WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- FBI agents served a warrant Wednesday in Tacoma, Wash., at the request of the D.C.-area task force investigating a series of sniper attacks that have killed 10 people over the past three weeks.
A federal law enforcement source told United Press International that other warrants were likely to be served Wednesday night in other locations.
The source said that the search of a back yard in Tacoma was based on "evidence that could lead to a clue that investigators hope could lead to another clue." The residence was once occupied by a soldier stationed at Fort Lewis, which is near Tacoma, but law enforcement has yet to determine if the former occupant lived in or near the Washington, D.C., metro area, the source said.
The back yard was divided into grids, and FBI agents and officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms swept metal detectors over the ground. Crews also sawed off a large tree trunk and carried it away for analysis. Reports said the stump was sent to Washington, D.C., to see if bullets from target practice were lodged in the wood.
The same federal law enforcement source also told UPI that other warrants would be executed Wednesday night outside the Washington, D.C., area, but would not comment if they were related to the same probable cause that led to the initial search. No further details were available late Wednesday on the other warrants.
In Tacoma, an FBI Seattle spokeswoman told reporters at the scene that the search was done with the consent of the property owner.
"This is a pending investigation," said the spokeswoman, Melissa M. Mallon. "We are conducting a search. We aren't going to go into any details. We are working with several agencies."
She said the search was under way around the outside perimeter of the house.
No arrests are expected in the case Wednesday night, law enforcement sources said.
Earlier in the day, law enforcement sources confirmed that the sniper has made demands for money and has threatened children if they are not met.
A note left at the scene of a Virginia shooting Saturday, which critically wounded a 37-year-old Florida man, demanded $10 million and threatened the region's children with more attacks. Police revealed a portion of the note Tuesday evening.
"Your children are not safe anywhere at anytime," says a postscript to a note found near the last confirmed sniper shooting Saturday night in Ashland, Va.
Police officials also confirmed that the killer, or killers, also contacted investigators Tuesday through a note left at the scene of the most recent shooting, which killed a Montgomery County bus driver early Tuesday. Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose confirmed the shooting was linked.
Those announcements followed a series of brief statements by Moose Tuesday evening where he appeared to respond to the note by telling the sniper he could not comply with a certain, unspecific demand.
"We have researched the options you stated and found that it is not possible electronically to comply in the manner you requested," Moose said, adding he hoped to hear from the sniper again in a non-violent manner.
"It is important that we do this without anyone else getting hurt," Moose said. In closing, Moose said: "You indicated that this is about more than violence. We are waiting to hear from you."
In another element of communication between the sniper and investigators, federal law enforcement sources confirmed the sniper had tried to reach investigators via the tip line used to generate leads and was ignored between two and four times since the shootings began.
Despite the police chief's somber warning about the threat to children, schools throughout the Richmond, Va., area reopened Wednesday under lockdown conditions.
Earlier in the week, schools had closed in the metro Richmond area, including Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico and Powhatan counties and the city of Richmond.
Authorities Wednesday connected the death of bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, to the string of shootings in which a sniper has killed nine people and wounded three others in Maryland, Virginia and Washington.
The first shooting -- about 5:20 p.m., Oct. 2 -- linked to the sniper went through a crafts store window but didn't injure anyone.
Johnson was shot as he stood on the top step of his Montgomery County bus. He was at an area drivers often use to do routine paperwork. He was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours after the 5:50 a.m. shooting.
The sniper has been blamed for five shootings -- including four deaths -- within a mile of Tuesday's incident. Two other attacks have occurred a few miles south of the site and another just inside the District of Columbia border from Maryland. Another attack on Maryland resulted in the wounding of a 13-year-old boy outside a school on Oct. 7.
There have been five assaults in Virginia. In addition to the wounding of the man in Ashland, a woman in Spotsylvania was also wounded but survived while two men and a woman were killed.
(With reporting by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)
