Posted on 10/20/2002 4:13:26 AM PDT by GRRRRR
The other thread is running over 2800 posts...so here's a new place to post for Sunday.
Per FOXNews, a 10am EASTERN news conference is planned. Two travelers pulled off I-95 for dinner at a Ponderosa Steak House. The Man, 37, was shot in the gut while his wife stood next to him.
Bullet has NOT been removed from the man while, after surgery, he remains in Critical but GUARDED condition, however, x-rays are expected to provide some dimensional analysis of the slug. Further surgeries may be required on the victim, according to FOX and then the bullet is likely to be recovered.
Meanwhile, the "white" box truck/van that was found with a "Shell" in it at Dulles is reported to be a 7.62 (.030'??) OLD shell and NOT expected to be part of the "Sniper Shootings".
Multiple LEA's are now in Ashland, VA located about 80 miles south of DC to begin more site investigations at first light of dawn.
Numerous witnesses in the area saw the man fall down and provided aid to the man. The man was still conscious and spoke during the rescue. According to (spit) CNN, there will be NO news conferences from the hospital.
Over to you Laurie Dhue...GRRRRRollin'
Are they asking "How often does this happen?"
Dragnet searches and arrests could be used in any number of cases. Handcuffing you and putting you down on the pavement just because of the type of vehicle you drive is beyone the pale. It will turn law abiding citizens against the police and make people afraid to drive because of the type of their vehicle. It will also generate more lawsuits.
Oct 20, 2002
"We are acting as if it is and we will continue in that mode until we find out it is not," said Col. Stuart Cook of the Hanover County Sheriff's Department.
The victim was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday but doctors said they were cautiously optimistic.
Authorities said doctors had not yet managed to remove the bullet, which would be needed to establish a connection to the other shootings. Physicians planned more surgery and said they still might be able to recover the bullet.
"The prognosis is still guarded, but since he is a very healthy man and he is very young, the chances are fair to good, I would say," said Dr. Rao Ivatury, director of trauma and critical care at MCV Hospital in Richmond.
Police said the victim, whose name was not released, was shot outside a Ponderosa steakhouse Saturday night after he and his wife stopped in Ashland, a town of 6,500, for gas and food. His wife told authorities the shot sounded like a car backfiring and said her husband took about three steps before collapsing.
The sniper shootings began Oct. 2. The most recent confirmed sniper attack was the Monday night killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store in Falls Church.
If the Saturday night shooting were confirmed as related to the others, it would be the first time the sniper has attacked on a weekend, and it would break the longest lull between shootings, about five days.
It would be the farthest south the sniper has traveled - Ashland is about 85 miles south of Washington. Previously, the farthest the sniper had strayed from the Washington area was Spotsylvania County, about 50 miles south of Washington.
Dozens of officers conducted a methodical, inch-by-inch search Sunday of a wooded area near the restaurant. Cook refused to discuss what, if anything, officers had found.
"The leads have been numerous and we hope they continue," Cook told reporters during a briefing.
Some witnesses said they heard a shot coming from the woods, but nobody reported seeing the shooter.
Earlier, Ashland Police Chief Frederic Pleasants Jr. had said no evidence had been found during searches conducted immediately following the shooting.
The shooting victim underwent three hours of surgery late Saturday at MCV Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Pam Lepley said.
He was described as conscious Sunday but unable to talk because he was on a ventilator. Doctors had to remove his spleen and part of his stomach and pancreas, Ivatury said.
Ivatury said he couldn't comment on the condition of the bullet.
Unless the bullet is removed, officials can't conclusively determine whether it was fired from the same rifle used in 11 previous assaults - nine of them fatal - in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
However, it may be possible at least to determine whether the bullet is the same size - .223-caliber - that was used in the earlier attacks, said Dr. Paul B. Ferrara, director of Virginia's Division of Forensic Science.
"It depends on the condition of the bullet and how badly fragmented it is," Ferrara said Sunday. "Sometimes a firearms expert can assess or approximate the caliber of weapon by looking at X-rays from different angles."
Pleasants said state police shut down Interstate 95 in the area immediately after the shooting was reported, as well as Route 54, where the Ponderosa is located, and Route 1, another major artery less than a quarter mile away.
"From the minute the call was received, a plan of action was put into place for setting up roadblocks," Hanover County Sheriff's Col. Stuart Cook said. "It was a rolling, continual thing."
Authorities have been on the lookout since early in the investigation for a white van with a ladder rack. However, Pleasants said that after interviewing witnesses police had no suspects and no clear description of a vehicle that could be placed at the scene of Saturday's shooting.
