| Posters seen round the world a response to killings BY WALTER STARLING As chairman of the Saving Station this summer for First UMC of Hyattsville, I attended the Oct. 4 celebration dinner at the conference center. At the conclusion of the program, Bishop Felton May held up a red and white Thou Shalt Not Kill poster. He said a printer had donated them to the Baltimore Holy Boldness Committee two years ago, but, he said, They lost their nerve and did not put them up. They put them in a closet. The bishop said, in light of the Oct. 2 and 3 sniper massacre in Aspen Hill, that we should start putting them up. After the benediction I picked up a dozen posters. Most of my family lives in Aspen Hill. My mother and father, my sister, her husband and their two children, and my two aunts all live in Aspen Hill, surrounded by the first wave of shootings. I decided to put up the posters at the first five shooting sites in and near Aspen Hill. On Oct. 5, I drove to the Leisure World Plaza shooting site, where Sarah Ramos was murdered Oct. 3, as she sat on a bench outside the Crisp and Juicy Restaurant and the Post Office. When I pulled into the parking lot that Saturday morning, my sister, Phyllis Wallenmeyer, pulled in beside me. She asked why I was there. I showed her the poster, and related the bishops message of the night before. She said, Well, youre going to put them up, arent you? She didnt want me to lose my nerve. I put up the first five, and then on Sunday, on the way to church, I put up number six at Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington. I prayed that it was over. It wasnt. The shootings continued throughout October. As each new murder occurred, I went to the scene the following day. Just above the flowers and notes left in sympathy, I taped a poster. On private property I asked for permission; on public land I used a nearby utility pole. No one refused a poster. When Conrad Johnson became the last victim on Oct. 22, I was out of posters. Police arrested the suspects a few days later and began to discover a murder rampage that stretched across the U.S. I have worked in Washington radio and television for 28 years. I knew that the posters would be photographed for newspapers and television. I did not expect how far the poster would reach. All of the Washington and Baltimore stations used the poster in news reports about the sniper. Many out-of-town stations that sent reporters to this area also used the posters in the video. The four networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX all used the poster in their videos, and also made it available to their member stations for individual use in more than 200 cities nationwide. Two primetime programs, NBC Dateline and ABC 20/20, also used the poster in special coverage of the sniper attacks. And overseas networks from Asia and Europe (the BBC) also featured the Scripture. Twelve red and white posters reached millions of viewers and the United Methodist Church bore Christian witness throughout a murderous rampage. Walter Starling is a member of First UMC of Hyattsville. | 
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