latest in a harrowing 10-day series of shootings, which included five fatal attacks in one day last week.
The gunman has adopted a more deliberate pace the past week, beginning with Monday’s serious wounding of 13-year-old boy in Bowie, Md. The gunman also has broadened his geographic range and offered more clues.
A tarot card found at the Bowie scene said, “Mister Policeman, I am God”–a statement widely interpreted as a taunt to authorities.
“It’s still a shooting spree, but as the media attention and the police attention goes on, you get a little bit more careful,” said Michael McGrath, president of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling, which is meeting for its annual convention in Chicago. Among the topics scheduled for discussion are the Washington-area shootings.
In Friday’s attack, there was both the trooper across the street from the gas station and a State Police barracks a quarter-mile away.
The trooper, who attended to the fallen man at the gas station, reported he did not see the attacker. Although police soon brought traffic to a near-standstill in their hunt for the gunman in a white van, there was no immediate success. A fresh wave of dread swept the region.
Yet even with a mounting number of incidents, recurring patterns and the clue of the tarot card, those who study criminal behavior caution that little can be deduced about the gunman or any possible accomplices. There is not enough evidence in the public domain to draw a clear portrait of the killer or to narrow the list of suspects.
Although some experts see significance in the recent choice of gas stations for the attacks, it might be nothing more than a convenience based on the vulnerability of motorists as they pump gas in well-lit areas by highway ramps.
“These are good hunting grounds, so to speak,” McGrath said. “For all you and I know,” he added, “this could be a 17-year-old kid whose father doesn’t even know his rifle is missing.”
But others go farther, saying it’s clear the shooter has growing confidence even as he gets more careful about his means of escape. His continued success–even in the face of the tremendous resources devoted to his capture–fuels his sense of invulnerability, they say.
“We can hope this sense of confidence will continue,” said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University, “that he’ll take more chances. As he continues, he will get more cocky. He will get more smug. Eventually, his luck will run out.”
Unlike most mass killers, who target specific individuals or groups of people, the sniper–assuming there is one shooter–is killing for effect, to generate terror in the Washington region, Fox said. For that reason, he said he believes the gunman is deriving pleasure hearing police and politicians in recent days pleading with him to stop killing.
“I’m sure the gunman enjoyed that,” Fox said, adding that officials should pick their words more carefully. “That’s begging. In the same way that a serial killer might enjoy watching his victim beg for mercy.”
