John Carlin
Published: March 27, 2008

Col. Steven Flaherty must be getting used to trying to put the public’s mind at ease.  He was front and center during the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16th last year. Thursday, he was at it again after a gunman or gunmen opened fire on vehicles traveling I-64 near Charlottesville.

Flaherty was bright and articulate during a news conference and later a brief one-on-one interview with WSLS-10 –even though he admitted he had not slept the night before.

There was no evidence of fatigue as he assured the public that there was no need to worry – even as investigators combed the roadside looking for clues, and the conversation in the nearby “Durty Nellie’s Deli” was all about the unsolved shooting.

“It’s very chilling to all of us,” he said.  “Someone asked me if it reminded me of the D.C. sniper incident. … It’s a possibility we could experience more shootings.  I certainly hope we don’t,” he concluded in a tone the indicated he didn’t think we would.

Flaherty says he thinks witness reports and tips from people taking in media accounts of the shooting would give police what they needed to find the shooters.  Though he couldn’t be certain, he seemed confident that they had some good leads.  There’s that reassuring thing again.

Even with respect to the proper term to use to describe the shooter(s) he wanted to promote calm.  He didn’t like the term “sniper.” “right now it appears to be kind of a random shooting at vehicles as they went by.  There doesn’t seem to be any type of vehicle or individual that may have been targeted,” he said.

There doesn’t seem to be a big difference between that description and a “sniper.” Let’s face it, a guy with a gun shooting at cars on the interstate, is pretty scary – no matter what his demeanor is.  If you were in his sights, your number could be up.

The job must be impossible.  Hundreds of miles of interstate, connected to hundreds of miles of rural roads and other interstates, and police are supposed to monitor all of it to make sure someone(s) doesn’t sneak in with a rifle to take pop shots at passing cars, whose drivers have no idea they are in harm’s way.  Even with a helicopter with special instruments that see people hidden in the woods after dark – and lots of state troopers and local police patrolling, it can’t be easy.

Yet Flaherty seemed confident it could be done.  “We’re doing everything we think is appropriate and reasonable to try and give security to the area,” he said.

If nothing else you get the impression he means it.