Bus driver 13th sniper victim

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A slain bus driver was the sniper's 13th victim, police said Wednesday, as anxious parents took their youngsters back to schools despite the chilling warning that "your children are not safe."\nGov. Parris Glendening announced that the state would consider posting National Guard troops at polling places if the sniper wasn't caught by Nov. 5.\n"I'm hoping the person is brought to justice long before Election Day," the governor said.\nBallistics and other evidence connected Tuesday's shooting of bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, to the fatal shootings of nine other people and wounding of three in the Washington area, said Michael Bouchard of the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.\nAddressing criticism that investigators had waited several days to reveal the threat to children found in one of the sniper's notes, Bouchard said if information were made public "before we were ready for it to go out, it inhibits our ability to do the job we need to be doing."\n"We're all parents and are certainly concerned about the safety of our kids and of our co-workers," he said. He tried to reassure residents that no vital information was being withheld from them.\nOfficials on Wednesday also urged any witnesses to come forward without fear of potential problems with their immigration status, despite authorities detaining two men on Monday in a white van and turning them over to federal authorities for deportation proceedings.\n"We just have concerns that some people in the immigrant community didn't come forward," Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said Wednesday. He said witnesses' immigrant status is not the concern of the sniper task force.\nMoose read the warning about children at a briefing Tuesday. The message --"Your children are not safe, anywhere, at any time"-- was left at the scene of a shooting Saturday night at an Ashland, Va., restaurant he said.\nIn Henrico County, Va., schools reopened Wednesday after being closed for two days, but under strict security and with no outdoor activity, said Superintendent Mark Edwards. He said parents and school officials were "reeling with emotion."\nOne of the sniper's victims was a 13-year-old boy who was shot outside his Bowie, Md., school and remains hospitalized in serious condition.\n"My kid was fine until he heard on the radio the other day that kids are not safe anytime, anywhere," Andy Wisecarver said Wednesday as he hurried his 8-year-old son into an elementary school in Kensington, Md.\nThe latest message believed to be from the killer was a letter found near the scene of Tuesday's shooting, two law enforcement sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The Baltimore Sun, citing unidentified sources, reported that the letter repeated demands for money first made in Saturday's note.\nSaturday's note demanded $10 million, said a senior law enforcement official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.\n"We have researched the options you stated and found that it is not possible electronically to comply in the manner that you requested," Moose said at a televised briefing. "However, we remain open and ready to talk to you about the options you have mentioned."\nHe said the sniper was seeking an 800 telephone number to talk with authorities. Moose offered to set up a private post office box "or another secure method" if the killer preferred.\n"You indicated that this is about more than violence," Moose said. He did not answer reporters' questions about the statement.\nThe warning about children's safety was discovered by police outside a Ponderosa steakhouse just north of Richmond, Va., where the sniper critically wounded a man Saturday night. Moose said the warning about children was a postscript, but refused to describe the rest of the note.\nThe letter writer also called police inept and described six unsuccessful attempts to reach investigators by telephone since the attacks began, complaining that operators hung up on the calls, The Washington Post reported, citing sources it did not identify.\nMany of the calls made to a tip line set up for the case are being handled by FBI trainees because officials want agents out in the field doing investigative work, according to federal law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Over 600 FBI agents are assisting in the case.\nThe tip line, run primarily out of the FBI's Washington field office, had received more than 67,200 calls through Sunday night, according to the sources. The calls continue to pour in at the rate of 400 an hour.\n"Dozens" of those involved claims that the caller either was the sniper or was involved in the shootings in some way, the sources said Wednesday.\nDavid Kaczynski, who turned in his own brother, Theodore Kaczynski, in the Unabomber case, appealed for someone to turn in the sniper.\n"If this is someone you love, I understand that this is a painful moment for you, like a waking nightmare, as it was for us," he said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show. "On the other hand, you have to understand that there have been 13 other families who have been utterly devastated by what's happened. You've got to be thinking of them."\nFirst lady Laura Bush on Wednesday offered her sympathy to the victims' families and said law enforcement officials were right to let the public know about the sniper's threat.\n"It's a good time for parents to put their arms around their children and reassure their children and, of course, be very vigilant," she said. "It's sad, but I also know that law enforcement, both local and federal, are doing everything they can to find this person"