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Breaking News

Police in Maryland Probing Five Fatal Shootings in 16 Hours

Aired October 03, 2002 - 14:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As we continue to follow this breaking news story, there's another breaking news story that we've been following all morning and that is the shooting -- the shooting death of five individuals in the Maryland suburb of Washington.
Our Bob Franken has been following this story as police are still searching for the shooter.

Bob, do you have new information for us?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I wanted to tell you that just moments ago, some police cars went screaming past us with their sirens going. We see that a helicopter is hovering overhead.

We have no idea how significant that is, if it's even connected to the incidents that have happened out here and of course, we'll keep you updated on that as soon as we know more.

But in any case, that just occurred moments ago with no information about why they were tearing down, heading in that direction.

What we do know now is that police have just held a news conference, spent time talking about the fact that the massive search in this area involved a variety of secret service, FBI, county police departments, including, of course, Montgomery County here, the Washington D.C. police departments, the Maryland state police, all looking for those people or person involved in five shootings that the police believe were random shootings that occurred last night.

The first one at 5:20 p.m. Nobody was hit in that particular one, but the police say was involved. Starting about 40 minutes later, another shooting in which somebody was shot and killed.

And these are shootings that have occurred this morning, one of them occurred right in back of me at this gas station, where a taxicab driver was filling his car when he was shot and killed.

Another one occurred at a Shell station -- this was a Mobil station in back of me -- at a Shell station further down the road, where a woman was vacuuming her car when she was shot and killed.

Police are kind of coy about the witnesses possibility, but one witness, they said, discussed the possibility that the car that the shooters were using, and I say shooters for this reason: may have had two occupants. Police are not sure of that. They also say that one witness said there was some sort of black lettering on the side of a vehicle, a box type van that had a broken tailgate. All of this kind of flimsy information right now, but the police are flooding the area.

Now, schools in Montgomery County, which is a suburban county north of Washington -- schools in Montgomery County and D.C. are shut down to the point that the students who are there are being kept inside, no recess or anything like that for obvious reasons.

The police said that they are working on plans now to close the schools, that at each of the schools that's affected, there will be a patrol car, police patrol on the scene to make sure that the children are safe.

Of course, one of the big things they've been trying to do out here is to make sure the parents who would, for good reason, be worried, don't worry. They say that the people whoa re in the schools, the children who are in the schools are as safe as can be.

But there is going to be a police presence at both the schools. There has not been a shooting incident since about 10:00 this morning. Police, of course, have this massive search that's going on, helicopters, a variety of agencies from around the area and as I just said, police cars went screaming to a location that way and there are some helicopters in the area. Don't know at this point if it has any consequence.

Obviously, we'll keep you apprised, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bob Franken, we'll continue to follow that breaking news story out of Montgomery County, Washington (sic).

Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Hours>


Aired October 3, 2002 - 14:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As we continue to follow this breaking news story, there's another breaking news story that we've been following all morning and that is the shooting -- the shooting death of five individuals in the Maryland suburb of Washington.
Our Bob Franken has been following this story as police are still searching for the shooter.

Bob, do you have new information for us?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I wanted to tell you that just moments ago, some police cars went screaming past us with their sirens going. We see that a helicopter is hovering overhead.

We have no idea how significant that is, if it's even connected to the incidents that have happened out here and of course, we'll keep you updated on that as soon as we know more.

But in any case, that just occurred moments ago with no information about why they were tearing down, heading in that direction.

What we do know now is that police have just held a news conference, spent time talking about the fact that the massive search in this area involved a variety of secret service, FBI, county police departments, including, of course, Montgomery County here, the Washington D.C. police departments, the Maryland state police, all looking for those people or person involved in five shootings that the police believe were random shootings that occurred last night.

The first one at 5:20 p.m. Nobody was hit in that particular one, but the police say was involved. Starting about 40 minutes later, another shooting in which somebody was shot and killed.

And these are shootings that have occurred this morning, one of them occurred right in back of me at this gas station, where a taxicab driver was filling his car when he was shot and killed.

Another one occurred at a Shell station -- this was a Mobil station in back of me -- at a Shell station further down the road, where a woman was vacuuming her car when she was shot and killed.

Police are kind of coy about the witnesses possibility, but one witness, they said, discussed the possibility that the car that the shooters were using, and I say shooters for this reason: may have had two occupants. Police are not sure of that. They also say that one witness said there was some sort of black lettering on the side of a vehicle, a box type van that had a broken tailgate. All of this kind of flimsy information right now, but the police are flooding the area.

Now, schools in Montgomery County, which is a suburban county north of Washington -- schools in Montgomery County and D.C. are shut down to the point that the students who are there are being kept inside, no recess or anything like that for obvious reasons.

The police said that they are working on plans now to close the schools, that at each of the schools that's affected, there will be a patrol car, police patrol on the scene to make sure that the children are safe.

Of course, one of the big things they've been trying to do out here is to make sure the parents who would, for good reason, be worried, don't worry. They say that the people whoa re in the schools, the children who are in the schools are as safe as can be.

But there is going to be a police presence at both the schools. There has not been a shooting incident since about 10:00 this morning. Police, of course, have this massive search that's going on, helicopters, a variety of agencies from around the area and as I just said, police cars went screaming to a location that way and there are some helicopters in the area. Don't know at this point if it has any consequence.

Obviously, we'll keep you apprised, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bob Franken, we'll continue to follow that breaking news story out of Montgomery County, Washington (sic).

Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Hours>