Police confirm sniper link in Va. slaying - Investigator is sure info will "lead us to an arrest"

Associated Press ^ | October 15, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

[VOA]

No easy decisions here, especially for civilians.

No disagreement on that.
I guess I'm just a little suprised that when these have happened in Virginia,
which I understand is a concealed-carry state, that there hasn't been at least one
citizen even just follow the perp(s).
I'm not ragging on the citizens...and honestly don't know if I'd have the courage
(or impetuousness) to take action.

I'd probably be cowering until I heard the police sirens.

But the shooter(s) has made a smart move in spreading terror without totally scaring people.
So far at each scene, one person is killed.
So if a citizen in on the scene and sees a victim go down, all they need to do is
sit until the cops arrive.
It's almost like being in a herd of gazelle...you can probably breath a bit of
a sigh of relief once the lions have claimed their finite kill for the day...
and you're still alive.

If the shooter(s) were taking out four or five people at a time...I wonder if some folks
might be more provoked...as in "they're probably gonna kill me, I might as well
take a chance..."

All in all, this will probably provide grist for about a thousand PhD theses in
forensic psychology, game theory and other fields of academia...

[VOA]

On FOX News just a little bit ago, they were discussing a suggestion that if you're
at the scene when this kind of thing happens to look in the direction from where the
shots came from, not at the victim.

People should be told to carry a disposable camera (Kodak, Fuji, whatever)
no flash so a photo can be taken discretely, albeit in daylight/twilight.
And ONCE THE SHOOTER is back in the vehicle...and if a citizen can discretely do it
(in case there is a companion vehicle)...take a photo of the vehicle as it pulls away.

Sure, this might entail a little risk...but maybe this would get crucial, hard info.
And help overcome the fallibility of the eyewitness recollection.

Oh, if I own any Kodak stock...it's buried somewhere in my mutual funds....

[VOA]

this guy could take a shot at someone rendering aid to one of his victims.......

I doubt that...just a wild guess.

That's because I have a theory that either accidentally or on purpose...this shooter(s)
only shoots one person per site...partly to get away.
But s/he may know that the other citizens in the area know that they are unlikely
to be shot...this guy only takes out one person at a time...and then leaves.

I'm sure some professor in "game theory" has a fancy name for this sort of
unspoken bargain between the shooter and all the people s/he doesn't shoot.

[annieokie]

I wonder about him using the same vehicle, but perhaps he isn't. Maybe there are two vehicles, the van is a decoy while the shooter is in another car. The van drives away and even if stopped they would find nothing, then the shooter and his car simple drive off in another direction. Perhaps the shooter simply gets out of his car and goes up and watches the crime scene as others do, maybe even talking with the police himself.

I wonder why they are not stopping every vehicle.

[American Soldier]

No I agree with you on that. I mean this sounds like the sort of person who ought to be, oh I dunno, kept sleepless for days at a time and spoken to at some length by spooky men with dark glasses, bad tempers, and polygraph machines.