In the latest in a mysterious rash of attacks on military targets, shots were fired at the National Museum of the Marine Corps after it closed Thursday night, Virginia police say. It's the second time the museum has been shot at in recent days, and the fourth time recently that a military-related building in the area has been shot at.
A Prince William County police spokeswoman said investigators found several bullet holes at the museum in Triangle, Va., about 30 miles south of the Pentagon.
FBI investigators announced Thursday that ballistics linked three other recent shootings at military-related buildings in northern Virginia. On Oct. 17, bullets were first found at the Marine Corps museum. Two days later, someone fired into two windows at the Pentagon. And earlier this week -- either Monday night or Tuesday morning -- shots were fired at a military recruiting office in Chantilly.
Investigators think the shooter has a grievance against the Marine Corps as an institution but not against Marines in uniform, according to the Associated Press.
Police suspect the shooter used a high-velocity rifle in each case. No one has been hurt. All of the attacks occurred overnight or in the early morning hours.
Officials with the Pentagon, local law enforcement and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force have been investigating together.
The Pentagon has boosted security in advance of Sunday's Washington-area Marine Corps Marathon.
For three weeks in 2002, the city was set on edge by a series of random shootings that killed 10 people and critically injured three others, for which a man and a minor were later convicted. And earlier this year, a California man opened fire on two Pentagon police officers before being shot dead.
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