[Connie Chung, Cnn Anchor:] Good evening, I'm Connie Chung. tonight, life in the crosshairs, and the desperate search to stop a sniper before he strikes again.
[Announcer:] Tonight a community gripped by fear and anger; a high caliber killer on the loose, hundreds of leads and still no suspects.
[Chief Charles Moose, Montgomery County Police:] Now, we're stepping over the line because our children don't deserve this.
[Announcer:] Tonight: What does it take to find a serial sniper?
[Aileen Wuornos, Female Serial Killer:] I'm so sick of hearing that "she's crazy." I've been evaluated so many times. I'm competent, sane, and I'm trying to tell the truth.
[Announcer:] Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer who took the lives of six men, tonight on the eve of her execution the family of one of her victims shares their story with Connie. He's taking on the coaching ranks of the NFL. He's defending the man who says these cops went too far; tonight, Johnny Cochran on the case with Connie. This is CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT live from the CNN broadcast center in New York Connie Chung.
[Chung:] Good evening. Tonight for miles around Washington, D.C. you could sense the fear, parents picking up their kids at school rather than letting them take the bus, extra security on Capitol Hill, schools canceling outdoor activities, Starbucks rolling up outdoor seating at dozens and dozens of locations. With eight bullets, a sniper or snipers took down eight victims. Six of the shots were fatal. Each time the shooter lined up the victim from a hidden vantage point. But tonight, there is some new evidence. CNN's Kathleen Koch is on the story.
[Kathleen Koch, Cnn Correspondent:] Critical evidence, a shell casing found in these woods at the sight of Monday's sniper shooting at a Maryland middle school.
[Chief Gerald Wilson, Prince George's County Police:] It was found over, I would say, 100 feet or yards into the woods on the same side as Benjamin Tasker. It could have been ejected from the weapons used by the suspect, could have been.
[Koch:] The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is performing analysis like this on the shell casing, looking for markings that would indicate the type and make of the rifle used. Police showed off a variety of cases they say the gunman might use to carry or hide the high-powered rifle, hoping the public might recognize something. Authorities are comparing the details of the eight shootings with crimes in databases across the country looking for similarities.
[Mike Bouchard, Special Agent, Atf:] We've entered the information from this case into that system to query if there are any other similar type projectiles or cartridge casings in that system nationwide.
[Koch:] Maryland's governor challenged the killer to surrender.
[Gov. Parris Glendening , Maryland:] We're talking about a person here who's basically a coward. This is not an individual who is out there doing something strong or manly or anything of this type.
[Koch:] Investigators now say it's possible the killer may have begun his attacks last month. September 14 a young man was shot with one bullet fired from a distance outside this store at a Montgomery County shopping center. He survived but ballistics tests on the bullet are inconclusive and officials are not ruling out a link with the other shootings. Tips in the shootings continue to grow, some 1,400, as does the reward now nearly $240,000. And finally one positive development in this tragic story, the Virginia woman shot Friday has been released from the hospital. Kathleen Koch CNN Montgomery County, Maryland.
[Chung:] And bringing us the latest information now on the investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Special Agent- in-Charge Michael Bouchard joining us from Rockville, Maryland. Good evening, Mr. Bouchard. Thank you for being with us. What is the latest on the investigation?
[Bouchard:] Well, we had a briefing earlier tonight. We're working just as hard as we have been throughout the weekend. We're bringing in another 25 agents from ATF to work on this case. As the amount of leads come in, all of the agencies involved are adding more resources as appropriate. The cooperation here is unprecedented. All the agencies are working closely together. Everyone is putting their best people forward. It's tough to even get the investigators to go home at the end of their shifts. Everyone is very determined to resolve this case as soon as possible.
[Chung:] That's reassuring to hear. Now, I'm told that there have been something like 7,500 tips from the tip line and 1,400 of those are credible leads. Have any of them panned out?
[Bouchard:] Well, Connie, we're looking at all the leads and we certainly don't want to prematurely identify anyone as a suspect. We're giving everyone a chance to explain any of their actions. We're thoroughly going to investigate any of the tips that come through and, quite frankly, the more tips we get the better off we are.
[Chung:] Are there any individuals who have come close to being suspects that you have questioned?
[Bouchard:] I really couldn't comment on that, Connie. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to talk about that right now.
[Chung:] Yes, sir. This is really quite astounding I would say, eight shots fired, six of them people have died, two seriously wounded, and yet am I correct in saying that there are no real witnesses to the specific shootings?
[Bouchard:] Well again, Connie, I couldn't say whether or not eyewitnesses have seen anything. We're certainly continuing to investigate this case and interview anyone who has been in the area at the times of these shootings.
[Chung:] Would you say, sir, that in many ways this is a national manhunt because anything that you can pull in, in terms of evidence, would be applicable?
