Terror link to Maryland shootings? Experts divided whether killing spree work of al-Qaida

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, October 4, 2002

[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:

• using pickup trucks with shooters concealed in the bed of the trucks;
• using motorcycles as a shooting platform for drive-bys and assassinations;
• execution of prisoners;
• ambushes of law-enforcement officers;
• residential assassinations;
• assassination on a golf course using a rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire;
• drive-up kidnapping of target walking on a street;
• use of tunnels, storm drains and sewers for infiltration during urban raids;
• rappelling from rooftops of buildings to make entry on upper floors;
• use of motorcycles for grenade attacks; and
• raids on buildings with large numbers of occupants -- perhaps schools or office buildings.

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.

[Travis McGee]

In my novel, an ATF deputy asst director actually does the stadium shooting himself, but leaves a goofball Desert Storm mental case vet with ties to a militia group at the lair as a patsy, with "Jihad" leaflets. It's meant to look as if the "right wing militias" were trying to blame the massacre on A-rab Mooslims. Those dirty right wing militias will stoop to any level! The scum!

Of course, the ATF deputy asst director gets a large increase in the budget for his special anti domestic terrorism team, etc.

It's all about misdirection, media, sheeple, and the "wilderness of mirrors."

[hchutch]

But someone's gotta do it...

The money doesn't go to those ATMs on its own.

[5by5]

One way of tightening the noose on a determined random shooter would be for people to keep video cameras at hand. If you hear a shot, you tape averything within 360 degrees of where you are and turn it in. If we have a number of people trying to do this we will catch the shooter on tape.

You might think that this would be very dangerous to the person with the camera but I think not. The shooters M.O. is to take the shot and then move. They won't be hanging around to take second shots but moving fast. The camera can then catch them fleeing. The shooter depends on the chaos in the aftermath of the shot to escape. Taking a tape of the scene just after a shot can then be vital.

Just as many armed citizens can make it difficult for criminals, in this case, many citizens armed with video cmaeras can catch a shooter. I don't think that attempting to return fire on a shooter will be helpful though because it much too likely that the armed citizen will be confused with the shooter. The additional chaos only helps the shooter even more.

My guess is the shooter is a professional terrorist. Perhaps even the same one that pinned down a bunch of Israelis a couple of months ago...

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

I was wondering about the "one" .223 brass found. If it's the only one found, then it's uncharacteristic of the otherwise-pristine operation. Would fit the redherring scenario you describe.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I'm willing to bet most of the eyewitnesses were within 40 feet (that's a healthy distance).

What I am trying to say is that in a high density suburb such as this, most of the people in the immediate area would not be standing within 40 feet of the victim. LOL! I don't know, maybe they were.....

[spodefly]

How does one get your novel? ... sounds interesting, especially the motorcycle chick with the T/C ... is she dating anyone? :)

[Joe Hadenuf]

Yep someones got to do it. Just not me.......

[Travis McGee]

You can bet the police are checking every 7-11, Walmart, parking lot, red light camera video etc taken within ten miles of the shootings VERY carefully.

Video forensics is an exciting new field with unlimited potential.

[Travis McGee]

It would be easy to pick up brass at the range from an A-rab looking dude, or a local off duty LEO, or whoever you want to frame, and leave it at the crime scene.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"BS - a 100yd headshot from a cold barrel is hardly "trivial" - police snipers spend many, many hours on the range to ensure they can make CNS shots at 50-100 yards every time, from supported positions using expensive rifles. And they still sometimes miss when it counts, however infrequently."

Getting a 4" group (or half that) at 50-100 yards is indeed trivial for anyone with a decent rifle and a sighted-in scope. I just bought several surplus rifles for less than $100 each, and they give 2" groups at 100 yeards with crappy open sights, cold barrel, hot barrel, and lots of dents and scrapes.

Cops may enjoy all the taxpayer-funded practice at playing para-military games, but I hope to God they aren't challenged by a 100yd CNS shot.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I agree, with just eight or so well placed shooters, you could shut down an entire, major city for quite a while..With 20 shooters they could wreck absolute havoc

[Travis McGee]

I'm 99% finished, I am going to self publish and sell it on Amazon.

You can do a search on "The Raid" to find a sample chapter I posted on FR.

[Poohbah]

Like I said, when someone runs a hot round (.300 Winchester Magnum, .308 Winchester, 7mm Remington, et cetera), you're more likely to hear the crack than the actual report.

Timing is another issue. You'll actually hear the crack BEFORE the report, and that will tend to confuse non-shooters to no end.

And in your typical strip-mall area, with all those hard surfaces for the sound to reverberate off of--if you ask 10 witnesses where they think the shooter was, you'll get 11 answers.

[Travis McGee]

Some could be suicidal dead enders requiring SWAT, some could be Atta smoothies moving from city to city....absolute havoc.

[Poohbah]

Just use an empty ballpoint pen refill to pick it up, and a baggie to carry it in...and your prints were never on it.

[Delbert]

Before I even read this thread, this is what I thought, If there's a driver and a shooter that it was committed by male fanatical middle eastern muslim extremists between the ages of 17 and 40. Oh yeah thats profiling isnt it? To friggin bad.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"These people are not using silenced weapons."

I don't think we know that. Inexperienced Marylanders who hear a supersonic crack of a rifle bullet might not miss the muzzle report. If Chief Wiggum (Moose) and his boys were clever, they would do a good job of interviewing the witnesses to discern whether there was the second boom after they heard the crack. Normally, for witnesses far from the shooter, but near the bullet path, you expect stories about "two shots."

[Travis McGee]

Here's a sample chapter I posted a while ago.

THE RAID

[Hatteras]

Regarding the report, in an article on the W%^(&*#@$^%!& Post web site, the first victim (Wednesday evening) was shot across the street from a police station. They said officers inside the station heard the bang and headed outside to see what it was. No suppression there.

[Brad C.]

I don't think it is a professional weapon, I think it is something that you or I could walk into any gunshop and buy. I do think that the firearm was used intentionaly, and that it will be used again in the very near future.

Your comment about the perp being brave and stupid ignores the fact that the LEO have no desrciption of the perp, the vehicle or anything else of value to the case. Instead, they have asked people to turn against their neighbors and friends and report to the authorities in regards to ownership or suspected ownership of .223 rifles.