◆ SpookStack

nto be Mord inside For police, pursuing the sniper is like chasing a ghost. Page C1. ‘Shooter's threat against children scares, enrages parents. Page C5 ‘Slain bus driver was ‘real family man,’ and a football fan. Page C5 | Dialogue stirs fears, ‘emotions . By KARI PUGH and KEITH EPPS THE FREE LANCE-STAR ‘ His first message was polite, if egomaniacal; “Dear Policeman, I am God” scrawled on a tarot death card. .But a three-page letter left at the , Scene of Saturday night’s Ashland 1 restaurant shooting was more ' befitting a man who hasnow killed ‘nine—maybe 10~and wounded ’ three: “Your children are not safe anywhere at any time.” Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler who lives in Spotsylvania County, called the reference to children “bone-chilling.” | “That is so cold, so calculating,” he said yesterday. “I’m groping for : ords to say how low I think that is.” . In the sniper’s long, rambling letter—riddled with misspellings and bad grammar—he adopted a threatening tone and demanded ‘; money to end his reign of Mary- i land-to-Richmond terror, mem- | bers of the task force h'unting the gunman said yesterday. The note ended with the ominous postscript about the children— something investigators had. private- ly shared with some school officials but not with the public. “You don’t know how desperate i | | we are to catch this bastard, especially after we saw that,” one ° weary task-force investigator said yesterday afternoon. . The killing spree began Oct. 2 in ' Rockville, Md., and now includes , nine deaths and three woundings in | Montgomery, Md.; Bowie, Md.; See MESSAGES, Page AG bus driver 13th victim By PAMELA GOULD and KARI PUGH THE FREE LANCE-STAR ROCKVILLE, Md.—Authorities trying to establish a dialogue with a serial sniper apparently got a deadly response yesterday, Roughly 86 hours after Mont- gomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose made his first public plea for the sniper to contact police, a Montgomery County bus driver was fatally wotinded as he stood on the top step of his empty bus, . Although ballistics tests had not yet confirmed that yesterday morn- ing’s shooting of 35-year-old Conrad Johnson was linked to a string of 12 other sniper attacks over the past three weeks, authorities are investi- gating as though it is. “The shooting this morning was his message back to Moose,” one investigator said yesterday. Authorities continued through yesterday to try to establish com- munication with the gunman, who - initiated a dialogue with a note left at the scene of his previous An investigator tags evidence along Connecticut Avenue attack—the wounding of a 37-year- after bus driver Conrad Johnson was shot yesterday morning in the Aspen Hill area of Sliver Spring, Md. Trick-or-treat off, schools old Florida man outside an Ash- See SNIPER, BACK PAGE De Sniper tips Hot line: cancel games and activities By BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER and CATHY JETT THE FREE LANCE-STAR No trick-or-treating in neighbor- hoods, No more soccer games this year No evening activities at school. Fredericksburg-area officials took new steps yesterday to protect children froma sniper who hasshotachild before and threatened to.do it again. “Your children are not safe any- where at any time,” the sniper wrote in a message ‘to police that was released yesterday. The gunman has killed at least nine people and critical- ly injured three others, including a Spotsylvania County woman. Schools in the Fredericksburg area have remained open throughout the 540/582-5822 sniper’s reign of terror. Students in the Richmond area are returning to class today after being out two days. Officials here said they were not privy to the details of the sniper’s letter to police—which influenced the Richmond schools’ decision to cancel classes. “Police in our jurisdictions said [Richmond-area schools] had a rea- son to close, but we were doing what we needed to do,” Fredericksburg Superintendent Dale Sander said. “You know they have reasons for limiting that information. You just have to trust them.” The overall climate of fear and uncer- tainty led the Spotsylvania County See SCHOOLS, Page AG E-mail: taskforce@ co.mo.md.us Web: www.fbi.gov/ sniper/ sniper.htm Reward: More than $500,000 Mail: Box 7875 Gaithersburg, d Md. 20898-7875