Maryland Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary

Fox, CNN, Press Conferences | October 9, 2002 | Fox, CNN, Press Conferences

[Peach]

Another press conference due soon. To avoid multiple vanity threads regarding any news that comes from press conferences, thought we'd keep a live commentary thread going again today.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Prince George (county)

King George... ?

[Merovingian]

Yes, I did hear a reference to ss..

[NCLou]

Nice call, I made the same call on another thread yesterday that I thought we would begin to see contact from the shooter. This morning when I heard the news, I thought I was special, but you were on the same track!

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Someone else mentioned, its easy to pick up someone else's brass to leave at the scene to throw them off. I guess a stray tarot card might also be a red herring.

I'm far enough away to enjoy speculating. Nothing better to do with my time.

[Merovingian]

Far too much maturity and shooting talent for the perp to be young.

Absolutely, this is NO kid.....

[FeliciaCat]

I also am curious about the Tarot design. There are ALOT of them. Could be very telling.

[OReilly]

Yes, I did hear a reference to ss..

I think it was just announced with a cover story of sorts in the last two days that the 'President's Secret Service has entered the case.

[lsee]

I'd also be interested to know whether the killer owns any role-playing shooting video games, like Hitman (which has sniper scenarios) or one of the other super-realistic hunting games. Just curious, since these types of games have been implicated in other weak-minded individual's crimes.

[dmz]

uhh, there was a shooting but no murder in fredricksburg.

[bvw]

Was the message upside down, or sideways on the card?

[browardchad]

if Islamic terrorist, would resent perhaps reference to "I am God"

Would strongly resent that reference. In Islam, Allah is all-powerful, and thus would never take human form. For that reason Jesus Christ is relegated to the status of prophet (subordinate to Muhammad, of course). "I am God" would be outrageous blasphemy to a Muslim.

[Prodigal Son]

I'm far enough away to enjoy speculating. Nothing better to do with my time.

Same here. I've heard before that some snipers get this "God" complex because they feel a lot of power from the whole situation. Somebody else posted on this thread that the profilers said something about that last night. I could totally understand that.

[Merovingian]

To Repeat:

See my post #94 Last night I posted my theory about the current Sony playstation interactive game with the SNIPER theme being related in this case..I'm told this is a VERY intense and addicive game..Pete then commented that apparently in the movie "Navy Seals", the nickname of the sniper was GOD... A look needs to be taken at the seals link...

[Terriergal]

Who ever is doing this is a ruthless trained killer

I agree that he is a trained killer, but the amount of training it would take to make the shots he's making is minimal. I'm getting tired of hearing people (even Hannity) saying how it takes "years of training" to be this "good." I tend to agree with the Navy Sniper I heard on TV yesterday saying you could just about train a monkey to do this kind of thing accurately.

One sick monkey, IMO! What we need are more people out there with concealed carry permits so they can effectively stop this guy when they see him.

Has anyone mentioned that this guy might be using a silencer as well, or has that been ruled out? I would think that would make it even easier to get closer and avoid detection.

As I understand, snipers who have 'years of training' are those that routinely make shots many times farther than this creep is making.

[Hank Kerchief]

That can be helpful, remember the Unabomber.

Didn't help at all. If his mother hadn't dimed him out, the police (at any level) never would have found him.

Hank

[Prodigal Son]

But that still doesn't explain why the killer has a particular dislike for Michaels patrons. Perhaps he was traumatized by a particular episode of the Martha Stewart Living show?

What's all this I keep hearing about Michael's? I take it's a store in America? Were all the victims patrons? Is this the same as being a WalMart's patron? I don't mean that snidely, I don't know what they sell at Michael's. Do they sell things there that only a select crowd would buy or would the average shopper be likely to visit the store if there were one in the area? If so, I don't see the connection- I mean even I have been in a WalMart's although I don't live in the USA. I would imagine most people in the WTC that day had been in one as well but I wouldn't see this as a connection.

How does the young boy fit into that? He was shot at school wasn't he? Sounds to me like the sniper was laying up waiting for the first good shot he could get at somebody at the school and he took the first thing that looked good to him.

[Terriergal]

whether the card said God or Allah

Even if it did say 'God' that doesn't rule out that this could be a guy affiliated with Muslim terrorists.

'Allah' is just as generic a term for God as 'God.' But the comment about the guy in the movie being called 'God' I found interesting (haven't seen the movie yet).

[AmericanInTokyo]

I don't think the Tarot card thing definitively rules out Islamist terrorists.

Terrorists aren't stupid and they can play games, too.

Look. Just as (in my opinion) the anthrax killer is a DOMESTIC KOOK who purposely wrote those letters to Capitol Hill, the White House, the Supreme Court, with strange grammar and "Allah Ahkbar" to make it look like a foreigner did it, there is just as much an equal, reverse possibility that a savvy Islamist terrorist (who has been here for years or may even be an American) could set the stage for the planting of evidence to 'make it look like a DOMESTIC KOOK case.

I see these two cases, ANTHRAX and now MARYLAND SNIPER still as reverse of what they appear on the surface to be.

[areafiftyone]

This random (non-pattern) shooting just sticks in my gut. It means the guy has a grudge against the police and not against any gender or race (blacks, females, prostitutes, children). I just have this feeling he was arrested before on another totally un-related charge. He might even have a beef against Chief Moose or his department. They should really check anyone that they arrested in the past who recently go out of prison who has had military background or is an avid hunter (the only reason why I say that is because this guy is not an idiot when it comes to guns - he knows exactly how to inflict the most damage psychologically and physically).

[ET(end tyranny)]

Was the message upside down, or sideways on the card?

They didn't say.