Woman Shot Dead in Va. Parking Lot

Oct. 14 -- A woman was shot and killed tonight in Fairfax County, Va., and police are investigating the attack as though it might be the work of a sniper who has terrorized the Washington, D.C. area.

The unidentified woman was shot in upper body while she was in the parking lot of a Home Depot store in Falls Church at about 9:15 p.m. ET, said Fairfax County Chief of Police Thomas Manger

Many roads, including a portion of the freeway beltway that rings Washington, D.C., are closed as authorities search for a possible shooter. An alert has been issued for a cream-colored Chevy Astro van with a right-rear tail light out of service, Manger said.

Manger said it was "too early to tell" if the shooting was the work of the same person who has killed eight and seriously injured two others for nearly two weeks. But he added: "We are working it and investigating it with that potential in mind."

Besides the description given by Manger during a press conference outside of the shopping lot where the shooting occurred, other reports were heard on police scanners.

In one, authorities were asked to be on the lookout for an olive-skinned man wearing a blue denim jacket and blue jeans and carrying a semi-automatic rifle. In another, police were searching for a cream-colored GMC Safari van while a different report said the vehicle might be a a 1990 white Dodge Caravan.

Domestic Dispute Probed

Before the latest killing, police questioned a man who was shot during a domestic dispute over the weekend. Authorities discovered him to drive a white van and to have a number of weapons.

In the case of the man questioned, three investigators told ABCNEWS' John Miller that he came to police officers' attention when they found him wounded Saturday night in his white Astro minivan. Authorities have been on the lookout for such a van, which eyewitnesses said sped away from the scene of a shooting Friday in Virginia that left a Philadelphia man dead.

The man being questioned was shot by his girlfriend in an apparent domestic dispute, authorities said. He was treated at a Baltimore hospital.

Police found police scanners and maps in the van, sources said. Investigators also obtained a search warrant for the man's Baltimore apartment and allegedly found a Marine Corps sniper's manual and other books on snipers, police scanners and an arsenal of weapons that included an AR-15 and five handguns.