US: Its tone was mocking and its message deadly, but the tarot card with the words, "Dear policeman, I am God", found outside the school where a 13-year-old boy was shot in Maryland on Tuesday, has given the first apparent clues to the callous mind of the sniper who holds Washington in his thrall.
The death card was found next to a spent shell-casing in a wooded area about 150 yards from the school entrance in Prince George's County. It was lying in an area of matted grass, where the gunman is believed to have waited for his eighth victim.
The brass shell-casing was .223-calibre, the same as that used to kill six people in the Washington area and wound one other, Mr Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said. It could have a fingerprint or unique marks left by the shell ejector and the firing pin, experts said, and while the shell- casing cannot be traced to a specific gun shop, it could narrow the search for the purchaser.
This raised questions about the motive of the gunman in leaving the spent shell behind, something he was careful not to do in other shootings.
The evidence suggests that he - no one believes it is a woman - may be as confident and arrogant as the type of serial killer portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in films. The spent shell "authenticated" the tarot card, part of a deck used in fortune-telling, as his calling card, with its chilling message that he has assumed a divine right to kill.
In every case the sniper selected victims at random and fired one shot from a distance with a high-powered hunting or military rifle.
He may in fact have started out on his Messianic mission weeks ago. Police are now investigating whether the sniper's gun was used to wound a 22-year-old liquor store employee in Montgomery County on September 14th. The owner of the Hillandale Beer and Wine store, Mr Arnie Zelkovitz, said he believes the man was another sniper victim, as "it just seems too coincidental."
The reward money has swelled to almost $250,000 but police said yesterday they were still stumped.
The Maryland governor repeatedly called the sniper a "coward" during a news conference, as if he were trying to enrage and goad him into making a mistake.
Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose expressed fury yesterday that the existence of the tarot card was made known through a leak to a local TV station.
Nearly 200 investigators are working their way through 1,600 leads from 8,000 telephone calls. "We need just a shred of evidence," Prince George's County Police Chief Gerald Wilson said.
Yesterday police spent several hours searching woods after a resident reported seeing a man with a long, black bag, but if it was the killer, he gave them the slip.
"The person, or the people, that are doing this, rethink what you are doing, turn yourself in to law enforcement," the Montgomery County police chief pleaded at a news briefing.
The shootings rattled residents in and around Washington DC, where many people are still unnerved by the September 11th, 2001, strike on the Pentagon and letters sent later containing anthrax spores.
No one has reported seeing the shooter in any of the incidents. Police said the weapon was probably an assault rifle or hunting rifle accurate up to 600 metres.
The Secret Service, the FBI, US Marshals and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have joined state and local police in the investigation. Montgomery County officials have requested assistance from US Attorney General John Ashcroft, seeking additional help under a federal law pertaining to serial killings.
Additional reporting Reuters