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Quiet Weekend Making Way for Disquieting Work Week

Aired October 14, 2002 - 10:06   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The quiet weekend is making way for a disquieting work week. Many are wondering if the sniper will repeat last week's pattern, we talked about this earlier, taking the weekend off, only to come back and strike again at the beginning of the work week. For a sampling of the what the mood is like in and around the beltway this morning, let's check in now with Mitchell Miller of the Washington radio station WTOP. Mitchell has been chipping in and helping out quite a bit here with us, with the coverage.
Mitchell, thanks for taking time to talk with us once again today. What are you seeing and hearing as you talk to folks and drive around the area there?

MITCHELL MILLER, WTOP RADIO: Well, we're seeing a lot of tension still in the air around here. The local schools, for example, even though a lot of them are off today, because of the Columbus Day holiday, many of them still under the restrictions that they left off with last Friday. Several of the larger school systems right outside of Washington, many of the events still canceled through tomorrow. A lot of kids who were going to play football, for example, today in Prince George's County, they had rescheduled a lot of games for today. All of a sudden, over the weekend, late in the weekend, it was decided that that would not be done.

So a lot of family plans that were in limbo over the weekend still a little bit in limbo this morning.

HARRIS: Any sense at all about whether or not there's going to be a change in some of the precautions that the schools are going to be taking, when they do reopen tomorrow to sort of bring down the tension level at all, or what?

MILLER: Right now, looks like a lot of them are going to be reassessing the situation later today and, probably tomorrow afternoon. I think that a lot of these restrictions will hold through tomorrow morning, because, let's face it, nobody really knows when the sniper is going to attack again if, in fact, that happens again.

Certainly, we know that over the course of these shootings, they have tended to happen roughly over 48-hour periods. So this morning, for example, there was a lot of tension in the air as people headed to work.

Our reporter was out this morning checking with people, just to see how businesses and gas stations have been doing. And, of course, a lot of the gas stations, the behavior we've talked about, has been changing. But also what we're finding in the Washington area is there is a lot lower number of people coming into major businesses. A lot of the supermarkets, for example, say that their traffic is off, that a lot of people don't really show up as they usually do on certain times of the day. So it's affecting businesses as well as behavior around here.

HARRIS: Interesting. Let me ask you about this graphic that was released, the composite photograph of the white box truck that we've been talking about so much over the last two weeks. They released this photo and they're asking folks to call in with any tips they may have on this. We have a picture on the screen right now. Do you know whether or not they've actually gotten any calls because of the release of these composite photos, Mitchell.

MILLER: They actually have got a lot of calls in connection, specifically, with the photograph, the composite. But it is unclear at this point exactly what type of information they're getting in connection with it. We talked just a little while ago about this other composite that's going to be coming out, and it now appears that one's going to be delayed. It looks like the composite of the minivan that we talked so much about on Friday, they'd hoped to get that out early today. It looks like that's going to be held off now.

The next news briefing, as I understand it, from the regional task force is now scheduled for noon. So perhaps we'll find out a little bit more about how much information we're getting in connection with the box white truck and, perhaps, also as well about the new composite that's coming out?

HARRIS: All right, and what about the white Chevy Astrovan they're talking about?

MILLER: That's the one they'd like to get more information about. People will recall that on Friday, that was the one where a lot of people, at least compared to the other incidents, seemed to get a fairly good look at that van, and that was the one where they thought they saw two people inside pulling away from the exit down there in the Massaponax area, south of Fredericksburg, right after the shooting occurred at the Exxon station. So while there have been lots of calls in connection with that one as well, it's still not clear what that van's role may have been in the shooting.

All right. Mitchell Miller, from WTOP Radio. Thanks once again, Mitch. Appreciate it. Be careful out there. We hope to talk with you later on about this, and hopefully for some better news as well.

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







Aired October 14, 2002 - 10:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The quiet weekend is making way for a disquieting work week. Many are wondering if the sniper will repeat last week's pattern, we talked about this earlier, taking the weekend off, only to come back and strike again at the beginning of the work week. For a sampling of the what the mood is like in and around the beltway this morning, let's check in now with Mitchell Miller of the Washington radio station WTOP. Mitchell has been chipping in and helping out quite a bit here with us, with the coverage.
Mitchell, thanks for taking time to talk with us once again today. What are you seeing and hearing as you talk to folks and drive around the area there?

MITCHELL MILLER, WTOP RADIO: Well, we're seeing a lot of tension still in the air around here. The local schools, for example, even though a lot of them are off today, because of the Columbus Day holiday, many of them still under the restrictions that they left off with last Friday. Several of the larger school systems right outside of Washington, many of the events still canceled through tomorrow. A lot of kids who were going to play football, for example, today in Prince George's County, they had rescheduled a lot of games for today. All of a sudden, over the weekend, late in the weekend, it was decided that that would not be done.

So a lot of family plans that were in limbo over the weekend still a little bit in limbo this morning.

HARRIS: Any sense at all about whether or not there's going to be a change in some of the precautions that the schools are going to be taking, when they do reopen tomorrow to sort of bring down the tension level at all, or what?

MILLER: Right now, looks like a lot of them are going to be reassessing the situation later today and, probably tomorrow afternoon. I think that a lot of these restrictions will hold through tomorrow morning, because, let's face it, nobody really knows when the sniper is going to attack again if, in fact, that happens again.

Certainly, we know that over the course of these shootings, they have tended to happen roughly over 48-hour periods. So this morning, for example, there was a lot of tension in the air as people headed to work.

Our reporter was out this morning checking with people, just to see how businesses and gas stations have been doing. And, of course, a lot of the gas stations, the behavior we've talked about, has been changing. But also what we're finding in the Washington area is there is a lot lower number of people coming into major businesses. A lot of the supermarkets, for example, say that their traffic is off, that a lot of people don't really show up as they usually do on certain times of the day. So it's affecting businesses as well as behavior around here.

HARRIS: Interesting. Let me ask you about this graphic that was released, the composite photograph of the white box truck that we've been talking about so much over the last two weeks. They released this photo and they're asking folks to call in with any tips they may have on this. We have a picture on the screen right now. Do you know whether or not they've actually gotten any calls because of the release of these composite photos, Mitchell.

MILLER: They actually have got a lot of calls in connection, specifically, with the photograph, the composite. But it is unclear at this point exactly what type of information they're getting in connection with it. We talked just a little while ago about this other composite that's going to be coming out, and it now appears that one's going to be delayed. It looks like the composite of the minivan that we talked so much about on Friday, they'd hoped to get that out early today. It looks like that's going to be held off now.

The next news briefing, as I understand it, from the regional task force is now scheduled for noon. So perhaps we'll find out a little bit more about how much information we're getting in connection with the box white truck and, perhaps, also as well about the new composite that's coming out?

HARRIS: All right, and what about the white Chevy Astrovan they're talking about?

MILLER: That's the one they'd like to get more information about. People will recall that on Friday, that was the one where a lot of people, at least compared to the other incidents, seemed to get a fairly good look at that van, and that was the one where they thought they saw two people inside pulling away from the exit down there in the Massaponax area, south of Fredericksburg, right after the shooting occurred at the Exxon station. So while there have been lots of calls in connection with that one as well, it's still not clear what that van's role may have been in the shooting.

All right. Mitchell Miller, from WTOP Radio. Thanks once again, Mitch. Appreciate it. Be careful out there. We hope to talk with you later on about this, and hopefully for some better news as well.

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