Washington’s sniper nightmare continues

He said the victim’s name was Linda Franklin, 47, from Arlington, Virginia.

The gunman again eluded authorities, despite quick deployment of dozens of federal, state and local agents after the woman was shot in the head around 9:15 p.m. on Monday (0115 GMT on Tuesday) as she and her husband loaded packages into their car outside a Home Depot store in Falls Church, Virginia.

Manger said authorities were interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence at the scene, about seven miles west of Washington.

The sniper has terrorised the US capital region since launching a 15-hour killing spree on Oct. 2 and Oct. 3 that claimed five victims in Maryland’s Montgomery County. Another victim was killed in Washington and two others in the southern suburbs of Virginia.

The sniper has also wounded two people: a 13-year-old schoolboy in Bowie, Maryland, north-east of Washington, and a woman in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to the south. In each instance, the victims were felled by a single shot and some witnesses at the shopping centre reported hearing only one shot on Monday night. (Reuters)