Posted on 10/11/2002 8:49:27 PM PDT by John H K
"....Although Smith said investigators did not search any hotel rooms yesterday, witnesses said police with bloodhounds cordoned off Room 109 of the Ramada. Sources said they found nothing of interest.
Police briefly took a man linked to that room into custody yesterday at the crime scene. Hobert "Dewey" Epps, 36, who lives in Georgia and is staying with his fiance, said he was questioned
Epps, one of several people detained briefly yesterday, said FBI agents told him he matched a tentative description of the shooter and that they were concerned about his presence at the scene. Epps said agents showed him a picture – which he said appeared to have come from a video image – that slightly resembled him. Epps is about 5-feet-9, of medium build with sandy brown hair and a mustache.
Epps said agents asked him to show his profile. He eventually was released. "They said I looked like the picture of someone at another shooting," he said...."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
America has had homegrown serial killers, long before Islamacist nut jobs decided to attack on our own soil. Heck, we've had centuries of people doing this. This is NOT al Qaeda, sleeper cells, nor even home grown Muslim/s. This is a whacko, like Son of Sam and the Zodiac Killer, and on and on.
Besides all of the former stuff, my common sense tells me so. I don't wear tinfoil. :-)
Never underestimate your enemy.
" No one has taken credit for it, so it doesn't " help " the Islamacists .
Name one happening al queda has taken credit for on their own.
" No al Qaeda force, is going to use a card, from a tarot deck, which was published in 1996 and not popular enough to still be on sale.
Who ever is doing the killing studied USMC warfighting doctrine. They've been at it for awhile now. They are independently wealthy and have spent considerable time recently studying a very large area, the people and other things relevent to what they were up to. The card comes from USMC historical practice, that's it's significance. Whoever is doing this is not concerned with michael, drawing symbols on a map, gas stations, PETA...and he doesn't get on the hwy for an escape, the location is a ruse. They're can shooting- AmeriCANS. They're doing it right outside America's 911 headquarters, N. and S. of it.
" They Muslims wouldn't use such an item anyway."
Are you sure? What if he's Chetchin? Jihadists mold religious doctrine to fit.
"It sounds far too much like the Son of Sam slayings and other such serial killers, to be being done by some foreign or even homegrown terrorist.
Those killers were psycho, these killings are done by a very bright, sane, but very evil person(s). If the killer succeeds 2 more times, it will be very clear he's got a lot of help. He's only succeeded twice sofar, because the last 2 were the only events w/o the element of surprise introduced by the killer.
"Mark Furman and other people, who have actual training in this kind of thing ( which no one, who's been posting on these threads has ! ) think it's anything but a serial killer.
Training... What does it mean? Does one need a certificate to think, to judge? All jihadists are serial killers. All killers have motive. If Sam's dog would have shut up, Sam would have lost his motive. If the world goes Islamic, jihadists will be out of business and other politically motivated killings will ensue.
Jihadists go after the big time kill. If this is their op here's what they're up to, they're setting the trap, because all other massings are subject to security checks.
If it's not jihadists, the only other killer on the loose I can think of is the anthrax guy. Here's a short explaination, cut from somewhere else.
The guy that sent the anthrax was an authoritarian from this country. Jihadists go for the big kill. If the jihadists got a batch of sodom's slime they'd of attempted a big time kill, not some weasle mailings. The anthrax didn't come from Iraq. It came from Ft Dietrick, MD and the scientists there recognized and acknowledged, it's their own bug mix.
The same bozo that stole and sent out the bug mix in the mail could be doing this spree also. His motive is the same as with the anthrax happening- providing the impetus for the destruction of individual Freedom. He's already killed and doesn't care much who he kills, because it's the collective well being he's after. Last time he was trying to establish rules and bureaucracies to protect folks from bugs, now it's guns.
The killer here is being cautious. His first shot was at a liquor store guy closing up as a test. Then a month later he starts his campaign. He's independently wealthy, so he's had plenty of time to read up, practice shooting and gathering info.
I've tried to follow this closely, but have not heard that. Early on, some police were showing "an example" of the type of gun that shoots the bullet type found. The only guns shown were AR-15 variants. However, plenty of different cartridges use the same bullet. Also, a varmint rifle could fill the bill. My wife actually heard some analysis early that mentioned the varmint, or ground hog rifle, possibility.
By now, I assume they have a bullet type and twist rate. But they are not saying what it is.
I am still doubtful of the validity of the tarot card and empty .223 case.
I've heard it is SOP, and this is the second shooting where this has happened -- there was a cop at the intersection, and a station nearby, at the scene of one of the Montgomery County shootings, and the cop ran to help the victim, ignoring pursuit of the perp. A normal human reflex, in contrast to an inhuman perp.
Do you have a source for that info? I haven't seen anything that specific about the card.
This is a possibility...but last night on Hannity, there was a retired DC dectective on saying it's possible the sniper's picking gas stations because they're along main thoroughfares, and easy for him to get out of the area, fast. I was talking to someone who suggested that gas stations are being picked because people also have to stand there for at least 3 minutes without moving while they pump gas....easy targets.
This indicates that he is not a trained sniper. A trained sniper would either not take the shot or would be able to estimate how much the bullet would be deflected by the glass.
He is employing good hunting tactics, getting close enough to bring down the quarry with one shot. There is no emphasis needed on accuracy at extreme ranges because the quarry does not shoot back.
Escape is the priority. In the suburban setting, one would not need to go far. Just a few miles to leave the immediate area, blend in with medium density population, and go to ground locally until the heat cools.
There are too many white vehicles involved -- first box trucks, then a Caravan, now an Astro. This could indicate rentals, but the police will certainly check the rental records in the area.
Why hasn't he killed on I-70 northwest of DC, instead of a second killing on I-95 south?
It's easy to understand how difficult it is to piece together what happened, considering that witnesses don't intentionally lie, but may subconsciously jump to conclusions in their mind. His attention was drawn to the Ramada Inn by direction, which was probably accurate, but was his estimate of the shot being fired from a balcony accurate, or just a guess?
The same goes for contradictory sitings of the occupants of white vans -- all the witnesses could be correct, given the popularity of white vans, but are any of those drivers relevant?
Or was it a miss? Was it aimed at someone in the parking lot? In one of the first interviews I read the saleswoman/girl at Michael's said she had "just gotten rid of a customer" when she heard a sound, and thought at first a light bulb had popped. I wonder if police have found that "customer" who just might have been in the parking lot at the time of the shot?
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