"Profilers: Montgomery County Shooters are Likely From Area"

WUSA 9 News, Associated Press ^ | October 4, 2002 | The Associated Press

[Hail Caesar]

Profilers: Montgomery County Shooters are Likely From Area

Whoever killed five people with single shots in Montgomery County is probably a white man in his 20s or early 30s who lives nearby, two former FBI profilers said Thursday.

The shooter and an accomplice likely dumped the white truck police were looking for Thursday night, the experts said. "That vehicle will be in a garage or a lake," said Clinton Van Zandt, a former FBI agent.

Both Van Zandt and another former profiler, Robert K. Ressler, said it's unlikely that one person carried out the killings. They said one person was probably the shooter, while the other drove the truck.

The two suspects are "giving themselves high-fives" as they shoot victims in a Columbine-like spree that Van Zandt said won't end until they're caught.

"They're moving - they like it," he said. "This is emotional heroin for them."

Ressler likened the spree to that of Andrew Cunanan, the suspected killer of fashion designer Gianni Versace and four other people. Cunanan died in an apparent suicide as police cornered him on a Florida houseboat in 1997.

"You're dealing with not a serial killer, not a mass murderer, but a spree killer," Ressler said.

Serial killers go though "emotional cooling-off periods" that could span days or even months. In this case, the killings were only hours apart.

The pair could be fugitives in their mid-to-late 20s or early 30s, with nothing to lose, Van Zandt said.

"One or both of these guys feel they've been ditched by the world," he said. "This is 'get-even,' this is 'level the playing field,' this is 'sharp stick in the eye."'

He said the suspects are also probably from the Montgomery County area, either living there, working there or with family connections to the area.

Both experts said crimes like this are generally solved by eyewitnesses or friends who notice that the suspects have disappeared.

"There are people out there right now who have suspicions," Van Zandt said.

[Hail Caesar]

"I would be inclined to think someone with resources, support, infrastructure (e.g. with safe houses and escape routes out of the locality and country), and an agenda is behind this. The angry white-male gun-toting nut idea already doesn't fit what is known about it. So it could well be a terrorist probe."

I agree.

Regardless of whether this is the work of psychopaths, domestic or even foreign terrorists, they have been effective in reaping both physical and psychological "terror" on this community. The sooner we catch and convict these bastards, the better.

[TheEngineer]

This has jihad/alqaeda written all over it.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

That's OK...I was making fun of the Brady B*tch's commercial that's been airing as of late...

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Mr. Robert Gene Baker has been arrested on a Florida warrant for car theft. He doesn't seem to be on the suspect list now. His wife called and reported him missing sometime yesterday.

[muawiyah]

All but one of the shootings took place in/near a predominantly Jewish neighborhood or on a Jewish owned business, or a business like the Shell station which is popularly believed in Islamofascist mystical circles to be Jewish owned or controlled.

That includes the shooting today at Benjamin Tasker. Although it's on MD 197, there is a Conservative congregation very near and folks walk to Friday prayer. As a consequence they live near the place of worship.

If you fellows missed my posts earlier, note that "Michaels" does business as "Aarons" in the Midwest and Texas.

Notice I said "all but one". The cabdriver had lived here 30 years. His funeral service was conducted at the SDA church he attended. No doubt the shooter, if an AlQaida "sleeper", works as a cab driver and recognized the man pumping gas at the Mobile station and realized he could identify him. One of the professional profilers said that when these mass killings takes place at least one of the victims will have been somebody who was a witness.

This shooter probably takes people from this area out to Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) regularly. Folks in Federicksburg (where the other "Michaels" was located, regularly take cabs from MD up to BWI on route 301!

301 runs through this area.

The shooter lives in the area, or does most of his cab driving in that area of MD.

The white "box truck", was most likely a misidentified 2.5 ton or 3.0 ton USPS truck then in the area taking mail to a delivery unit. Since this vehicle was seen only one time, it should not be heavily weighted in the profile.

[Hail Caesar]

IMHO, I don't think this is the work of Middle Eastern terrorists. More likely, this is the work of local, home-grown "good ole boy" terrorists. However, in these post 9/11 times, I guess anything is possible.

[pttttt]

All but one of the shootings took place in/near a predominantly Jewish neighborhood or on a Jewish owned business, or a business like the Shell station which is popularly believed in Islamofascist mystical circles to be Jewish owned or controlled.

That includes the shooting today at Benjamin Tasker. Although it's on MD 197, there is a Conservative congregation very near and folks walk to Friday prayer. As a consequence they live near the place of worship.

If you fellows missed my posts earlier, note that "Michaels" does business as "Aarons" in the Midwest and Texas.

Notice I said "all but one". The cabdriver had lived here 30 years. His funeral service was conducted at the SDA church he attended. No doubt the shooter, if an AlQaida "sleeper", works as a cab driver and recognized the man pumping gas at the Mobile station and realized he could identify him. One of the professional profilers said that when these mass killings takes place at least one of the victims will have been somebody who was a witness.

Interesting information and insights. The ethnography of these places is not well known as one gets farther away and could be significant, especially in predicting where future attacks might come. There was finally something on the news media today where a government spokesman let the "terror" word slip.