D.C. SNIPER TERROR: 'This guy is good, but not as a shooter'

A small-arms expert trained in sniper tactics says he believes the shooter currently terrorizing the D.C. area is very capable, but not because of shooting abilities – because he has yet to be captured.

"This guy is good, but not as a shooter," says Charles Cutshaw, a technical small-arms and tactics writer for several publications, including Jane's Information Group.

"One-hundred-yard shots are nothing," Cutshaw said in an interview. "He is good at tactics. I believe he selects his location days in advance. He reconnoiters the site and selects a good 'hide' – a place that affords him cover and concealment, as well as an escape route. Then he takes his shot."

In each of the 10 shootings thus far, only one shot has been fired – in accordance with the sniper's credo: "One shot, one kill." Eight of the 10 victims struck were killed.

If accurate, Cutshaw's theory would explain why police have few solid leads and why the sniper has been successful in eluding capture. His theory would be even more remarkable if there were more than one sniper, as police believe may be the case.

"Whoever this is, he's had some kind of [sniper] training," Cutshaw said. Another hint: The shooter is leaving no brass bullet casings behind, he says, noting that snipers are trained to pick up their brass, as well as leave no other clues to their identity or shooting location behind.

The primary physical evidence police have are the bullets themselves. Authorities have said most of the shooting victims were struck with .223-caliber ammunition.

Cutshaw said the lack of brass casings at crime scenes may indicate the sniper is using a bolt-action rifle, in which he would not eject the shell casing at all. However, he said, if the shooter is using a semi-automatic rifle, he could have it fitted with a "brass catcher" – a device that fits on a semi-automatic rifle and catches the brass casings as the weapon ejects them.

Also, he added, "the fact that nobody sees this guy means he is carefully picking his targets."

The New York Post reported over the weekend that police may in fact have a videotape identifying the shooter. A surveillance camera may have caught the sniper in action in the Wednesday shooting at a Manassas gas station, the report said.

The paper reported Hobert Epps, a 36-year-old Georgia man detained by investigators near the scene of Friday's shooting, said police compared his face with a photo from the tape. Epps said officers told him a wallet-sized image was taken from a surveillance camera near the crime scene.

"I'd be very surprised if a surveillance camera picked him up," he said. "If he's smart enough to do what he's doing, I'd certainly think he'd be smart enough to avoid surveillance cameras."

But is the sniper a terrorist? Cutshaw says he thinks it's very possible the shootings have been the work of terrorists.

WorldNetDaily reported Sept. 4 that an al-Qaida training videotape, captured in Afghanistan, shows Osama bin Laden's terrorists are not only planning attacks with weapons of mass destruction but are preparing to kill Americans with drive-by shootings and home break-ins, through ambushes of law-enforcement officers and targeted assassinations on golf courses.

Meanwhile, the Post also reported yesterday that cops have retreated somewhat from their initial belief that the shooter may only be a "sniper wannabe" – someone who is fascinated with the sniper subculture but has only limited sniper skills – because of the Manassas attack.

Last Wednesday, the sniper shot and killed Dean Myers, 53, from a distance of around 150 yards – a difficult shot, police said, because Meyers was hit in the head by a bullet that threaded a tight corridor between two fuel-pump islands, said the paper.

Cutshaw even opined that the Beltway sniper, as he is being called, may never be captured, unless he gives himself up.

"He won't get caught," the Marine sniper vet – who was not named – said. "He will have to quit on his own or turn himself in."

The veteran also voiced concern over a theory now under consideration by police and federal officials – that the shooter or shooters were trained in the U.S. military.

He said the Manassas shooting "was the work of a pro. Well-planned, scoped out. I'm starting to think this guy was trained by one of the services."

Police have asked the Defense Department to check various armed forces' sniper schools for information about former students, rejected applicants or students kicked out for psychological problems, the New York Post said yesterday.

Over the weekend, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., badgered the National Rifle Association for opposing a bill he has authored calling for a national database of "ballistic fingerprints" for every firearm sold.

Each firearm would be test-fired by gun makers before they are sold, with the bullet "fingerprints" put into a federal database.

"We let our police use human fingerprints; why don't we let our police use the fingerprint that guns and bullets make?" asked Schumer.

Cutshaw said he is disappointed by some lawmakers' calls for stricter laws against so-called "sniper rifles," mostly because he says they are – perhaps intentionally – misrepresenting certain weapons for political gain.

"The call is already going to ban sniper rifles, but what's a 'sniper rifle'?" he said. "It could be any rifle with a scope on it.

"You don't need a true sniper rifle for shots at 100 yards or so," he continued. "Any rifle with open sights will do. I can take those kinds of shots with most [semi-automatic] rifles on the market now."

There you go being mean-spirited about our borders being left wide open.

Tom Ridge and George Bush have made it clear that it would send the wrong message to our fine neighbors and Middle Eastern member nations of the U.N. for us to seal our borders even after an event such as 9/11.

Sealing our borders would be an affront to our cultural and traditional role as sitting ducks for every sick, twisted, two-bit, psycho extremist with an axe to grind against the West.

I'm shocked you don't agree.

Hmmm, you're another one that must have slipped your conditioning. You've stopped watching CNN too, haven't you? ;^)

When I asked on another thread about intercepting such communications, somebody said they would be encrypted. But couldn't you at least monitor for mysterious encrypted communications, and do direction-finding and traffic analysis on them? Time to bring in the NSA?

