Posted on 10/03/2002 11:45:15 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Though al-Qaida training videotapes and manuals captured in Afghanistan specifically show the planning of attacks on Americans in drive-by shootings, experts who have analyzed those materials are cautious about concluding the murder spree outside of Washington yesterday is connected in any way to terrorism.
The videotapes and training manuals, which show Osama lin Laden's terrorists have prepared to kill Americans with small-arms fire from trucks and vans, were first revealed in a WorldNetDaily report last month.
But John Holschen of Insights Training Center, who produced a report on the tape for military and law enforcement officials, said the rash of shootings in a small area of suburban Washington in a short period of time is unusual but not altogether unique.
"It's not inconceivable that this will turn out to be a terrorist attack," he said. However, he cautioned against jumping to any conclusions without more information.
The training video captured in Afghanistan shows al-Qaida operatives practicing the following kinds of assaults:
Skip Gouchenour, a licensed detective in Pennsylvania who has analyzed the videotape and other training materials and made a presentation on them for the Pennsylvania Detectives Association, agreed that the Maryland shooting and murder spree is very unusual.
"I'm not dismissing the possibility of a terrorist connection," he said. "It's strange, indeed."
Gouchenour specializes in investigating murder cases for district attorneys, defense attorneys, police agencies and private citizens. He says he has run across similar murder sprees in his career, but finds some of the details of this case unusual.
Police across the Washington area are searching for what they describe as "a skilled shooter" who killed five people in a random death spree beginning Wednesday night and continuing yesterday morning in Montgomery County, Md.
The shootings took place at two shopping centers, two gas stations and on the lawn outside an auto dealership along Rockville Pike. The victims were ordinary people doing ordinary things on a seemingly ordinary day.
As a result of the attacks, children were kept indoors at schools in the county.
"We do have someone that so far has been very accurate in what they are attempting to do, and so we probably have a skilled shooter," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose yesterday. Police said they are looking for a small, slightly damaged white truck that may have black lettering on the side. Witnesses to the shootings said they saw a truck matching that description leaving some of the crime scenes.
Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles said police suspect the shooter was armed with a rifle.
About 40 minutes before the first killing, a shot was fired through a window of a Michael's craft store in the 3800 block of Aspen Hill Road. No one was hurt, but Montgomery County police said they believe the incident may have been related to what followed.
The first fatal shooting occurred Wednesday night at 6 o'clock, when James Martin, 55, of Silver Spring was killed in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse at Randolph Road and Georgia Avenue in Wheaton. By yesterday morning, the stores in the area were open for business as usual. A security tape from a camera that monitors the lot had been turned over to police.
Then about 7:40 a.m., James Buchanan was pushing a lawn mower over a narrow strip of grass in front of the Fitzgerald Auto Mall on Rockville Pike when he was shot.
The next victim was Premkumar A. Walekar, a part-time cab driver. It was about 8:10 a.m., at a Mobil gas station on Aspen Hill Road at Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, when the killer struck and Walekar died pumping gas.
About 8:30 a.m., Sarah Ramos, 34, was sitting on a bench at the shopping center near the Leisure World retirement community off Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring when the killer next took aim and fired.
It was just before 10 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Kensington and Lori Lewis-Rivera, 25, was vacuuming her minivan. The station, at the corner of Knowles and Connecticut avenues in the heart of Kensington, is visible from all directions. But again the killer struck as if coming from nowhere.
Throughout the day the manhunt intensified, but as night fell there had been no arrests. Though authorities have downplayed the possibility of terrorism, the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Secret Service have all been involved in the investigation.
Absolutely. Just last week muslim terrorists bombed a movie theater and a Hindu fair in India I believe. They consider all non-muslims the enemy. Also of concern, Drudge reporting a Gertz story about terrorists targeting American schools. Makes you wonder just what the authorities do know. They were very quick to lock down the schools in the Montgomery area yesterday.
No, it's not. At any range.
Pakistan.
Or, as a friend of mine in the USMC felicitously put it, "A TC possesses accuracy far beyond what most shooters can reliably achieve".
2) If they know that it is a .22 caliber weapon there are many cartridges that use this bullet besides .223 such as .22-250, 222 Remington, 22 Hornet, .223 Ackley Improved, and others.
3) If they know it is a .223 they have not said why. If they have an intact bullet they could possibly determine bullet type and rifle twist to match to the type of barrel and further reduce the list of rifle types. I doubt they have an intact bullet and only fragments from autopsies which is why they are simply saying .223 which blows into pieces on impact and makes hoorific wounds on thin skilled animals and people.
4) A serious professional would use a silenced weapon from a standoff distance. These people are not using silenced weapons. I would expect an arab terrorist to be the stupid one not using a silenced weapon, but in this case they did not need a silencer to avoid detection and get away.
5) A Mini-14 is not very accurate and even with the best shooter and accurate ammunition can on average shoot a 3" group at 100 yards and would not be the choice for a sniper weapon. It is more likely a bolt action rifle or an AR type configuration of rifle. The shooter is smart enough to only fire one shot so they do not allow a second shot for witnesses to spot their location and provide a physical description. The van sighting may or may not be valid.
6) The choice for Washington D.C. while congress debates Iraq war is interesting. Have the feds received any threats prior to the shooting and are keeping this out of the press? Would Iraq be stupid enough to attempt this and further inflame the Amercian people. They would keep quite and send a silent message the same as they would keep silent on any 911 connection. Are they shooting the Amercian streets up before we shoot up the streets of Bahgdad? Is this domestic terror aimed at implicating arab terror to further tensions? Not enough information yet to know what is the real story.
By killing several people in a "random shooting spree" along with your intened victim, you make it look like the person you want to kill is just one of several random murders. This would hopefully throw the police off track enough that they would never figure out the real motive behind the killings.
I think this tactic was behind one of the over-the-counter medication tampering cases a while back. Someone wanted to murder their spouse, so they poisoned some medicine on store shelves.
Let's make an Estimate of the Situation, folks:
No matter whodunit, we can tell you it was someone who was VERY SERIOUSLY (or VEY SERIESLY, if you prefer) well-trained by someone.
If I were the local police, I'd quickly verify the whereabouts of any known former military tree-eaters or snipers, just to clear them out of the suspect pool.
Pakistan.
And the dominant religion of Pakistan is???
Or some lady sitting on a bus bench...
So we are dealing with levels of possible sound suppression, which may take a .223 from its full sound to the sound of a .22 short, or anywhere in between depending on the sophistcation of the suppressor design. Or indeed the shooter can suppress the muzzle blast by firing from inside a van etc.
In any event, "ear witnesses" may be reporting nothing more than the ever present sonic crack, which is as loud as a .22, and does NOT point to the shooter.
No, if the perp is shooting in daylight in the middle of town, how do they just drive over to another neighborhood in a vehicle/high profile truck, a description that has been reported many times?
Or, he could have just flown in from Yemen, or Lackawanna, and is driving to Chicago or LA or Baltimore.
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