Series of raids going on across the country--possible sniper link?

[Blondie]

Fox News just broke in on Seinfeld to say police are conducting raids across the country....very vague info right now, but they led the audience to believe it has something to do with the sniper.

Fox News had film footage of a raid in progress in Tacoma Washington.

Strange...........:confused:

Anyone with other info?


*edited for typos--I HATE that!*

[Blondie]

Fox News also said that Chief Moose abruptly ended the conference...

and I just found this:

Chief scraps announcement

The Associated Press,
WFLS News
(Rockville-AP) -- Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose has canceled plans to make an announcement.

Spokeswoman Joyce Utter says "developments have come up" requiring the chief's attention. Another department spokeswoman, Nancy Demme says -- "the investigation has taken us down different avenues and roads that we need to explore."

Neither would elaborate.

Earlier this evening, reporters were told that Moose would be out at six pm to make an announcement and would not take any questions. Utter now says there are no immediate plans for Moose to face reporters tonight. His next scheduled briefing is at noon tomorrow.

[Nancy]

I haven't watched TV yet tonight, but I'm going to do so right now! Thanks for the heads up on this situation.

[abaldacci]

tell me more I haven't seen anything

[Blondie]

Fox News has on-going coverage right now.

CNN isn't reporting anything right now.

A news conference is about to take place in a few minutes, according to Fox News.

[ByTheSea]

Thanks for the updates. I know I really appreciate it.

One can only hope this is the sign of some much needed break in the case.

[Kteacher]

CNN has Connie Chung on right now reporting on it

[snoopy]

I've got nothing on my Fox news but commercials right now. Waiting patiently.

We don't get cable, so if its not on Fox, I'll have to depend on you guys to give me the rundown.

[Kteacher]

house in Tacoma being searched by ATF and FBI-focus is on the backyard

[snoopy]

Ugh, I have baseball on my Fox network. :(

[catsrule]

Please keep us updated, Blondie.:D

[C.Ann]

What the heck?? All the way over to the other side of the country?? HOW IS THIS MANIAC ACCOMPLISHING ALL OF THIS ?????????

Now I'm even more scared than I was before.. Think about what his note said - "Your children aren't safe ANYWHERE, anytime.." Does this mean he's starting up somewhere else??

Oh please - please - catch this lunatic before someone else dies.... :(

Keep us posted PLEASE - I'm not near a t.v. right now..

[Kteacher]

tree stump removed from back yard that had been used for target practice. Part of house was rented ou by owner.

[bumcat]

They think it might be an ex soldier that use to live there.
They are hoping to find the same bullets in the tree stump if he used the back yard for target practicing, I think the ex soldier part is speculative?

[bumcat]

Other search warrants are pending around the country.

[Claudia1]

I'm coming in at the middle here.......

How do the news people know that this is related to the sniper? Did the Tacoma police make a statement?

[Kteacher]

Tacoma police are referring all questions to the FBI

[SplshMtn99]

This is a search that's been going on for a good part of the day. Like previously stated, mainly focusing in the back yard of a house that was rented some time ago by an individual in a lower-income family neighborhood near a military base. (words of a neighbor to that house)

The individual no longer lives there.

Search does not appear to be of urgent nature. Lots of people standing around. No attempt to block view of news helicopter. Police not stopping crowd. Simply blocked off the street for police vehicles & equipment.

[bumcat]

Breaking news: it is the home of a former, ft. louis (sp?) soldier and they have asked the army base to cooperate.

[Blondie]

From my local newspaper's website:

Tacoma Search Said Related to Sniper
By ALLEN G. BREED
Associated Press Writer

KENSINGTON, Md. (AP) _ The search for the sniper stalking the suburbs of the nation's capital stretched across the country Wednesday as FBI agents converged on a home in Tacoma, Wash., with metal detectors and chain saws.

The agents, acting on information from the sniper task force, were seeking evidence related to ammunition, a senior law enforcement official in Washington, D.C., said on condition of anonymity.

The development raised hopes that investigators had a lead in the shooting spree that has left 10 people dead and three others critically wounded since Oct. 2. But the source said no arrests were expected soon.

FBI spokesman Ray Lauer in nearby Seattle confirmed the FBI search in Tacoma but refused to say why.

The back yard of the duplex was divided into grids, and agents swept metal detectors back and forth over the ground. Other crews used chain saws to remove a stump from the yard and load it onto a truck.