Russ Brickey, 26, a maintenance mechanic, said he had eaten at the Ponderosa many times and couldn't believe the violence had made its way to Ashland.
"This is like a high-tech Mayberry," Brickey said as he stood across the street from the restaurant. "Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen here - period."
Authorities in Maryland continued testing a shell casing found in a white rental truck to determine if it could be linked to the sniper attacks. Police said it would be at least Monday before they could announce whether the casing is connected to the shootings.
A source close to the investigation, however, said Sunday that "it has nothing to do with this case." The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm reports that the shell was .30-caliber, a different size from the sniper's bullets, but said: "It's got caliber problems, it's got age problems."
The shell casing was found in a car seized at a rental agency near Dulles International Airport in Virginia, authorities said.
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Associated Press Writers Michael Buettner in Ashland, Va., and Stephen Manning in Rockville, Md., contributed to this report.
AP-ES-10-20-02 1549EDT
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA81PNDJ7D.html
In this extraordinary situation,the question must be asked just how many people must die/how many lives disrupted to maintain constitutional safeguards? Has not the whack job gained a victory by eliminating the most elemental constitutional right/ safeguard 'LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' of at least nine people with his behavior? How many other nut cases/terrorists will his successful attacks inspire? The concept of the 'slippery slope' can be argued from both sides of this situation.
Just the fact that LEO's are stopping 'certain' kinds of vehicles is unsettling to me but I realize, as a citizen, I have an obligation to my fellow man and a duty to my country to help stop this monster/s. The next person killed by this piece of trash might be someone I know and love.
Individual rights are great--I love them, but there is a time and place for the greater good. Being tied up in traffic, being questioned, my car searched, handcuffed--I don't like any of these, but these actions ,given the sort of problem where nine people have lost their lives, are really small matters in the scope of things--they amount to " t**ts on a mudworm."(We must remember how much the press loves to inflame with the sort of picture that you originally described and that the incident shown might actually have been a criminal that the officers found secondarily to the search for the 'van' occupants).
As far as possible lawsuits re: unlawful/unreasonable searches are concerned, there comes a time when the lawyers and the populace must realize that the safety of all comes before the 'righteous indignation' of a few.
With my beliefs in all of the above, there remains a need for strong and constant vigilence by the citizenry that LE does not overstep its bounds in everyday situations.
The Tarheel
If I'm around, the probability is exactly 100%. I drive a white van.
The royal student was to achieve his/her ultimate initiation from the great " I AM " (God), before being announced ruler. Initiation takes place when the student can honestly say that he/she are "ONE", meaning - the graduated student managed to obtain all qualities of life within one awaken consciousness, including all that is good and all that is bad.
The royal master of Tarot was then considered an evolved human being who is entitled to attach the word ATONE (attune) or (at-one) to his/her personal name (Atone means the coherence of all things within a One consciousness or unity of elements), thus accepted by society as being wise and knowledgeable in all life matters.
The Egyptian school of tarot was adopted at a later time by the Hebrews via their leader Moses (who grew up as an adopted Egyptian prince in the palace), which was a royal master of Tarot himself (and a great magician too). His intention to bring this method of schooling unto the many people instead of keeping it in the Egyptian palace (very much like his later brother and teacher - Jesus Christ), was the first establishment of Hebrew esoteric knowledge based on the 22 Hebrew alphabetic letters.
The "I Am One" Tarot deck simplifies the old Egyptian and Hebrew methods, to where nowadays we can all use this wonderful school for individual purposes. With the "I AM ONE" Tarot deck we can predict future events, use it for self-improvement, self-completion, creative inspiration, or when an important decision is to be made. The fact is, that no matter where you are at as of the engaging time with this project - it will catch up with you in a way that only you can understand... As truth is proven to be unlimited by time and space yet, it can be limited by perception.
The 22 MASTER TAROT CARDS of the "I Am ONE" Tarot are equivalent to the Major Arcana of a conventional deck.
The Masters unfold a set of 22 UNIVERSAL LAWS (click to view)
The other 56 cards (pipes & authorities) are divided by 4 groups of colors: RED, YELLOW, GREEN, & BLUE to make it easier to visually and sensually read, by introducing a temperature scale that ranges from HOT (red is male & the left side, and also "plus" +) to COLD (blue is female & the right side, and also "minus" -).
If the profile pointed towards a white American, it would be released immediately. The lack of release is a clue as to the ethnicity of the sniper.
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