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CNN Sunday Morning
Search for D.C. Area Sniper Continues
Aired October 13, 2002 - 07:07 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about the serial killer, the sniper shootings that have terrorized neighborhoods around the nation's capitol. Bill Hemmer is standing by in Montgomery County, Maryland with more on the latest there. Good morning, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Renay, good morning to you.
Here's what we expect a bit later today: We're going to get a briefing in about two and half hours from the police chief, Charles Moose here, 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. What we are being told right now through Doug Duncan, the Montgomery County executive, is that there will be a picture released today, a separate picture from the one given out, the composite last night, of this Chevy Astro van that apparently was spotted by one or more witnesses on Friday morning down in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Whether or not this has anything to do with the latest murder on Friday morning is unclear, but again, we expect to release it, that photo, later today.
Also, we anticipate a larger photo to be released of that composite that was given out last night. Apparently, police investigators are hearing from people in the community that that dents in the back right part of that truck apparently is not as visible or as clear or as well defined as police had thought last night when they handed out the composite. Therefore, they're going to try to enlarge that and give it out a bit later today.
As to whether or not they're getting helpful information from the community, essentially, Doug Duncan is saying they are getting a lot of calls, but the question right now is, how reliable are those calls.
As you look at this composite -- this was what was given out last evening, about 5:00 local time here, in Rockville, Maryland. There are a few interesting characteristics they described. Number one, the witnesses -- they didn't say how many witnesses, but apparently a number of people -- did see a truck similar to the one in that composite. If we can go back to it quickly and again show our viewers, but all of this -- all of these witnesses, rather, only pertain to the incidents here in Montgomery County.
A couple of things. A rolled-up door in the rear is described. They talk about that bumper being damaged to the right rear. They mention oxidized paint, meaning that it could be an older truck. There is large lettering on the side, but there are unknown words written on the side of it. Apparently, the witnesses who saw this truck could not say what the words meant, therefore there is a long line of block letters, two rows, in fact, one large and the other stacked on top of one another. But no license tag number given by any of the witnesses. Nonetheless, that continues to be a major focal point for the investigation.
Meanwhile, let's take you back last night. Right around midnight, just south of Washington, D.C. -- give you an idea of just how jittery this area has become. There was a murder that took place. A woman was apparently suffering severe trauma to the upper part of her body. As a result of that, police went into quick action, shutting down the highways in the areas, closing off the major roads, carrying out inspections as well. The freeway was blocked, as I mentioned. Shut it down for about 30 minutes. Later, when it was revealed that this murder was unrelated to the string of serial snipings in the area, they allowed the roads to open up once again.
The point of all this, in Prince George's County, is just how quickly authorities are responding right now.
On Friday morning, we were told down in Fredericksburg, Virginia that within seven minutes of that shot being fired at that Exxon station, taking the life of 53-year-old Kenneth Bridges, that the on ramps and the exit ramps were shut down within seven minutes. It was a very quick response time, but apparently not quick enough for that dragnet to be put in place and find the killer or killers involved in that.
Again, as I mentioned earlier, we'll get a briefing here in about two and a half hours. We may hear more. Facts are few and precious right now. But it's quite possible we'll get more from the chief later this morning here, Sunday morning. Renay, back to you.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. Bill Hemmer, we'll be standing by all throughout this morning here on CNN Sunday morning, to give us the latest on these sniper shootings. Bill, thank you very much for that.
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 13, 2002 - 07:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about the serial killer, the sniper shootings that have terrorized neighborhoods around the nation's capitol. Bill Hemmer is standing by in Montgomery County, Maryland with more on the latest there. Good morning, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Renay, good morning to you.
Here's what we expect a bit later today: We're going to get a briefing in about two and half hours from the police chief, Charles Moose here, 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. What we are being told right now through Doug Duncan, the Montgomery County executive, is that there will be a picture released today, a separate picture from the one given out, the composite last night, of this Chevy Astro van that apparently was spotted by one or more witnesses on Friday morning down in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Whether or not this has anything to do with the latest murder on Friday morning is unclear, but again, we expect to release it, that photo, later today.
Also, we anticipate a larger photo to be released of that composite that was given out last night. Apparently, police investigators are hearing from people in the community that that dents in the back right part of that truck apparently is not as visible or as clear or as well defined as police had thought last night when they handed out the composite. Therefore, they're going to try to enlarge that and give it out a bit later today.
As to whether or not they're getting helpful information from the community, essentially, Doug Duncan is saying they are getting a lot of calls, but the question right now is, how reliable are those calls.
As you look at this composite -- this was what was given out last evening, about 5:00 local time here, in Rockville, Maryland. There are a few interesting characteristics they described. Number one, the witnesses -- they didn't say how many witnesses, but apparently a number of people -- did see a truck similar to the one in that composite. If we can go back to it quickly and again show our viewers, but all of this -- all of these witnesses, rather, only pertain to the incidents here in Montgomery County.
A couple of things. A rolled-up door in the rear is described. They talk about that bumper being damaged to the right rear. They mention oxidized paint, meaning that it could be an older truck. There is large lettering on the side, but there are unknown words written on the side of it. Apparently, the witnesses who saw this truck could not say what the words meant, therefore there is a long line of block letters, two rows, in fact, one large and the other stacked on top of one another. But no license tag number given by any of the witnesses. Nonetheless, that continues to be a major focal point for the investigation.
Meanwhile, let's take you back last night. Right around midnight, just south of Washington, D.C. -- give you an idea of just how jittery this area has become. There was a murder that took place. A woman was apparently suffering severe trauma to the upper part of her body. As a result of that, police went into quick action, shutting down the highways in the areas, closing off the major roads, carrying out inspections as well. The freeway was blocked, as I mentioned. Shut it down for about 30 minutes. Later, when it was revealed that this murder was unrelated to the string of serial snipings in the area, they allowed the roads to open up once again.
The point of all this, in Prince George's County, is just how quickly authorities are responding right now.
On Friday morning, we were told down in Fredericksburg, Virginia that within seven minutes of that shot being fired at that Exxon station, taking the life of 53-year-old Kenneth Bridges, that the on ramps and the exit ramps were shut down within seven minutes. It was a very quick response time, but apparently not quick enough for that dragnet to be put in place and find the killer or killers involved in that.
Again, as I mentioned earlier, we'll get a briefing here in about two and a half hours. We may hear more. Facts are few and precious right now. But it's quite possible we'll get more from the chief later this morning here, Sunday morning. Renay, back to you.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. Bill Hemmer, we'll be standing by all throughout this morning here on CNN Sunday morning, to give us the latest on these sniper shootings. Bill, thank you very much for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
