Metro D.C. seeks calm amid gunfire

It's the keenest challenge for law enforcement: how to find a killer or killers who are randomly targeting victims from shopping centers to gas stations to middle schools with no apparent motive to link the crimes.

The intent, at least on the surface, appears to be to instill terror. With the shooting of a 13-year-old boy outside a Maryland middle school Monday morning, the eighth apparent victim in six days, the gunman or gunmen is succeeding on that front.

Thousands of parents pulled their kids out of schools, as extracurricular and outside activities were canceled. Usually busy shopping malls, gas stations, and neighborhood streets were quiet. Police throughout the Washington metropolitan area were on heightened alert, guarding morning commuters from rooftops and squad cars.

Speculation on a motive of the skilled marksman or men is also running rampant – from a generalized hatred of humanity to a delusional sense of omnipotence to links to the Al Qaeda network. Or maybe even killings as a twisted form of sport.

Whatever the motive, the key, say criminologists, is for the public not to give in to the fear and for the media not to inadvertently glorify the shooter or shooters. "It's really critical that the media coverage focuses on the killings and not the killer, that they shed light on the crimes without putting a spotlight on the perpetrators," says James Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. "You don't want to intensify their feelings of importance and invincibility. It's a fine line."

As of Monday morning, police had not definitively tied Monday's school shooting to the other attacks. While the random nature has many of the hallmarks of the earlier incidents, it could be a copycat or unrelated event.

Still, it's occurring in the current atmosphere of intensified fear. "We all live around there," says Mark Jones, a resident who was walking near Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Md. "It could have been me or my neighbor. I didn't know what was going on."

School security was stepped up throughout the Washington metropolitan region. Prince George's County put all schools on a "code blue" lockdown status, as police swarmed the middle school crime scene and crisis intervention counselors arrived to begin aiding students and parents.

In neighboring Montgomery County, Md., "code blue" was also adopted as a precaution, with outdoor recess and field trips canceled, and tightly restricted access to and movement inside the schools. Washington, D.C., schools curbed outdoor activities as well.

"We'll still make sure kids get their bathroom breaks and get lunch," says Brian Porter of Montgomery County schools. "But we keep them away from the windows."

Page: 1 | 2