Looking Back: The Sniper of Long Island

MSNBC ^ | Oct 14, 2002 | MSNBC

[I still care]

Looking Back: The Sniper Of Long Island

7:37 a.m. EDT October 10, 2002 - The shootings were random -- and deadly precise. During the summer of 1994, a sniper struck Long Island, sending the area's residents into a panic.

Long Island's search for a sniper eight years ago was much like the massive manhunt now under way in the nation's capital and its suburbs. Chief John McElone knows what it was like to have random citizens in the cross hairs of a sniper's rifle. "It was immense," McElone said. "We had 200,000 leads that were coming in."

Long Island's sniper stuck three times. First, he shot through a diner window, killing Steven Chaifetz while he ate breakfast. His next hit was a shot through a gas station window. Finally, she shot at a fast food restaurant waitress, who was severely injured.

[I still care]

This is the sniper I remembered from Long Island. The story seems very similar to the DC Sniper. But notice the anti gun cast they gave the story. I seem to remember (not covered here) that it was gun enthuiasts themselves that unearthed the clues to find the man, but I may be wrong. Does anyone else remember?

[sharktrager]

The shootings were random -- and deadly precise. During the summer of 1994, a sniper struck Long Island, sending the area's residents into a panic.

Long Island's search for a sniper eight years ago was much like the massive manhunt now under way in the nation's capital and its suburbs. Chief John McElone knows what it was like to have random citizens in the cross hairs of a sniper's rifle.
"It was immense," McElone said. "We had 200,000 leads that were coming in."

Long Island's sniper stuck three times. First, he shot through a diner window, killing Steven Chaifetz while he ate breakfast. His next hit was a shot through a gas station window. Finally, she shot at a fast food restaurant waitress, who was severely injured.

Eventually, a few of the thousands of leads began to point in the same direction.

A parole officer tipped off police that one man, a gun enthusiast who had been recently released from prison, could be a suspect. Police arrested Peter Sylvester (pictured right) on a parole violation and the shooting mysteriously stopped. Another tip linked Sylvester to a stolen rifle.

Police confronted him in jail and he confessed, leading them to his mother's house, where he hid a high-powered hunting rifle

"What he said was he was doing these shootings to camouflage his ultimate target, which was another person he intended to kill So it would appear the other person was killed as part of a random shooting spree," said detective Kevin Cronin, the lead detective on the case.

Suffolk police say in the end, their sniper was caught because of the public's input, and may have been caught even sooner if the people closest to him had taken him seriously when he practically confessed to them.

"Peter Sylvester had told people he was the sniper and those people did not believe him," Cronin said. "People need to be aware of what being said to them and convey that to authorities."