Witness’ Sniper Tale Discarded

A witness’ account of a sniper suspect in a cream-colored van, which touched off a furious dragnet late Monday involving police helicopters and roadblocks in two states, has been thrown out, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

The latest frustration in the case underscored the scant evidence police have assembled, despite more than two weeks of shootings that have terrorized the Washington region, leaving nine dead and two wounded.

Investigators Thursday could not complete a composite drawing of a suspect or a getaway vehicle used in the most recent shooting, in Falls Church, Va., based on available information. Police also cast doubt on reports that a dark-skinned gunman fled the murder scene Monday night in Northern Virginia, an account that was provided by the discredited witness.

But they maintained that any damage to the investigation has been minimal. “I hope that this has not set back the investigation,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose. “Reports of the van were inaccurate, reports of an olive-skinned person were inaccurate,” the Maryland lawman said.

The witness, whom police declined to identify, emerged soon after the shooting of Linda Franklin outside a Falls Church Home Depot store.

Just minutes after the first officers from Fairfax, Va., arrived at the open-air parking structure where Franklin had been hit, police began taking action based on the witness’ account that an “olive-skinned” man driving a “cream-colored” van with a silver ladder rack on top and a burned-out left taillight had fled the scene. The witness also told police he had seen the gunman wield an AK-74, a .223-caliber assault rifle of Russian origin.

Based on that initial report, Fairfax police broadcast an alert for the suspect vehicle and driver. Officers raced into position on major highways, bridges and other roads, all in search of the cream-colored van.

“One of the alerts did come from this,” Fairfax Police spokeswoman Lt. Amy Lubas said Thursday. At the same time, she added, the erroneous lookout was one of a number of “bulletins and alerts sent all over the place that night” by police who were fed accounts by witnesses at the Home Depot and on the roads nearby. “Did it cripple the investigation? No,” Lubas said.

Investigators remain intensely interested in reports of a white van, possibly a Chevrolet Astro or Ford Econoline, and task force officials have released composite drawings of such vehicles based on witness accounts from a shooting in Spotsylvania County, Va. Police also have released a composite picture of a white box truck reported by witnesses near crime scenes in Montgomery County.

Dozens of light-colored vans were stopped after the shooting Monday night, and dark-skinned drivers were detained -- in some cases at gunpoint -- before they were released.

Police said Thursday they still were uncertain whether the witness had purposely given a false report or was overcome by the emotion of the moment. But Lubas said Fairfax police were suspicious enough of the man’s motives to launch “a secondary, separate investigation” of his actions. Lubas declined to say what charges the man might face, saying only that “there are a number of possibilities.”

In addition to his faulty descriptions of the van and its driver, the discredited witness also gave police a partial license plate number that proved false, police said. But investigators received other license plate reports they believe are credible, and those numbers are being run through the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles’ database, an official said.

At a news briefing, somber-looking officials announced that the witness account had fizzled, despite initial hopes that the careful sniper may have left critical evidence at the Home Depot shooting scene. Indeed, investigators were not willing to say even that the sniper was male or female, backing off previous conclusions that the killer is a man.

However, Police Chief Thomas Manger of Fairfax County said authorities are “following up on a number of leads.”

Investigators also cautioned the media about naming specific types of rifles that may have been used in the shootings because inaccurate reports could undermine witness accounts. On Thursday, Michael Bouchard, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told reporters that at least 30 types of rifles can discharge bullets of the .223 caliber that have been linked to the sniper attacks. “You can’t just go by what someone thinks it is,” he said.

Police officials refused to divulge whether the discredited witness was the same observer who reportedly saw a gunman firing a rifle at Franklin from 40 yards away. Such a primary witness would be crucial, officials said, because until the Home Depot shooting, no one had reported seeing the gunman fire a weapon during the previous attacks, which killed eight and wounded two.

Lubas and Montgomery County Police Capt. Kathy Demme would not say precisely what led investigators to question the story of the discredited witness.

It was only as investigators compared accounts from all of the Home Depot eyewitnesses, a federal task force official said, that the man’s story “looked more and more shaky.”

“This guy was talked to several times until we were sure there were too many inconsistencies,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. “It just didn’t add up.”

Demme added that investigators used some of the stronger, corroborated accounts from other observers to discredit the faulty witness’ statements.

The chilling episode of sniper shootings began with a fatality in suburban Maryland on the night of Oct. 2, exploding into a spree of four fatal shootings the next day. Overall, nine people have been killed.

Of the two wounded, a 13-year-old boy shot outside his middle school in Prince George’s County, Md., was upgraded Thursday from critical to serious condition, hospital officials said. The other surviving victim, a Virginia woman, was released from a hospital last week.

The sniper has not killed on weekends. The shootings have been concentrated on weekday mornings, as people head to work and school, and during the evenings. The scenes have tended to be near major highways. Four people have been shot while at gas stations and two people while loading packages into their cars.

The victims appear to be random strangers. Each has been shot one time by a rifle that probably could be used for military or hunting purposes.