Sixth death linked to sniper - Police want to talk to N.C. ex-resident [Robert Gene Baker - photo]

newsobserver.com ^ | October 5, 2002

[HAL9000]

Baker, shown in a 1993 photo, is wanted for questioning.

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Police linked the shooting of a 72-year-old man in Washington to the sniper killings of five Maryland residents and said that the same high-powered rifle was used to kill at least four of the victims.

Authorities were searching for two men, including one with North Carolina ties, for questioning, and were investigating whether a seventh shooting outside a Virginia store was part of the same crime spree.

Late Friday, federal authorities in Charlotte issued a bulletin for a 33-year-old former Raleigh man in connection with the shootings. Robert Gene Baker III was believed to be heading south from Washington and may have associates in Virginia and North Carolina, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said.

Baker previously lived in an apartment at 9135 Stonehenge Drive in North Raleigh. It was not known when Baker last lived in Raleigh.

Baker's family members reported him missing Monday, according to the ATF report.

The bulletin described Baker as a drug user affiliated with various militia and white supremacist groups. He is 5-feet-9 and 165 pounds, with brown eyes, brown hair and tattoos on both arms and his back.

Police are looking for a white 2000 GMC van with dark lettering. The vehicle has a Maryland registration.

The ATF says it believes Baker is armed with a handgun and high-powered rifle and should be considered extremely dangerous.

Baker was arrested in 1993 in Raleigh on a fugitive warrant and also was charged with not wearing a seat belt and driving without a license, according to Wake County court records.

In Washington, police reported that the same weapon was used in Friday's slaying as in three of the five shootings in Maryland, said Special Agent Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Forensic testing was still under way in the two other Maryland shootings.

"We are on track to get him," said Charles Moose, the Montgomery County police chief, and a 1975 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. But few witnesses saw the killings, and no shell casings were found at the crime scenes.

In the latest case linked to the sniper fire, a 72-year-old man walking near the Montgomery County line on a main northern Washington street was shot once in the chest Thursday night. He fell dead, just a short drive from the Montgomery County locations where the first five victims were killed.

The shooting Friday, still under investigation for links to the sniper cases, was in Fredericksburg, Va., 50 miles to the south.

At the Spottsylvania Shopping Center, a woman was shot in the back and critically wounded Friday afternoon as she loaded packages into her car outside a Michaels arts and crafts store. The police said a gray car was seen speeding off afterward.

The ATF has received a bullet casing from that shooting, and will test it, Moose said.

The police, saying they were in the early stages of the investigation, said they saw no immediate connection except the seemingly random nature of the shootings. But they expressed interest in the coincidence that the very first Montgomery County incident on Wednesday night was a shot fired through the window of another Michaels store in Wheaton, Md. That shot barely missed a store clerk, the police said, while the rifleman's next five shots resulted in five fatalities. Those victims died in separate attacks Wednesday and Thursday as they went about routine outdoor activities, from mowing the grass to cleaning out a car.

Moose, the Montgomery County police chief, confirmed Friday morning that ballistic evidence showed that the victims most likely were shot by a sniper using high-intensity .223-caliber bullets of the sort used by rifle hunters and soldiers.

"They don't appear to be anyone's enemies, just random targets," said Moose, noting the victims were from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

Detectives' confirmation of the stalker's marksmanship plus the possibility that the gunman might have widened his field and struck again intensified the anxiety spreading through Washington and surrounding suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

"People were just out doing ordinary things, and people just decide to drive by and blow them away," said Connie Gray, 69, a Montgomery County resident shopping near where a woman was shot through the head on Thursday as she sat on a bench outside a post office. "That saddens me, and it angers me."

Detectives indicated that they had a continuing suspicion that the method used by the rifleman was to take aim from a distance while hidden inside such a truck, beyond sight of immediate witnesses, and to speed away with the spent cartridge evidence.

While stressing this as the police's best theoretical lead, Moose rejected speculation that more than one gunman might be involved. He also said the white-truck scenario was one of many that could emerge as detectives seek fresh evidence.

The deadliness of the gunman's intent was clear as a federal firearms expert explained that the .223 caliber bullet, while relatively small looking, was designed for high-velocity firing from an outsized cartridge packed with extra gunpowder.

The very idea that such high-intensity open-field weaponry was being brought to bear covertly on suburbanites chilled residents trying to go about their business.

"You're afraid standing here that somebody might come along and shoot you -- you know it's possible," said Loretta Betesch, 42, an insurance saleswoman, pausing in a grocery store parking lot in Wheaton, where the first victim was gunned down on Wednesday. "It could happen anywhere. It's very unnerving."

[SauronOfMordor]

Last time I checked, white supremacist types don't go around shooting blonde haired white women(Laurie Lewis-Rivera was one)

A white supremicist who decided to go on a sniper spree would target blacks in such a way as to try to start a race riot

[Catspaw]

I'd toss Philly into that list. I have no reasons, just a gut instinct--and I'm usually wrong.

[Dick Bachert]

Yep.

