Posted on 10/14/2002 3:37:23 AM PDT by Peach
To avoid multiple vanity threads regarding any news from press confrences, let's keep a live commentary thread going again today.
Note: This is a graphics-free thread. Graphics can be found at "Beltway Sniper Shootings-Graphics Thread".
Please visit the Prayer Thread to leave a prayer for people living in the Beltway area.
I'd like to see the Guardian Angels out there on a weekday.
Travis, although you say that with great certainty, I don't think anyone can be absolutely sure he's not going to start going after "names." If he wants to go out in a blaze of glory, an attempt to assassinate the president would not be out of the realm of possibility.
When I left my office for lunch, I noticed a white van passing by as I waited to get out of the driveway. Then I saw another one, different but still a white van. By the time I got to the freeway a quarter of a mile away I counted 8 white vans and 2 white box trucks.
They're everywhere. Meaning the "white truck" business may be a completely false lead.
Whoa!.....Travis what leads you to believe this will happen....just asking.
Let it be known...the latest SNIPING location at the EXXON...NONE of the TERRAServers will allow you to see the ariel image...Cruise on down the INTERSTATE 95 and POOF...no image for the latest murder......very interesting to those of us following the satellite images surrounding this case.
I imagine that the tip lines are swamped with thousands (or tens of thousands) of calls, each with a pet theory as to who this sniper must be. Just read the threads here for a tiny slice of what the tip line workers must be facing.
I tried calling Hampton Police. I'm sure their not too swamped that they can't see a great probability here. I mentioned names and an address. Much different than telling them to look out for a Muslim. If you read back through all that I posted ,noting I had to leave certain incriminating names (codenames) email addresses like confirmedkills@----.com and more, you will see how the person they represent as being a probable sniper fits this character as well as this same person being mentioned as part of a sniper team that leaves death tarot cards in a story two months ago. I know they're swamped but damn..
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2002/102002/10052002/1033864835
The wound exited under the left breast, not just a glancing wound. So it was more serious than the impression that I had originally gotten. It could have missed the heart by only a couple of inches. So it was not as different as I had originally thought. Still... the damage seems to have been less than expected from the generic bullet type at that speed. Due to a longer distance shot? I imagine there was some lung and rib damage.
The shooting diagram appears to indicate the shot was taken from about 400' (or maybe somewhat more) out. The shooting location was between two restaurants (McDonalds and Pizza Hut) at 2:30PM, where there is nothing but driveway, parking lots, and I presume grass. That seems like a relatively awkward position from which to take a shot and get away cleanly. The shooter seems to have been focused on the Michael's parking lot to an unusually high degree.
The victim was located in between the shooter's position and the nearest freeway interchange. If the vehicle was facing away from the victim at the time, it would have to travel a somewhat circuitious path to get to the freeway.
Reports say a white vehicle was seen speeding away (no direction or further details reported to my knowledge).
So looking at this particular incident, I came away with some impressions...
At least two people are involved. One driver needed to get away from this one. Probably small vehicle involved.
Shooters are very brazen and have a fixation for specific types of targets in contrast to completely random (Michael's customers being one target).
Shooters do not seem disciplined in the formal military sense. This particular hit does not seem planned with a good escape route and not planned with a particularly good level of certainty that one would not be spotted due to proximity to restaurants (workers, customers, delivery people could have spotted).
Also, the shooters are going for torso mainly. I would expect a former military trained person would go for head shots only... just because they can, under the circumstances, and because they are "God". There is discipline involved (times of week, success of getaways, kill ratio, etc.), but it is a sloppy discipline. Therefore I would not expect much to come from looking into US military sniper records if the authorities are actually doing that with the notion it is likely to turn up something (note-- it could be a diversion by the authorities while they close in on some non-military crazy or terrorist ring).
Piggybacking, md2576's idea that a vehicle such as a jeep with a dark transparent soft-top could be involved seems plausible for a hit such as this one. It is a relatively common vehicle to be nondescript, can manuever in suburb and urban areas well (agility and speed, at least relative to a delivery van). It also has the convenient full rear field of fire capability.
I would hope they would look at these to further their investigation, not hamper it. Unless the media uses FR to get stories they can report, I doubt that this thread will get pulled with people giving their personal theory of what happened. If anything, listening to thousands of different stories will ultimately be the only way to keep an open mind into the investigation. If they choose to delete and not delete theories that could or could not have merit than we know they are only looking down certain streets. If the thread contained certain personal attacks against a group or religion then that might explain the reason for deleting. Political Correctness.
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