Fox News Alert. Montgomery County ANOTHER SHOOTING!!!

Fox News | 10/22/02

[areafiftyone]

JUST BREAKING!!! Police confirm another shooting. But are not sure if it is related.

[LibWhacker]

. . . a policeman or an "agent" or nearly anyone . . .

I think it'd be real tough for an unrelated third party to get into the area of the crime scene that night and leave the note, which leads us to your other possibility: a cop. This creep's ability to avoid the dragnet night after night together with the note sure argues for him having an inside line of some kind.

[Steve0113]

Hi K. Since the shooter almost certainly was on foot, this has some potential.

[Lobbyist]

How do we know it was not placed there before the shooting?

[The Red Zone]

Kid should learn some civics...

[goldstategop]

It doesn't mean the psychopath sniper's dumb as a rock. He may be using broken English as the only patois the authorities are able to understand since they seem to miss the point of the joke. To the sniper, they're the ones acting weird and retarded, not him. And this is his way of saying, combined with the latest shooting incident: "f*ck you and catch me if you dare."

[Kerberos]

"I'm not so sure he really wants the money, or is simply playing with the police. If this had been the motivation from the outset, the demand would have come earlier"

Almost sounds more like an outsider has join the game.

[Neets]

I'm agreeing with you on that Fletch...I think the ransome is a non-starter there.

[dasher]

***Please excuse if my writing is not so good".....See?***

Chief Moose wrote it? :)

[The Red Zone]

We would then expect to have cards found in non-shooting areas too (non-shooting because passersby made impossible the sniper's invisibility).

[Lobbyist]

Good point.

[tgslTakoma]

Only lookout on MoCo PD scanner channels is for a "number 2" white hispanic or similar male in white van. No mention if witness provided lookout, but it would seem that way. ME types could be described as hispanic-looking.

I am hearing helicopters overhead...

[kristinn]

It does. On the other side is an apartment complex.

[MeekOneGOP]

Police investigating another shooting in Washington area

10/22/2002

Associated Press

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A man was shot in the chest in Montgomery County early Tuesday, and a police task force was investigating to see if the shooting was connected to the serial sniper who has killed nine people and critically injured three others this month.

Police put a widespread dragnet into place immediately after the shooting, clogging traffic on Connecticut Ave., one of the main arteries into Washington, D.C., just as the morning commute began. Police helicopters began flying over the scene.

The shooting appparently happened about 6 a.m. EDT adjacent to an apartment building and wooded area along Connecticut Avenue. The location is near the site of six other sniper attacks,

Units were dispatched for a reported shooting on or near a bus, Montgomery County Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer said. The victim was being airlifted via helicopter to a local trauma center, he said.

On Monday, the hunt for the Washington-area sniper turned into a case of high-stakes phone tag.

Police say they received a call about the shooting after the latest attack -- but the call was muddled. Investigators took to the airwaves and pleaded with him to call them.

"The person you called could not hear everything you said. The audio was unclear and we want to get it right. Call us back so that we can clearly understand," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who has been leading the hunt for the sniper.

Moose's plea came hours after Virginia authorities surrounded a white van parked near an Exxon gas station just outside Richmond and seized two men. They said later the case was unconnected to the sniper.

With a Saturday night shooting at a steak restaurant in Ashland, some 15 miles from Richmond, now linked to the sniper, school officials in the Richmond area closed schools Tuesday for a second day.

Moose did not disclose who received the muddled phone call that riveted authorities' attention, when it was made or other details. But investigators believe the call may have come from the sniper and that the caller was the same person who left a note and phone number Saturday night at the scene of the latest shooting, a law enforcement source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

On Sunday, Moose publicly pleaded with the note writer to call authorities.

Then in the first of two televised statements Monday, the chief said: "The message that needs to be delivered is that we are going to respond to a message that we have received. We are preparing our response at this time."

Separate reports Tuesday shed more light on the message. The Los Angeles Times and Richmond Times-Dispatch said it contained a threat directed toward schools. Several media outlets reported that the killer demanded money.

