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Last of sniper survivors out of hospital

Fla. man shot outside Va. steakhouse underwent 5 operations

The Associated Press

12:37 PM EST, November 20, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. -- The last of three survivors of the Washington-area sniper attacks has been discharged from a hospital after undergoing five operations.

The 37-year-old man, identified only as being from Florida, was shot once in the abdomen on Oct. 19 as he and his wife left a steakhouse in suburban Ashland.

Pam Lepley, spokeswoman for Virginia Commonwealth University-Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, said today that the man had left the hospital but wouldn't say when. She said his condition was "stable and improving."

Thomas D. Waldron, an attorney in Melbourne, Fla., who represents the victim's family, declined to comment.

Hospital officials have said the man shot outside the restaurant lost his spleen, part of his pancreas and two-thirds of his stomach, and faced a long recovery and rehabilitation.

Another survivor, a 13-year-old boy who was critically wounded Oct. 7 when he was shot outside a school in Bowie was released from a hospital last week. The third survivor, a 43-year-old woman shot outside a craft store in Fredericksburg, Va., was hospitalized for less than a week after the Oct. 4 shooting.

Sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, are accused of killing 10 people and wounding three during a three-week shooting spree in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. They also are suspected in five other shootings, in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, and two shootings in Tacoma, Wash.