The witness came to police and said he saw a man shouldering a weapon -- he identified it an AK-74, an automatic assault rifle -- and about the van. But under questioning Wednesday night, the witness admitted that he had not been in the parking garage at the time of the shooting, but instead was inside the Home Depot, CNN has learned.
Police have returned to the Home Depot in Falls Church to do more investigative work, said Manger. "We are going to continue to work with other witnesses at the scene," he said.
Other witness accounts included descriptions of a man with olive- or darker-colored skin in a white van, or two men in a van.
Despite those accounts, police said Wednesday they were unable to develop a composite sketch of a suspect.
"There are a couple of people who believe they saw a man shoot," said Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Capt. Nancy Demme. "Unfortunately, distance and darkness and perhaps adrenaline have made them unable to give us a clear composite that we can disseminate."
Witnesses to Monday night's shooting have provided descriptions of partial license plates, and sniper task force members are entering them into a computer at Maryland's Department of Motor Vehicles to seek a match, a source close to the investigation said.
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In a related development, investigators said they intend to question al Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere to see if they have information about the sniper attacks, government sources said Thursday.