You can take accurate 100 yard shots with a good Civil War era design black powder rifle.

You're right. Weren't the Berdan Sharpshooters trained as snipers during the Civil War?

It seems logical to me that if these guys spent years learning how to do their deeds of 9-11, they could have also spent time learning to shoot. There could be other cells in other cities ready to do the same thing.

The Al Queda cell captured in Portland, OR was caught practicing marksmanship in a stone quarry.

Lends credence to the Al Queda "wave" of terror theory.

The "government" could, but it won't. You know that. There is no legal reason they cannot do it, but the "civil rights" folks would have a turkey and it would be politically incorrect to do so.

In addition to the endless numbers of "innocent" immigrants, both legal and non-legal, the universities would be furious, and those who are here on visas could tie up the INS in even worse knots than now.

We do not have control over our borders, and will not be able to gain control.

In my humble opinion, this is one reason why the possibility that this is Muslim terrorism just cannot be discussed seriously by the LE, or by Homeland Security, which now seems to be Government's equivalent of a band-aid on a melanoma.

Seriously, Aristeides, do you think there is any realistic chance we would intern and deport? What about Louis Farrakhan and his troops? Shall we intern all American Muslims too? After all, they are just practicing their "religion", and we have been told it is "one of peace"

To me the only question is whether we "frogs" are being boiled or fried.

There is a very good reason why, Chuckie boy. The 2nd Ammendment comes to mind. Plus the fact that it would be a useless law to catch someone like this who would have undoubtedly modified his weapon to leave no such fingerprints. Or did Chuckie intentionally miss the fact that the shooter leaves no brass?

My response was to this quote by Senator Charles Schumer:

"We let our police use human fingerprints; why don't we let our police use the fingerprint that guns and bullets make?" asked Schumer.

Another hint: The shooter is leaving no brass bullet casings behind, he says, noting that snipers are trained to pick up their brass

Get real...with the proliferation of crime shows on fifty-eleven different cable networks even I would know not to leave brass around, and I don't know anything about guns or shooting sports. Seriously, any couch potato who spent a weekend surfing The Discovery Channel, CourTV, TLC, or The History Channel would be able to figure that out.

Oh yeah, throw in the dozen or so flavors of Law and Order also...

One could learn a lot from books I suppose, but shooting a rifle is a lot like learning a golf swing. (The operational aspects of sniping are something I know NOTHING about.) There are some who do it well, some who only know what they've read somewhere, and all the rest of us are just hackers after years of practice.

Hitting a target the size of a small plate at 150 yards is not easy for a "hacker", and add to that the stress that must surely (I wouldn't know it from experience, to tell the truth) exist when shooting something besides paper, and you're outside the 1st deviation.

Yes, I've posted the details from al Qaida training videos that were found in Afghanistan around the same time Abu Z. was singing.

What this all shows is that our government has had warnings that exactly these kinds of tactics would be employed by al Qaida operatives as far back as prior to 5/23/02.

Yet, the media is just now getting around to the discussion of terrorism 2 weeks after the first shooting?

Are Saudi travel agents still able to procure 'Express' Visas for Middle Easterners that purchase a certain travel package? I know the State Dept. changed the name of the 'Express' Visa Program, but for all intents and purposes it still works the same, right?

Will these victims be remembered as martyrs for the 'New World Order'?

This should be part of their epitaph, 'They made the ultimate sacrifice for Globalism.'

You make some very good points. Adding to them (if I may)...

It would seem that LE is not releasing all the information, and in some cases giving misleading information for public consumption.

This latest shot was to the head and at night....even at 100-125 yards, not to bad of a shot.(how many of the others were to the head?)Answer:we don't know. This latest shot was reported as 'upper body' also. It has leaked out and been confirmed by witnesses that it was to the head.

At what distance are these shots from? I don't think the feds are giving us a truthful answer in the 100 yard theory. If there is no brass and no one saw the shooter, forensics would be the only way to tell, and with a busted up round to work with it is all a lot of guess work.(and easier to keep quiet, very few would know the real answer.)

I guess my real point here is we don't have all the facts, and I think a lot of the facts we have are misinformation.

You have practiced for years & still consider yourself a "hacker" who would have difficulty hitting a small plate at 150 yards? We are a family of deer hunters & every member of our family, women (I am a woman)included could do this. It is not a huge feat. Now shooting a another human being would be an added level of stress that I can't even imagine but then we don't hate anyone, not yet anyway.

I don't see how this guy is scoping out his sites for days considering he shoots one each day of the week...unless he is choosing sites on the weekend.

He/they did not shoot anyone on a Tuesday (keep your fingers crossed). Also, I think the "Michael's" connection could be significant. Terrorists always seem to do things like that. Did anyone else notice that "Michael" is now the most popular baby name in the country? Someone on another thread said that if you plot the "Michael's" shootings on a map, they make a cross...

"Get real...with the proliferation of fifty-eleven different crime shows on cable networks even I would know not to leave brass around, and I don't know anything about guns or shooting sports.

Pick up some of the books by Jeffrey Deaver. 'The Coffin Dancer' is probably required reading in al Qaida's sniper school.

If you can learn to outsmart 'Lincoln Rhyme', what chance does the average LEO have?

"Feeling a little wormy, a little cringy."

"...there goes the retail economy."

Think the terrorists know that most retail operations make or break it financially for the whole year based on their sales between now and the end of the holiday season?

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