The Los Angeles Times also reported Tuesday that unidentified federal agents said the letter was "very lengthy" and poorly worded, bordering on broken English.

The latest attack came Saturday night in a steakhouse parking lot in Ashland. The victim, a 37-year-old man, was felled by a single shot to the stomach.

He remained in critical but stable condition at a Richmond hospital Tuesday after doctors removed his spleen and parts of his pancreas and stomach. Surgeons retrieved the bullet after a second round of surgery Sunday, and ballistics tests linked the slug to the ambush killer.

Witnesses said officers in bulletproof vests converged on the van and dragged out a man before slapping him in handcuffs. Authorities did not say how the second man was arrested.

Hours later, the lead fell apart. A Justice Department official said deportation proceedings had begun against the 24-year-old Mexican and 35-year-old Guatemalan.

Several newspapers reported Tuesday that the men apparently made the mistake of driving the white van up to a phone booth being watched by police. The phone booth had been traced to one that the letter writer had used.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/102202dnnatsniper.61ed0.html

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[The Red Zone]

Dear God, lead that dog right to the sniper.

[OXENinFLA]

Video LinK

http://nbc4.feedroom.com/frameset.jsp?st=1034349889952&rdm=415639.23830733617

[theophilusscribe]

areafiftyone,

Sorry, I've got to disagree. This makes it more likely that it is AQ or some other ME group. A quick search on Google shows many instances where terrorists demanded ransoms or other compensation. We do not know all that they have demanded. (Here are a couple of articles, though there are many more instances)

U.S. said to expedite ransom to Abu Sayyaf
By Rowan Scarborough, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The U.S. government facilitated a payment of $300,000 through a third party in a bid to gain the release of two Americans held by the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.

Hijackers Demand $200 Million and 35 Rebels' Release
By DEXTER FILKINS appeared in the Los Angeles Times on December 29, 1999
"NEW DELHI—The Indian Airlines hijacking took an ominous turn Tuesday as the terrorists escalated their demands, asking for $200 million and the release of 35 jailed guerrillas in exchange for the freedom of their 160 captives."

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1997
19 January
Russia—Near Samashki village in Chechnya, assailants kidnapped two Russian journalists who were traveling to the Ingush region's capital, Nazran. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $500,000. The hostages were released on 18 February. There is reporting that no ransom was paid. A Jordanian militant is suspected of leading the kidnappers.
. . .
27 March
Yemen—Yemeni tribesmen kidnapped four German tourists who were returning to Sanaa from Marib. A letter was sent to the German Embassy threatening to kill the hostages if the Yemeni Government did not pay a ransom of roughly $3 million.

Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1998, Chronology of Significant
Terrorist Incidents
15 April
Somalia—Multiple media sources reported that militiamen abducted nine Red Cross and Red Crescent workers at an airstrip north of Mogadishu. The hostages included a US citizen, a German, a Belgian, a French, a Norwegian, two Swiss, and one Somali. The gunmen are members of a subclan loyal to Ali Mahdi Mohammed, who controls the northern section of the capital. On 24 April the hostages were released unharmed, and no ransom was paid.


I'm not trying to see a terrorist behind every act of evil, but it is not beyond a viable possibility that these incidents are, in fact, some breed of terrorism.

[OXENinFLA]

NBC4 had a lady on the phone that lived in the apt. complex and she was saying that police told her to stay in her home.

[Kerberos]

"Seems weird if it's just a money thing"

Fox News is now saying that witnesses report hearing three shots, which is not our guys MO.

[harpseal]

One of the portions of the program was asking kids what they would like to see the president do. One boy answered that he would like to see gun purchases restricted to those who had a license to buy guns. Dr Dobson, did not comment, but it obviously shows what this kids parents talk about.

Sad that even among those who have some idea of the importance of family the pernicious anti-self-defense propaganda has taken hold.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Joe Brower]

One boy answered that he would like to see gun purchases restricted to those who had a license to buy guns.

I would have immediately asked the boy how this would have prevented the murderer from obtaining a weapon. When the kid immediately goes stupidly silent, then say, "It wouldn't".

A b!tch-slap, perhaps, but a gentle one, and necessary.