World News 08-10-2002 Mystery DC Sniper Shoots 13 Year-old who: Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau what: Says shooting of 13 year-old is linked to last week`s mystery sniper attacks where: Washington DC when: Yesterday snippet: "The sniper terrorising Washington`s suburbs appeared to have struck again yesterday," reports The Independent, "shooting and critically wounding a 13-year-old boy who was being dropped off at school by his aunt." At 8.09am, the unnamed boy was hit in the chest by a single shot, seemingly out of nowhere, fired with deadly precision, says The Guardian. Immediately following the shooting, pupils were continuing to arrive at Benjamin Tasker middle school in the suburb of Bowie "with school buses blundering unawares into a crime scene," writes Suzanne Goldenberg. The shooting follows the random killing last week of six members of the public and the non-fatal shooting of a seventh, says The Times. "The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms bureau, which is in charge of the forensic investigation, confirmed last night that the shooting was linked to the other sniper attacks that have terrified the Washington area." Police currently appear to be no clearer to identifying a suspect for the seemingly senseless attacks, except to say that they are looking for an expert marksman. The killer uses a high-powered rifle "that can carve a cup-sized hole out of its victim at a distance of several football pitches," says The Scotsman. But like the white van spotted by one witness last week, that knowledge brings them no closer to an arrest. "The .223 calibre shells he fired are used by the US Olympic team, as popular with target shooters as they were in Vietnam." [... more]

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