ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) _ Schools closed across a swath of Virginia on Monday after a message to authorities and a cryptic police response suggested that the elusive Washington-area sniper had expanded his terror spree farther south.

In a brief but dramatic news conference late Sunday, police issued a direct plea to whomever left a note at the scene of a shooting Saturday outside a Ponderosa restaurant in Ashland, Va., that left a man critically wounded.

“We do want to talk to you,” Charles Moose, police chief of Maryland’s Montgomery County and a leader in the sniper investigation.

It was the closest link yet that the Saturday shooting was related to the sniper attacks on 11 people, nine fatally, in the Washington area since Oct. 2.

A law enforcement source close to the investigation told The Associated Press that investigators believe the person who left the message is probably the sniper.

School officials in the Ashland and Richmond areas of Virginia decided to close Monday, keeping more than 200,000 public students out of class “based on the volume of parent and community concern.”

In Ashland, Randolph-Macon College also announced it would cancel classes on Monday. The school, with 1,100 students, is about a mile from the latest shooting.

“We’ve been in close contact with local law enforcement agencies, and basically we’re following their advice,” said college spokeswoman Anne Marie Lauranzon.

Surgeons succeeded Sunday night in removing the bullet from the 37-year-old man shot in Ashland and turned it over to investigators for testing.

The victim, whose name was not released, remained in critical condition early Monday after six hours of surgery over the weekend. Doctors were cautiously optimistic about his recovery but said he would need more surgery.