What's the deal with the first shot?

I haven't heard anyone analyzing the MD shooter's first shot, the one that went through the window at the Michael's store. I have a few ideas here.

According to this article, the shot was "a few feet above eye level." Why was this shot a "miss," and all the (known) others hit someone? Does it have a connection to the store, or perhaps the shooter was trying to send a message relating to the name "Michael," either what it means in Hebrew or in reference to a person named Michael? Or, could it be a red herring designed to foster the belief in a weird connection of some kind?

Also, this article has the rather disturbing info that "Side roads that radiate from Seven Corners, the busy junction where the sniper struck Monday night, were still open to traffic at least 15 minutes after the fatal shooting."

If not for that fact, and the supposed report that bloodhounds tracked the shooter on foot for several miles, I'd think the shooter might have a safe house within the search perimeter, such as I described earlier. Another, very complicated and problematic but still possible idea I got from freerepublic.com is that the shooter drove his vehicle into a waiting big rig and was able to escape that way.

Sniper · Wed, 10/16/2002 - 11:32 · · Importance: 1