ANASSAS, Va., Oct. 10 — The sniper had already moved on hours earlier in the rain by the time ballistic experts finally confirmed his seventh killing in eight days. Washington area residents were already deeper into their fears, waiting for his next move.
"It's a whodunit at this point," said Charlie Deane, the police chief of Prince William County, reporting that the shot to the head that took down the customer at a gas station here was a match for the earlier killings by the roving sniper who has eluded an extensive manhunt across the suburbs even as he chooses new victims.
"It's a very frightening case," said the chief in confirming forensic evidence that the gunman had once more needed only a single rifle shot to kill an unaware victim from afar here Wednesday night.
In a nine-day rampage of terrifying marksmanship, the sniper has killed seven people and critically wounded two, stalking his victims from 100 yards or more with a high-powered hunting or military rifle as they went about mundane daily activities.
The latest victim was identified as Dean H. Meyers, a 53-year-old civil engineer from Gaithersburg, Md., who had stopped for gas on his way home from his job here. Mr. Meyers paused alone, like the earlier victims, and was shot once in the head. He crumpled to the ground by the gas pumps of the Battlefield Sunoco station just off Interstate 66, about 30 miles southwest of Washington.
"We have witnesses we think are of value," Chief Deane of the police said, without offering details.
This might mean relative progress in comparison to the sniper's earlier assaults where he eluded detection in shooting his victims from cover with no witnesses coming forward.
The only witness until the Wednesday shooting told the police of seeing a white cargo truck speed from one shooting scene a week ago in Montgomery County, Md.
Initially the police said witnesses here described a white panel minivan similar to a Dodge Caravan leaving the scene of the shooting. That vehicle was found after the police searched the metropolitan region. But Chief Deane said its movements "may be explained away," with no suspect in the offing.
The news of the sniper's cutting down another victim amid life's routine heightened a sense of torment, of being lethally toyed with, that has spread across the region since the shootings began last week.
"Where are we going to hide?" asked James A. Worthey, a town house neighbor of Mr. Meyers in Gaithersburg. "How are we going to live our lives?"
Mr. Meyers's neighbor Suzanne Iverson, a teacher, said she had known Mr. Meyers for 25 years as a most unobtrusive neighbor who lived alone. He would help get her lawn mower running, she said. He liked jogging and motorcycle riding. From the evidence through a window, a worn fielder's glove, the victim had liked baseball, too.
"He was the kind of neighbor everybody would want to have," Ms. Iverson said.
The sniper began enlarging his territory after he killed his first six victims last week. They were unaware of being stalked as they pursued simple activities — mowing a lawn, cleaning a car, taking a walk — within a five-mile circle of the suburbs of Montgomery County and northern Washington.
On Friday the gunman ranged 50 miles south to Fredericksburg, Va., and critically wounded a shopper outside her car. On Monday, he ventured east to Bowie, Md., took aim from 150 yards in the woods and critically wounded a 13-year-old boy at the threshold of his school.
The shooting here, in a western suburban county that only yesterday began relaxing its restrictions on outdoor school activities, compounded fear and anger that the sniper seems to be treating the commuter belt as a kind of grotesque preserve for hunting innocent strangers.
"How can you isolate yourself from this?" Mr. Worthey asked. "I'm getting more scared by the minute."
The police, acting in a coordinated federal, state and local manhunt, once more pleaded for tips from the public. Thousands called in.
Some offered specific information, others pet theories about what has become a lethal cat-and-mouse game with the sniper reported to have left a tarot death card containing a message for the police at one shooting scene, "Dear Policeman, I am God."
The card also contained a warning to the police to not disclose it to the members of the news media, according to a report today in The Washington Post. This may explain the public anger toward the news media of Montgomery County's police chief, Charles A. Moose, the leader of the coordinated manhunt, after news of the card was leaked on Tuesday night to a television station.
Some close to the investigation speculated the chief sought to repair a hoped-for channel of communications with the sniper with his display of anger. Earlier in the week, while the "God" card was still secret, Chief Moose told a news conference, "You should understand that I hope to God that some day we'll know why all of this occurred."
Chief Moose paused today when asked whether he had had any new communication from the sniper. "I guess it's a matter of what one would call communications," he replied, as if considering the latest shooting the sniper's most woeful message.
Here in Virginia, Chief Deane said there was no new sniper message found thus far at the gas station shooting. Scores of detectives carefully combed a wide, half-mile highway stretch just south of the Manassas Civil War battle zone.
The region's fear is palpable, said Carol Thomas, the former wife of the anxious Mr. Worthey, who called her today. She lives in Montgomery County near where a woman quietly sitting on a bench was shot in the head a week ago.
"The first five were within a mile or two of me," Ms. Thomas said of the victims. "I don't know if I can feel more fearful, but I guess I do, I do really feel fearful, just going out to get gas.
"I look around," she said, looking around her gated retirement community. "I rule out a gas station because it's near an Interstate. I look for trees, if there are places to hide. I look to see where — you can't be sure where he's going to go next. Who can anticipate? Who knows what county, what section of the county? It's some kind of roulette. It's made me jumpy and I'd like the guy to be caught."