The killings in Montgomery County, Md., occurred between 6:04 p.m. ET Wednesday and 10 a.m. Thursday, police said.

County Police Chief Charles Moose said there was no indication that any of the five people who were killed were related or had been involved in a conflict with anyone.

None of the five appeared to have been robbed, and police said race did not appear to be a motive, noting that the victims included a black man, an Indian man, a Latino woman and a white woman.

"These individuals have not done anything. ... They are not associated with anything," Moose said. "They are just victims."

Noting that Montgomery County bordered the nation's capital, Moose said, "We understand what that may mean for anyone trying to make a point," and nearly 150 state troopers and federal authorities, including the FBI and the Secret Service, were involved in the case.

But police said they had no witnesses and no suspects, although one person reported seeing a white van with two occupants speed away from one of the slayings.

"We are certainly not closing any doors," Moose said. "We're taking a broad-brush approach to this."

County Executive Douglas M. Duncan announced that a $50,000 reward had been posted for the arrest or indictment of those responsible.

Schools Locked Down

The shootings spread terror across parts of two states and the nation's capital.

In Montgomery, parents picking up their children had to show photo identification and give the names of their children and their teachers.

Ceciliea Desousa picked up her 9- and 10-year-old daughters from Harmony Hills Elementary School, near one of the shootings. "It took five years off my life," she said.

All told, more than a half-million students were locked down in schools in Washington and its surrounding counties.

Washington schools canceled outdoor activities, and many shops were nearly deserted. But even though the shooters were still at large, officials asked parents not to overreact, and most districts said classes would open as scheduled Friday morning.

In Fairfax County, Va., officers were posted at the American Legion Bridge on the Capital Beltway in case the van tried to cross into Virginia, Fairfax police spokeswoman Sophia Grinnan said.

Gunshot Fired Into Store

Although it abuts Washington, which at times has had the nation's highest homicide rate, slayings are rare in Montgomery, home to several upper- and upper-middle-class communities of federal employees and academics attached to the University of Maryland. The county's median household income was more than $71,000 in 1999, the last year for which figures are available.

Although the county's population tops 800,000, it had only 19 homicides in 2001, records show.

All of the shootings took place in daylight early Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, and all occurred near the Rockville Pike and Connecticut Avenue, heavily used commuter highways that extend south into downtown Washington.

The first shooting was reported about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday, when a gunshot was fired through the window of a crafts store in Rockville, said Capt. Nancy Demme, a Montgomery police spokeswoman. No one was hit.

At 6:04 p.m., James D. Martin, 55, of Silver Spring, Md., was killed in a parking lot outside a nearby Shoppers Food Warehouse in Wheaton, directly across the street from a police station.

"Officers actually heard the shot, ran across the street and found the victim," Demme said.

The shootings resumed early Thursday, when James L. "Sonny" Buchanan, 39, of Arlington, Va., was killed while riding a lawnmower about 7:45 a.m. in the White Flint area.

A cabdriver, Prenkumar Walekar, 54, of Olney, Md., was shot at 8:15 a.m. while pumping gas at a Mobil station in the Aspen Hill area. He died at the scene.

About a half-hour later, Sarah Ramos, 34, of Silver Spring, died outside a post office next to the Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring. The woman was shot in the head, according to a spokesman for the county Fire and Rescue Department.

Victim Was 'Just Sitting There'

Dolores Wallgren, who was going to a beauty shop near the post office, said she saw the victim, slumped over on a bench, bleeding from the head.

"She was sitting on the bench, just sitting there," Wallgren said.

Finally, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, of Silver Spring, was shot shortly before 10 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Kensington. Mechanics at the gas working said they heard the shots but did not see who killed the woman, who was vacuuming her van.

Station co-owner John Mistery told MSNBC TV that he and a mechanic were inside the garage when they heard a loud bang that they thought was an electrical short-circuit. When they came out to shut down the pumps, they saw the woman lying beneath her van.

"We didn't know that she'd been shot," he said. "That's what [police] told us."

In each case, the victim was felled by a single shot. Ballistics tests to determine whether the same gun was used were pending.

"We feel like we have a skilled shooter, and that heightens our concern," Moose said.

Truck Seen Driving off

Police were looking for two people in a white cargo truck, possibly an Isuzu, with black lettering on the side that was seen leaving the scene of one of the shootings "at a high rate of speed," Demme said. The witness said the vehicle may have some damage to the rear lift gate, she said.

Officers from local police departments, aided by agents from the FBI; the Secret Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and the US Marshal's Service, were stopping trucks resembling the suspect vehicle.

Moose said that officers had made "a lot of arrests" in the traffic stops but that none of those arrested was believed to be related to the killings. Police set up a special hot line -- 240-777-2600 -- to field tips.

(China Daily October 4, 2002)