US police insisted they were making progress in the search for a sniper who has killed eight people in the Washington area, but said too much public information could create "tunnel vision" in the case.
Officials have no plans to release an FBI profile of the suspected sniper, or a copy of the hand-written note that accompanied a Tarot "Death" card found near the scene of one of the shootings.
"We do not want to paint a picture that somehow causes people to exclude the possible suspect," Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose said at a briefing in suburban Maryland north of Washington, where the first five killings took place.
Acknowledging that other American serial murderers have been captured after an FBI profile was released, Moose said this case was different: "In this case, we again don't want to create tunnel vision - keep an open mind. We'd like people to look at the big picture."
Moose, who has given daily briefings since the killing spree began on Oct. 2, turned aside most direct questions, but said "progress is going really well" in the investigation, even if it was "not always appropriate" to give details about it.
The last fatal attack was on Friday, at a gasoline station south of Washington; no weekend shootings have been linked to the sniper, with all attacks occurring on work days.
In all cases, the victims were felled with one shot, fired from a distance from a high-velocity rifle. Most shootings occurred near busy highways, while victims were performing the most ordinary activities: mowing a lawn, pumping gasoline, entering a school, cleaning a car.
Newsweekmagazine reported the FBI asked the Pentagon to search its records for rejected applicants and former students with psychological problems at its school for snipers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
AFP