It's small, but lightning fast, coming out of the cannon at 3,000 feet per second. It's available at any neighborhood ammo store, but it's the preferred ordnance of Army riflemen and Olympic sharpshooters. And when it's in the wrong hands, the .223-caliber bullet can be a perfect killing machine, ripping holes the size of coffee cups. In Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, the shots were almost surely fired by an expert, as if picking off clay pigeons a single round at a time. But this was no game. Six people in the Washington area were shot dead-gunfire that seemed to come out of nowhere-a spree so random and terrifying that some people have refused to step outside their doors. On the loose was a killer with a deadly eye and a powerful weapon. The shots have been fired from such long range-as far away as six football fields, police say-that there have been no eyewitnesses. And the aim has been near perfect. This is a "very skilled" marksman, says Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Special Agent Joe Riehl, saying it is quite possible the killer had been trained by the military or the police. Investigators believe the killer is using a powerful rifle, the kind issued by armed forces and law enforcement.
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