And did anyone ELSE notice how the TV coverage of the ATF "Show and Tell" about the TYPE of weapon suspected FOCUSED ON THOSE NASTY LOOKING -- SHUDDER -- "ASSAULT RIFLES," almost COMPLETELY NEGLECTING the far more accurate BOLT ACTION hunting arm???

If you're going to take ONE SHOT, the weapon of choice is the bolt action rifle with a heavy competition barrel, NOT the nasty looking assault rifle designed for rapid-fire combat situations.

[Dick Bachert]

And what BETTER place to wage a campaign of offing innocent victims than Montgomery County, MD and DC where only the cops -- and the bad guys -- are SUPPOSED to have guns.

The shooting in VA MAY have been a bad choice as I believe VA does have a CCW law on the books.

These morons MAY have some surprises if they try this crap down south.

[pfflier]

Looks like another case of home grown terrorism. You know, one of tose right wing extremists, and just a few weeks before the mid term elections too.

[Ditter]

Correct, most of the people writing these articles have never picked up a rifle, much less shot one. *Any* hunter can do what this guy did & no I didn't hear how far he shot. The first thing my husband said was "I wonder if the police have been to the range looking for this guy".

[Politically Correct]

Why is it that every time someone gets shot from a distance of more than 20 feet the shooter is called a sniper? Add that the the highly deadly woodchuck round (.223) and you have the makings of a terrorist reporter. Did any source quote the distance of the shot? I doubt it was more than a few hundred feet.

Snipping frequently happens from very short distances. It is nothing more than shooting from a concealed position. It does in fact adequately describe what's happening here.

Any deer hunter (in a rifle hunting zone) worth his salt can hit a fairly small target at about 200 yards. Hell, I can hit put 40 rounds in a row through a sheet of typing paper at 200 meters with my M1A and no scope. I don't consider myself more than a novice. Snipers are a special breed of human. They can hit the same target at a 1000 yards.... with it moving.

I believe you are thinking of Hathcock(sp?). And while most well trained snipers can shoot like that it doesn't mean that they take all their shots like that. Hathcock was well known for his ability to stalk and infiltrate and took some shots at less than 50yds. Ie. don't confuse the process with the distance.

[Dick Bachert]

More "journalistic" BS from ignorant "reporters" who wouldn't know the difference between a .223 and a 30-06 if it reached out and slapped them in the butt.

On second thought, only the dumbest could fail to notice the difference.

[tomkat]

hey dick, i think something's way f'd up with your keyboard, man.
must be some old ice cream or part of a pastrami on rye or somethin' over around your caps lock key ...

[semaj]

"WHY IS THIS NOT BEING DISCUSSED AS A POSSIBILITY?"

The powers that be don't want a civil war in America right now. It's not yet time for that. Give it a few more years, what with all the illegal immigration across our unsecured borders and all. Once there is a critical mass of illegals which will add significantly to the mayhem they anticipate, then let the fun (sarcasm) begin.

[aristeides]

I think the blond-haired white woman in this case was the one who was vacuuming her van at a gas station. Gas stations in this area are not typically owned by Jews.

[Kozak]

HCI and VPC couldn't ask for a better job of frightening the sheeple about those evil so-called assault rifles in private hands

actually this time I expect them to demonize "sniper rifles" aka known as hunting arms. They don't need to bang on the "assault rifle" drum anymore, the sheeple have learned that one already.

[Let's Roll]

"I once remarked to a secretary at work: "Most people are only alive because nobody has been particularly interested in killing them". She thought about that for a while"

So true. In the more than 20 years I lived in Irving, TX, I forgot to lock my front door 2 maybe 3 times. Each time I discovered my carelessness, I was so glad that my anonymous ranch style house looked like thousands in the Dallas area - no reason to single it out by bad guy types so I was safe. Had I been singled out, a locked door probably wouldn't have stopped them.

[tomkat]

Had I been singled out, a locked door probably wouldn't have stopped them.
which certainly begs the question 'why lock them in the first place' ?

actually, our doggies *like* the idea of leaving ours unlocked ...

[dogbyte12]

I know it's been reported that this isn't the guy, but what led LE to him to begin with?

Standard FBI profiling procedure. If a whack job starts on any sort of spree, one of the first things they check are missing persons reports. This guy took off on Monday, appeared dangerous, so that is why they were looking at him.

[John W]

Inaccurate and wrong to classify this man as a suspect.Missing person yes.Suspect,no per current press conference by Moose.

[Dutch Boy]

My disagreement with the story is the use of the word "sniper" by the reporter with zero evidence. Sniper tactics are left to the professionals. Reading a book to learn a few techniques and taking shots at random people is should not link the two. Just as the FR post a while ago that showed the difference between Israeli solders and Palestinian gunmen, there is a huge difference. This story, and others like it, are meant to cause fear in the sheeple. It isn't to report on the facts. If so the story would only be a few sentences long. Look for a new round of anti-gun propaganda to come in the next week or so.

[OReilly]

Inaccurate and wrong to classify this man as a suspect.Missing person yes.Suspect,no per current press conference by Moose.

No one but newsobserver.com did.

[OReilly]

Has Moose addressed the delayed profile that he promised yesterday?

[fone]

Finished with your second novel, or was that in the first?