SNIPER POLICE: 'Close to Arrest"

This is London ^ | October 15, 2002 | Unknown

[RAT Patrol]

This is LONDON
15/10/02 - News and city section

Sniper police 'close to arrest'

Police hunting a sniper in the Virginia suburbs today hinted they could be close to an arrest after confirming a ninth killing.

Investigators said the murder of a woman in the car park of a home improvement store was "conclusively" linked by ballistic evidence to eight other killings.

They also revealed that at least one witness may have seen the man as he fired and fled the scene in a light-coloured van. Several other witnesses were also said to have caught a partial view of the van's number plate, reported to be from Maryland where six of the 11 shootings have taken place.

Fairfax County police chief, Tom Manger, said today he was "confident that this information will lead us to an arrest in this case".

Linda Franklin, 47, from Arlington, died last night from a single gun shot wound to the head as she loaded her car with her husband.

The killing came almost exactly a week after a 13-year-old boy was badly wounded outside a school in Bowie, Maryland. Police have so far been unable to rule out a link to terror organisations, including al Qaeda.

Ballistic tests on a bullet recovered from Mrs Franklin's body were a perfect match to .233 slugs used in the other shootings over the past 13 days.

As if taunting the more than 1,000 officers involved in the hunt, the gunman targeted Mrs Franklin in a ground-floor car park at a branch of the Home Depot in Falls Church, Virginia. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses said they heard a single shot and saw Mrs Franklin crumple to the ground. Within minutes the immediate area and motorways were sealed off in what was clearly a well-planned police operation in anticipation of another strike.

There were conflicting reports both of an olive-skinned man and a white man with a blue shirt seen carrying a rifle.

Motorways north and west of Washington were blocked off by police, who were stopping all vehicles and recording their number plates. Officers with bloodhounds could be seen searching a grassy knoll by a church on the other side of the main highway opposite the car park as a possible hiding spot for the sniper.

An alert was also issued for a cream Chevrolet Astro van, possibly with a broken tail-light, that was seen speeding away from the scene. The description was almost identical to that of a white van spotted at some early shootings.

The latest killing is only a few miles from Rockville, Maryland, where five people were killed in 16 hours on 2 October, the start of a random shooting spree that has brought terror to the middle-class suburbs of Washington, and which has seen outdoor events cancelled and schools ordered to keep pupils indoors.

Two more people were shot dead last Wednesday and Friday and, while there were hopes that the killings had ended after two days without further incident, it now seems that the sniper is simply following a pattern in which he rests at the weekend. All the shootings have taken place either in the early morning or evening using a .233 bullet and either a hunting or an assault rifle.

The difficulty of some of the shootings, especially the murder of a middle-aged man at a petrol station on Friday morning, leads police to suspect he may have training as a marksman. Earlier, President Bush called the killings "cold-blooded" and said: "The idea of moms taking their kids to school and sheltering them from a potential sniper attack is not the America I know."

A specialist "sniper squad" with local police members of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms poured into the shopping centre after last night's shooting. The random nature of the murders does not fit with the pattern of any known serial killer, leading to speculation that it could be the work of an al Qaeda cell.

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Find this story at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/1600750?version=1 ©2002 Associated New Media

[nevergore]

You're right about a .233...LOL British Press....geeez!

However a .223 and a 5.56 are not the same...very similar but not identical. You can fire a .223 in most rifles chambered for 5.56 but many manufacturers of civilian .223 rifles and pistols (yes pistols) discourage 5.56 military rounds to be fired from their weapons...

This has something to do with the case neck thicknessand generated pressures.....and the way the round would seal in the chamber when fired...

Somebody with more ballistics knowledge than I can probably enlighten on this thread.

NeverGore

[txhurl]

Avon ladies, bi-sexuals, pot-smokers, what kind of group could he be that afraid to offend?

[copycat]

By all means, give us the facts so we can target them fairly, Moose!

I heard Rush say that they are now saying the sniper wore a blue sweater. Real helpful there.

If they could see that he had this sweater, they could see what color his hair was, whether he had facial hair, etc.

Since this info was not released, we must assume the suspect appears ME and they do not wish to cause a panic. (like there is't already)

[txhurl]

Thanks, Jim! For the handle-change.

[oldcomputerguy]

It probably is out and that would definitely make it a Chevy. These things always have a tail light out. GM must have the worst wiring in the world.

One report I heard implied that the "ladder" was in fact a chromed ladder of the type that one uses to climb to the roof. It is hard to believe that the reporters can get the facts so screwed up in the middle of reporter heaven!

[js1138]

Even though it could be anything from a .222 to a .22-250.

Posters keep saying this, but I believe, unless it's reloads or homemade bullets, that the weapon, or at least the barrel. can be identified. There have to be differences between manufacturers and models that can be seen in the recovered slug. I bet there are significant differences in the weight and composition of various commercial cartriges. Can anybody prove me wrong?

[js1138]

We had switches rigged up on our cars in the 1960's so we could shut off tail lights and brake lights. Drove the cops crazy. How long to take off the ladder rack and throw it inside? Turn the lights back on and look "normal" as you leave the scene.

Add to that a night vision screen, and you're all set.

[KneelBeforeZod]

maybe the British ARE using a .233 round.

Might explain the problems they are having with the SA80...putting .233s in a gun made for .223

[concerned about politics]

Police hunting a sniper in the Virginia suburbs today hinted they could be close to an arrest after confirming a ninth killing.

A specialist "sniper squad" with local police members of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms poured into the shopping centre after last night's shooting. The random nature of the murders does not fit with the pattern of any known serial killer, leading to speculation that it could be the work of an al Qaeda cell.

Why doesn't our press report like this? Too un-PC to link terrorism?

[The_Victor]

From the forensics standpoint, would you be able to distinguish the difference between the 5.56mm and the .223 from the slug?

[KneelBeforeZod]

I get it. Well *I* dont get it. I know what it means.

[Thisiswhoweare]

So do I.

[mortarman]

From a recovered bullet, it would be impossible to verify whether it came from a 5.56mm or .223 cartridge. The rounds are interchangable. The .223 is governed by SAAMI specs, and the 5.56 by mil specs. The only difference is a different max pressure on the loading and a few thousandths of an inch tolerance in the chamber.

[concerned about politics]

Vandals torched two military vehicles and defaced a recruiting center in San Jose on Monday, spray-painting an ominous warning across the building: ``Pre-emptive Attack.''

Maybe anti-war lefties after all.

[mortarman]

Clarification on my last post. It is true that manufacturers advise not to use 5.56 ammo in a .223 chamber. But this is mostly to satisfy liability hungry lawyers. In practice the are interchangeable rounds

[My2Cents]

We do know the animal who shot President Reagan and nearly killed Jim Brady gets out on unsupervised 'vacations'

That should make Jody Foster happy.

[ez2muz]

LOL
Looks like "Bubbles" was been "Queefed"

Stern's re-run this morning had the Eff-Emmies and the Queef-Queen was doin' her thing...

Probably where the screen-name seed was planted.

[OldFriend]

If had shot at a democrat President he would never see the light of day........but that wonderful defender of human rights, Gregg Craig, of Elian fame, was his attorney so he roams free today.

[arthurus]

Jewell ultimately made money out of the FBI's obsession with him and Hatfill likely will also leaving those 2 crimes unsolved, probably forever because the perps cannot be found in the preferred class of possible culprits and it is still difficult to successfully railroad a random citizen, even a random gun fancier. A perp probably will not be captured until the shootings have stopped for long enough that the authorities decide that the operation is over and their arrest of Joe Deerhunter won't embarrass them when another citizen is killed.