A frantic search is on today following a fatal shooting at a Spotsylvania County service station this morning. Police are investigating to see if it is linked to a string of sniper shootings in the Washington area.

Today’s victim was pumping gas at an Exxon station off U.S. 1 in the Four-Mile Fork area around 9:35 a.m. when he was shot. Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Maj. Howard Smith said identified him as a 53-year-old black man from Philadelphia, but his name has not been released.

Police issued a lookout for a white van with two people inside. The van has a ladder rack with the sign on the side that includes the word “Total,” police said.

Police also have issued a general description of a suspect: a white male with black or dark brown hair, wearing a gray sweatshirt.

Authorities have been pulling over numerous white vans on U.S. 1, Interstate 95 and other roads in the Fredericksburg area, but have not yet made any arrests.

“Everyone has been released,” Smith said. “We’re not holding anyone.”

Smith said evidence from the scene had been turned over to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. But he would not say what that evidence is.

He also said police are interviewing some people who heard shots, but it is too early to tell if the shooting is linked to nine other sniper attacks since Oct. 2.

Five people were killed in Montgomery County, Md., and Washington Oct. 2 and 3. A woman was wounded at the Spotsylvania Mall last Friday. A 13-year-old boy was critically wounded while he walked to school in Bowie, Md., Monday, and a man was killed pumping gas in Manassas Wednesday night.

The victims were hit with .223-caliber bullets that tests have confirmed were fired by the same rifle in all but two of the cases. The bullets in those two cases were too fragmented to provide a link.

Smith would not say where police think the shot came from or how many were fired. But people staying at a Ramada Inn across U.S. 1 described gunshots from the motel area.

“It was loud as (expletive),” said 39-year-old construction worker Tom Bowling, who was checking into the motel at the time. “It sounded like a bomb going off.”