Posted on 10/10/2002 2:15:12 AM PDT by Peach
To avoid multiple vanity threads regarding any news that comes from press conferences, let's keep a live commentary thread going again today.
As others noticed on that thread, those pictures were taken AFTER the shooting. You can't see the victim, who was wedged between the car and the pump, but you can see a stream of blood under the front tires. There is also a police vehicle behind the car, at the left of one of the pictures. The males in the picture are LEO's -- one uninformed, one plain-clothes.
It takes a little time for something like a "shot" to register. By the time we figure it out, I'll betcha it's a couple of minutes.
With the cover of the greenspaces around these areas, the shooter merely moves "totally" behind his screen after the hit, places his weapon in a backpack and walks away to the NEXT parking lot over to a waiting vehicle OR just keeps on walking.
What we can guess is that he has been to all the sites before and we should start prodding the public (like a groundskeepers)about someone unusual in the area...perhaps a few weeks back.
Speaking of PETA, there was an interesting tidbit in the WP this morning, about a tarot card left at a past shooting:
A tarot card was also left by John Linley Frazier, who killed a prominent Santa Cruz County, Calif., ophthalmologist, his wife, two sons and secretary at the family residence in 1970. Frazier, who considered himself an ecologist, also tucked a note for the media and police under the windshield wipers of the family's Rolls-Royce.
The note declared World War III against "misuses" of the "natural environment." Although the differences between the cases are obvious -- Frazier bound his victims, argued with them and shot them up close with a handgun before leaving behind fingerprints on the Rolls-Royce -- experts declined to speculate on similarities."
The perp might just be into head games with this one, but three of the shootings were at gas stations, and two were at Michael's, which is owned by a member of the Wyly family, who control Green Mountain.com, an energy comany which is currently being boycotted by environmental fringe groups. This theme doesn't jive with the other shootings, but I'd be giving the ELF roster a hard look, just the same. The suggestion that this is an environmental whacko would probably be studiously avoided by Maryland politicos, I'd assume.
I think the next one will be near the cluster. After that, he/they will probably want to get out of town again. They haven't gone up 270 yet towards Frederick. I checked the map and there are several possible places he/they could exit 270 but I think two are most likely.
The first is on State Highway 27 near Germantown. It is consistent with the other distances away from the cluster, it would be a new area, it has a shopping center with a Michaels near the highway and two parks nearby.
The second possibility is farther North in Frederick. Same layout - Right off Interstate, shopping center with Michaels, new area, Monocacy Battlefield Park and train tracks right next to the shopping center. The distance from the cluster looks to be about 25 miles or so, which is more consistent with the Manassas and Fredericksburg shootings than the Germantown location.
This, of course, is just speculation, but after my Tuesday prediction that they would go West, I feel I need to post.
Sac
I called WUSA yesterday (Wednesday) morning after the morning news conference. I couldn't believe the way that they were handling their card scoop. Just after Moose let them have it, they continued to tease the card story.
Can you believe the WUSA "manager's" response when I insisted that they should back off and not interfere with the police investigation? She said, "What about Richard Nixon?"
amazing.
Later in the day... at the afternoon news on WUSA - the brought in their left-wing news hero : Daniel Shorr (NPR) live by phone. I guess WUSA figured they could save face a little bit. But NO! Much to my surprise, Shorr let them have it, too! He said they went too far and should not have run the story.
That was an interesting day for me.
Russ
The sniper has engaged in a game...the part he enjoys the MOST is the "ritual" prior to the shooting...he is very organized and sees his "ritual" as confimation of his superior intelligence...the END RESULT isn't the death or maiming...the RESULT he is striving for is the media and police reaction...BECAUSE if he were really out to KILL people as his primary goal...he would fire two or MORE shots...or use a more powerful weapon.
It is a deadly game...and it will only stop when he becomes the loser...he will most likely take his life when surrounded, because he will NOT want to be the loser or be held accountable and "let" the police win.
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