Fairfax Killer Had Fled Psychiatric Center

Peters, who reviewed the case file yesterday, said commissioners have "no authority to order any psychiatric evaluations" of suspects brought before them. Peters said commissioners are instructed to set a bond that will ensure that a suspect returns to face charges and not as a punitive measure.

David Martella, who, like Kemp, is a former prosecutor, said the $30,000 bond "does not seem low in and of itself." He noted that bond is intended to ensure a court appearance and that what seems like a low number to one person might seem astronomical to someone else.

Kennedy had had three encounters with police in recent months, court records and sources said. In February, he was arrested for accidentally shooting and wounding his family's dog. Sources familiar with the investigation said he told police he was suicidal but decided against killing himself and then accidentally fired a handgun.

In March, Kennedy was ticketed for failing to wear a seat belt while a passenger in someone else's truck. And in April, he was charged in the Rockville carjacking.

Police do not know whether that sequence of events led him to launch "an unprovoked attack, an ambush," as Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer described it.

Maj. Robert Callahan, of the police criminal investigations bureau, said: "He was intentionally targeting police officers. It looks to us like he was just looking for as many victims as he could find."

At 3:52 p.m., seven minutes after he carjacked a minivan near his home, Kennedy, wearing a complete Army camouflage outfit, pulled into the Sully District station's rear parking lot, which is reserved for officers. Police said he exited the van and immediately began firing, launching 12 shots at Garbarino, a 23-year veteran who was sitting in his cruiser, preparing to finish his shift. The officer was hit five times and called for help.

"Somebody please help me," Garbarino radioed, according to those who heard the transmission on the police radio. "I don't want to die here."

Kennedy "then walked deeper into the parking lot and encountered Detective Armel," Callahan said. "There was an exchange of gunfire." Kennedy did not say a word.

It was not clear yesterday whether Armel wounded Kennedy in the exchange, but police think he was wounded and continued to fire at other officers until he was killed. Armel was an ace shooter, a former firearms instructor for the sheriff's office and the only woman to be awarded the distinguished shooter's pin in the police or sheriff's department, the police union said yesterday.

Kennedy "continued making his way through the parking lot," Callahan said. An officer who had pulled into the parking lot in his personal car picked up a weapon and began firing at Kennedy, Callahan said.

Two more officers walked out the back door of the station, at least one with a rifle, Callahan said. Horan said Kennedy was wounded and had discarded his rifles but was still firing with one of his handguns when he was killed.

He said he did not think Kennedy's parents could be held criminally liable "unless they had specific knowledge that he's going to kill a police officer. That might present a different question. But I don't think there's any such evidence out there."

Horan said Kennedy probably would not have been free on bond in Virginia. "Most carjackings in this jurisdiction, you don't get a bond," the longtime prosecutor said.

On Kennedy's page on the Internet site MySpace.com (warning graphic images and text), the gunman wrote of himself, "Flow like the wind, sorry to all the people i hurt." On every profile, alongside each user's photo, is a quote, usually from books or movies or songs. Kennedy's is one word: "Ghost."

Staff writers Karin Brulliard, Maria Glod, Ernesto Londoño, Lisa Rein, Candace Rondeaux, Leef Smith and Jamie Stockwell and staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.