[Bouchard:] Certainly and in the case of the ballistics, we've entered that into the National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network and we're querying that system regionally first and then we've expanded that out to the United States to see if any of the ballistics evidence that we've recovered here is consistent with any in the rest of the United States.
[Chung:] How would you characterize what is going on here? I mean would you say that this is a man who's playing a deadly game of catch me if you can?
[Bouchard:] I really don't know what the motive is of this person. You know all of us are just as concerned as the public is about this whole thing.
[Chung:] You know earlier I some might believe that authorities may have given this killer unwittingly a direction to go in and that is once a child was shot, authorities had just earlier said you know our schools are safe. Do you believe that there might have been an unwitting clue given to the killer to say yes, you can go there?
[Bouchard:] I'm really not sure about that. Again, that goes to the motivation of this person which I really don't know right now.
[Chung:] All right, one other thing. You said, sir that all of us have children going to school and obviously you do too. Isn't it difficult to feel that your children will be safe going to school?
[Bouchard:] Well it certainly is. It's tough more so to explain to your child why something like this would happen to a child going to school, and again I've said before just after the 911 tragedies, how do you explain that to your children when none of us had to go through that type of thing when we were a child? We don't have any of these types of experiences to talk to our children about, so it's just as tough for us to try and explain to them as it is for them to figure this out.
[Chung:] Obviously you have children, sir. What have you told your kids?
[Bouchard:] Yes, ma'am.
[Chung:] What have you told your kids?
[Bouchard:] Basically the good guys are going to win. They need to go on with their life, you know, just be a little more leery, that there are bumps in the road that they're going to have to go through with life and these are just some of them, but there's always a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
[Chung:] All right, Michael Bouchard thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate your time.
[Bouchard:] Thank you.
[Chung:] And with us now from Boston to talk about what could drive someone to pick up a rifle and go hunting for innocent people to kill, criminal profiler and professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University James Fox. Mr. Fox, who is this killer?
[James Fox, Criminal Profiler:] I would suggest that this is an insignificant nobody who through this killing spree feels very much important. He feels that he's overpowering a whole community. He feels good about the fact that he can outsmart the police. This essentially is very different than most mass killers and serial killers in terms of motivation. This appears to be killing for sport. He's enjoying holding the entire community in his grip of terror.
[Chung:] That sounds just awful. I mean is this a man who...
[Fox:] It is awful. We'd like to think that most killers have motives. Yes, there's a motive. It's not the kind of motives we generally think about, jealousy or rage. This is someone who's basically turning Montgomery County, the whole D.C. area into his own personal shooting gallery.
[Chung:] Is this someone who is living alone or does have friends, does have a job?
[Fox:] Well, this is only speculation. I mean there's a good possibility that the person does live alone but we can't rule out the idea that he's married, that he has kids. If I had to take a hunch based on what we know statistically from other kinds of shooters like this, he would live alone, a man in his 20s, perhaps 30s, certainly a sharpshooter, certainly someone who feels comfortable with guns. For him, guns makes him feel important and he's using this gun to achieve a certain sense of satisfaction, power, control.
[Chung:] I had just asked the ATF official if authorities had might perhaps unwittingly gave the killer a direction to go in when they said that the schools are safe for their children to go to and just strictly unwittingly. What do you think?
[Fox:] It was probably a challenge, unintended challenge. A killer such as this would likely read all the clips; see all the news stories about him. In fact, he's enjoying the fact that he's notorious and he's following the news very closely, and if the police during the weekend at a news conference say schools are safe. There's no evidence he's attacking schools that gives him a challenge. Oh, I'll show them. They're not so smart. Here's a school. Last week there was discussion about geographic profiling. Here is the cluster of sites that he hit on Wednesdays and Thursdays and we're looking at locales as an indication of where he may be. What does he do next? He commits a shooting at a school 50 miles away to say, I'm not over there. I'm over here. You're not so smart. I'm smarter than you. So, he's enjoying the publicity and indeed he may be reacting to what's been said about him.
[Chung:] And is this someone who actually probably lives in that Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia area?
[Fox:] Probably. I mean these killers tend to be creatures of opportunity. They're not going to travel 200 miles for a victim when there's a victim right there in their own neighborhood. It's important that this guy feels comfortable, safe where he is doing the shootings. He likely knows the streets, knows the escape routes. He's unlikely to go to a place that's completely foreign to him for fear that he may be caught not knowing where to go to evade the police.
[Chung:] All right, Professor James Fox, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it. And when we come back, the personal side to the sniper story, you'll meet a friend of the boy who was shot down at school yesterday morning. Stay with us.
[Announcer:] Still ahead, she's been called the Damsel of Death. She now prepares to pay the price. CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT continues in a moment.