By Jo Becker and Serge F. Kovaleski Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, October 23, 2002; Page A18

When Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose steps to the podium for his daily sniper briefings, his sentences seem to be crafted with almost surgical precision.

They are.

FBI experts who draw profiles of prolific killers are helping Moose script much of what he says when he steps into the glare of camera lights, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Even on some occasions when Moose has appeared to lose his temper, his words were guided by those who understand his most important audience:

The sniper.

"It's a coordinated response," one official said. "There's a huge desire not to do things that will provoke the shooter."

The official pointed to Moose's public explosion at the media two weeks ago after leaked reports that the sniper left a handwritten message on a tarot card near the Bowie middle school where he critically wounded a 13-year-old boy.

"He was deliberately over-dramatic," one source said. "He wanted the guy to know that he was really angry about it."

The killer had left instructions that the information was not to be released to the public. Moose -- and the profilers working with him -- wanted to convey to the sniper that they had not intended to ignore his appeal.

Yesterday, as the cryptic public dialogue between Moose and the sniper continued, Moose was peppered with questions about a letter the sniper apparently left tacked to a nearby tree after a shooting outside the Ponderosa restaurant in Ashland, Va.

At an afternoon briefing, reporters asked whether the note contained specific threats to schools. Guided by profilers who worried about angering the sniper, Moose declined to respond.

But task force officials later became worried that the queries might draw the sniper's attention to the schools, so it was decided to have Moose make public just a single sentence from the lengthy letter.

"Your children are not safe anywhere at any time," Moose read.

For the second time yesterday, he walked away from the microphones without allowing any questions that might jeopardize his message.

Moose has been the public face of the task force since the shootings began three weeks ago. When the police decided to begin communicating directly with the sniper through the media, profilers at the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms helped decide that Moose would do the talking, one source said.

The unusual dance began on Sunday with these words: "To the person who left us a message at the Ponderosa last night. You gave us a telephone number. We do want to talk to you. Call us at the number you provided. Thank you."

Eric W. Hickey, a professor of criminal psychology at California State University at Fresno and author of "Serial Murderers and Their Victims," said Moose has taken on the role of a mediator in the sniper case.

"It does appear to me that he is trying to mitigate this situation to some extent, trying to keep this guy at bay, trying to distract him a little bit and make him feel omnipotent," he said.

"He is truly the mediator here. He is trying to keep people from being killed," Hickey said. He added: "The chief is definitely playing to this guy because he has to. Anything he can do to stop the sniper from shooting more people, he has to do."

But Hickey said that Moose does not seem comfortable while carrying out what has been a dialogue with the elusive gunman.

"The sniper has initiated this, and it is all part of the evolution of this type of offender," he said. "I really believe that the killer has gotten bored. There is only so much control you can exert before the sniper says [to himself] that he needs more stimulation, he needs another high."

Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University in Boston, said the sniper may be simply using the communication with Moose to further deceive law enforcement authorities.

"He has misled the police all along, and he may be doing that in the messages he has been leaving them," Levin said. "It plays into the killer's need to feel important. The sniper probably feels he is making all the decisions here."

Referring to Moose's several requests to the sniper to have him call the police, Levin said: "I wouldn't be surprised if he [the gunman] loves it when they beg."

Levin said that authorities ultimately are attempting to make the assailant feel important and perhaps establish enough trust that Moose would be able to persuade him to surrender. But, Levin said, "Just based on the historical record, it probably won't work."

He added, "Almost every serial killer who has communicated with police has used a firearm or bomb" in carrying out their attacks. "That tells me," Levin said, "the main motivation is not the killing. It is what happens afterward -- holding communities hostage to terror, playing the cat-and-mouse game with police and becoming a big-shot celebrity."

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2002