Neighbors said the search had been going on for much of the day. The source said the warrant was executed with the property owner's consent.

Meanwhile, worried parents across the Washington area sent their children off to school with extra-tight hugs, defying the sniper's warning that children are not safe "anywhere, at any time." Thousands of others kept their kids at home.

As expected, investigators confirmed that a bus driver shot to death on Tuesday was the sniper's 13th victim in the three-week rampage.

They also urged immigrants to come forward with any information without fear of deportation, and the governor raised the possibility of posting National Guardsman at Maryland polls on Nov. 5 unless the killer is caught.

Ballistics and other evidence connected the slaying of Conrad Johnson, 35, to the sniper, said Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Investigators waited three days to reveal the threat against children, which was contained in a letter found after a shooting Saturday in Ashland, Va.

Bouchard insisted vital information was not being withheld.

"We're all parents and are certainly concerned about the safety of our kids and of our co-workers," he said. He said if information is released too early, "it inhibits our ability to do the job we need to be doing."

For the first time in three days, Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose did not issue a public statement to the sniper. A news briefing was scheduled, then abruptly canceled just before word leaked of the search in Washington state.

"The investigation has taken us down different avenues and roads that we need to explore," police spokeswoman Capt. Nancy C. Demme said without elaboration.

Earlier this week, Moose had implored the sniper to contact authorities and continue a dialogue, and he suggested police were having trouble complying with undisclosed demands.

The latest message believed to be from the killer was a letter found not far from where the bus driver was slain, two law enforcement sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The message reportedly demands $10 million _ the same request sources say was made in Saturday's letter.

Tensions remained high. Authorities briefly shut down an interstate northwest of Washington after a report that men in a white truck had pointed a gun at a school bus. Police said they could not confirm whether the driver actually saw a gun.

Officials urged witnesses to come forward without fear of getting in trouble because of their immigration status. On Monday, police detained two men for questioning in the case and later turned them over to federal authorities for deportation.

"We just have concerns that some people in the immigrant community didn't come forward," Moose said.

Meanwhile, schools across the region reported below-average attendance Wednesday.

There was no bus service for 3,800 special education students in Washington, and the overall attendance rate was just 75 percent, down 10 percent. In Prince George's County, Md., attendance was about 91 percent, down 4 percent from an average day.

In Montgomery County, where the shootings began and where Johnson was slain Tuesday, attendance dropped to 89 percent. Attendance had been running about 95 percent, even as the school district joined others in "code blue" security status _ meaning no outdoor activities or field trips.

"I'm not afraid of the sniper," said 17-year-old Heather Willson, a senior at Albert Einstein High School. "My school's fairly closed in, and we're pretty good at our code blue. I mean, I don't see any reason why he's going to change his tactics now and come inside and start shooting up students."

Schools in the Richmond, Va., area opened Wednesday for the first time this week, but attendance was lighter than usual.

Kim Arthur decided to walk 8-year-old son Stephen to John M. Gandy Elementary School in Ashland, Va.. "We can't keep our kids from doing what they usually do," Arthur said. "That would scare them even more."

At Rock View Elementary in Kensington, physical education teacher Terry Dorfman stood on the sidewalk, swinging his arm like a traffic cop to urge children to move quickly inside.

"Now he's starting to talk about kids, and the targets are schools," Dorfman said as he patted children on the shoulder. "And it's a teacher's job to protect the kids."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Allen G. Breed is the AP's Southeast regional writer, based in Raleigh, N.C. Associated Press writers John Solomon and Stephen Manning contributed to this report.

___

[Mamu]

Oh Blondie this looks promising. I hope and pray they get this guy soon.

I can't image living with this horror.

[Blondie]

I don't have my hopes up just yet...look what happened on Monday when they arrested the two men who were making a phone call.

[ncligs]

Originally posted by Blondie
I don't have my hopes up just yet...look what happened on Monday when they arrested the two men who were making a phone call.
I agree......... :(

[Planogirl]

Thanks Blondie and everyone else posting updates. This news about the house in Washington is really strange. :confused:

[bumcat]

They are positive that the next search warrant is going to be in Alabama.

[laurenk]

Now they are looking for a blue and burgandy 1990 Chevy Caprice with New Jersey plates.

[bumcat]

Search warrants are underway in perry co. alabama, sounds like they said marion, alabama?