Posted on 10/05/2002 3:56:13 PM PDT by Hail Caesar
A Raleigh newspaper, The News and Observer, reports that a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has issued a bulletin for Robert Gene Baker III, (pictured, right).
Baker is a former Raleigh resident, but it's unclear when he last lived there. Federal agents said that they believe he's heading south from Washington and may have associates in Virginia and North Carolina.
The paper said that the bulletin describes Baker as a drug user affiliated with various militia and white supremacist groups.
The ATF reports says Baker's family members reported him missing on Monday. Moose said Baker's wife was the last to see him. The ATF report doesn't say where his family lives.
At a Saturday morning press conference, Moose stressed that Baker is not a suspect.
"He is not a suspect. He is a missing person," Moose said. "If he is located, the instructions are to please check on his welfare, his well-being."
Moose said if authorities locate Baker they have no reason to arrest him but will determine if Baker is willing to talk to police.
He is white, 5-feet-9 and 195 pounds, with brown eyes, brown hair and tattoos on both arms and back.
He was said to be traveling south in a white 2000 GMC van with dark lettering. The vehicle has a Maryland registration.
The ATF said that Baker is armed with a handgun and high-powered rifle and should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.
Investigators said that the bullets used in three of the five fatal shootings in Montgomery County, Md., and one in Washington, D.C., were all fired from the same weapon.
An agent from the ATF said that tests of the shell fragments yielded the match. Investigators are still analyzing fragments from two other fatal shootings in Montgomery County that police believe are linked to the others.
Investigators say the same weapon was used to shoot a cab driver at an Aspen Hill Mobil station, a woman at a Kensington Shell station, another woman in front of a post office in Silver Spring, and a 72-year-old man walking on Georgia Avenue, just inside the District line.
Police are still awaiting test results from a non-fatal shooting Friday in Spotsylvania County, Va.
Moose said the ATF transported the vehicle that was near the woman when she was shot to be examined.
"We are convinced there are possible evidentiary items in that vehicle," Moose said.
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It's only a likeness, 'ya understand? :-)
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For that matter, why is the ATF (or even any other Federal agency, when push comes to shove) involved in a local missing persons case?
the infowarrior
It's difficult to tell these turkies apart you know!
Sometimes they work together (Elohim City cult + McVeigh + Nichols + Iraqis).
Media Bias Alert! How do they know this for a fact? Did they ask him?
The guy isn't even charged, much less tried or convicted, and the smearing begins.
A former North Carolina resident who federal authorities had wanted to question about the string of fatal shootings in Montgomery County and D.C. is in police custody.
Moose said Robert Gene Baker III (pictured, left) was located in Fairfax County, Va., and was taken in to custody on an outstanding warrant for auto theft in Florida.
Moose says that Baker is still not considered a suspect in the shootings, but is being questioned. Moose did not elaborate on how or when Baker was taken into custody.
Despite an earlier ATF report that Baker was armed with a handgun and high-powered rifle, Moose said Baker did not have a weapon in his possession when he was taken into custody.
Earlier in the day, The Raleigh news and Observer reported that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had issued a bulletin for Baker, a former Raleigh resident. (pictured, right).
The bulletin described Baker as a drug user affiliated with various militia and white supremacist groups.
He was said to be traveling south in a white 2000 GMC van with dark lettering registered in Maryland.
The ATF said Baker's family members reported him missing on Monday. Moose said Baker's wife was the last to see him. The ATF report did not say where his family lives.
The offense... telling his neighbors he was a fedral marshall.
The same, however cannot be said of the ATF, which in this article alone ties Mr Baker with an "affiliation" with some unnamed "white supremacist/militia" group, or groups (kind of like Randy Weaver, whose initial "affiliation" with Ayran Nation was that he went to a meeting or two, and didn't like what he saw, but was targeted by the ATF to get a lot closer to them, as their informer). They also took it upon themselves to "declare" Mr Baker "armed and extremely dangerous", and as being armed with a rifle, when at the end of the day, when Mr Baker was taken into custody, he had no weapons.
Remember, the article said that these things came from an ATF field office in North Carolina, which is a far piece from Montgomery County Maryland, so I kind of doubt that a field office in N C was doing "ballistics and firearms identification" work on this case when there are offices closer to the scene which would be the logical ones to be tasked with this. None of this passes the smell test for credibility in any kind of proper investigation...
the infowarrior
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