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American Morning
Police Investigating Murder of Falls Church Woman
Aired October 15, 2002 - 08:32 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Police are investigating the murder of a woman in Falls Church, Virginia last night. The case bears all of the markings of the work that has been done by the sniper already, which has taken eight lives.
Michael Okwu joins us now live from Falls Church with the very latest.
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
To be here in the Washington D.C. area is like experiencing a collective nightmare, and if there is any sort of relative calm following nearly 84 hours of silence since the last shooting, that abruptly came to an end at about 9:15 last night, a woman shot in the parking lot of Home Depot here in Falls Church, Virginia. Her husband by her side.
Authorities here saying it is just too early to say whether this specific shooting is connected to a spate of shootings that started on October 2nd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TOM MANGER, FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE: I know that the question in everyone's mind is, is this shooting related to the others that we've had in the area? It's too early to tell at this point, however, we are working it and investigating it with that potential in mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OKWU: Now, this area is called the Seven Corners, as in the Seven Corners shopping mall, and it's called Seven Corners for a very specific reason, which fits into the sniper's MO, which is the point that this is an area that has a number of roadways leading into it, 395, the I-95, Route 66 and also Routes 50 and 7. Essentially, as one resident here in the area put it, a labyrinth of roads that could provide very easy access in and easy access out.
Authorities saying that they are looking for a cream-colored Astrovan. At least one eyewitness here said that they saw such a van, and a van that authorities say has a taillight broken in its back and it has a silver traveling rack on top of it.
We're hoping to get a little bit more information at about 9:00, when officials will be out here again to give us a briefing. We hope that we might be able to hear the latest on the ballistics evidence -- Paula.
ZAHN: So I'm just trying to think, we just showed a map and a labyrinth of roads. One of the experts told Bill that her greatest fear is not even some of those major thoroughfares, but some of the small roads behind the shopping complex.
OKWU: Oh, that's exactly right. I mean, if this is somebody who knows the area, and everybody is speculating about who this person is, obviously, then this person could have done his or her homework and just decided to pick a route and pick an escape route. It would be the thing to do.
So authorities can come in here very quickly and set up roadblocks and effectively try to set up some sort of dragnet, but this person could have planned very meticulously the smaller routes to get out of here quickly and on time -- Paula.
ZAHN; Michael Okwu, 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
Aired October 15, 2002 - 08:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Police are investigating the murder of a woman in Falls Church, Virginia last night. The case bears all of the markings of the work that has been done by the sniper already, which has taken eight lives.
Michael Okwu joins us now live from Falls Church with the very latest.
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
To be here in the Washington D.C. area is like experiencing a collective nightmare, and if there is any sort of relative calm following nearly 84 hours of silence since the last shooting, that abruptly came to an end at about 9:15 last night, a woman shot in the parking lot of Home Depot here in Falls Church, Virginia. Her husband by her side.
Authorities here saying it is just too early to say whether this specific shooting is connected to a spate of shootings that started on October 2nd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TOM MANGER, FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE: I know that the question in everyone's mind is, is this shooting related to the others that we've had in the area? It's too early to tell at this point, however, we are working it and investigating it with that potential in mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OKWU: Now, this area is called the Seven Corners, as in the Seven Corners shopping mall, and it's called Seven Corners for a very specific reason, which fits into the sniper's MO, which is the point that this is an area that has a number of roadways leading into it, 395, the I-95, Route 66 and also Routes 50 and 7. Essentially, as one resident here in the area put it, a labyrinth of roads that could provide very easy access in and easy access out.
Authorities saying that they are looking for a cream-colored Astrovan. At least one eyewitness here said that they saw such a van, and a van that authorities say has a taillight broken in its back and it has a silver traveling rack on top of it.
We're hoping to get a little bit more information at about 9:00, when officials will be out here again to give us a briefing. We hope that we might be able to hear the latest on the ballistics evidence -- Paula.
ZAHN: So I'm just trying to think, we just showed a map and a labyrinth of roads. One of the experts told Bill that her greatest fear is not even some of those major thoroughfares, but some of the small roads behind the shopping complex.
OKWU: Oh, that's exactly right. I mean, if this is somebody who knows the area, and everybody is speculating about who this person is, obviously, then this person could have done his or her homework and just decided to pick a route and pick an escape route. It would be the thing to do.
So authorities can come in here very quickly and set up roadblocks and effectively try to set up some sort of dragnet, but this person could have planned very meticulously the smaller routes to get out of here quickly and on time -- Paula.
ZAHN; Michael Okwu, 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
