LANDOVER, Md. -- Since last Wednesday, sports writer Warner Hessler of the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press has not been able to stop thinking about time. Time saved. Time deferred. Time in his life.

	Police search for evidence left behind during a recent sniper shooting in Manassas, Va.

Since 1984, Hessler has made the 2½-hour drive on Wednesdays from Newport News to Redskin Park in Ashburn, Va., for the opposing teams' teleconference and to gather notes, quotes and other materials for his stories on the upcoming Redskins game.

But fortunately for Hessler, his routine was broken last Wednesday.

"It was kind of freaky," Hessler said as he recounted the minutes that might have saved his life. "Everything fell into place early in the day. All I had to do was hang around for practice to end, pop in a quote from [Redskins coach Steve] Spurrier and I was done [with my story]. Instead of having to write for another half-hour to hour, I was on the road.

"There's a Shoney's in Manassas where I always stop on my way home, lay out my stat packets, highlight stuff and have dinner. I do this every Wednesday."

Afterward, he stopped at the adjacent gas station to the restaurant to fill up for the rest of his drive. Hessler pulled into one of the bays and remembers the face of the station attendant.

"About two hours later, as I'm entering the Hampton city limits, they start talking on the radio about another shooting, at a Sunoco station on Sudley Road in Manassas," Hessler said. "I realized I had just been there."

The time Hessler saved by finishing work early placed him at the gas station around 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. The shooting, the ninth of 10 by a sniper in the region, was carried out at 8:15 p.m.

"If I had followed my normal routine, I would have been there between 8 and 8:15 pumping gas," Hessler said. "It just so happens that things happened in my routine that do not normally happen."

Dennis Tuttle is a freelance writer in the Washington, D.C., area and an occasional contributor to ESPN.com