'We do want to talk' (More than one Tarot card has been found)

Richmond Times Dispatch ^ | 10/21/02 | KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY AND REX BOWMAN

[areafiftyone]

Police say they have a note and a phone number from whoever shot a man leaving an Ashland restaurant Saturday night.

"To the person who left us a message at the Ponderosa last night: You gave us a telephone number. We do want to talk with you. Call us at the number you provided," Montgomery County, Md., Chief Charles A. Moose said during an evening news conference.

[areafiftyone]

Just a gut feeling about this guy. Besides he is only doing this in virginia which leads me to believe that he is a local who lives in Virgina. Those ME guys like to create havoc in other areas at the same time. I can see this guy having some sort of agenda but the random shooting kinda throws that out. I see him as some person who has something against law enforcement because of the taunting he is doing probably someone who hates the cops maybe has a father or close relative in jail or who is on death row etc. Or he could be just someone into wierd tarot cards or cults.

[Lion's Cub]

Thanks for posting this. I went to google to try to find it; but when I went to Richmond Times-Dispatch site from there, all I got was a subscription service.

Matt Wicks, 17, said he had pulled into the parking lot of the adjacent Wendy's restaurant and was talking with two friends when they heard the gunshot.
"It sounded like a shotgun right up in your ear," said Wilks

Gee, that's not what the NYP said:

His wife later told cops that at the time, she heard a noise like a branch snapping, leading police to believe the sound of the shot was altered by a muzzle flash suppresser

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/772890/posts

I think I believe the 17 year old...Although it's possible he was standing much closer to the shooter, I guess.

[doosee]

No, White guy from 40 to 50 ish. That is what made the sighting so unusual. An older guy biking in a yuppie haven. I wont be surprised if this was him.....

[Lion's Cub]

I hope you are right; but to protect your daughter, you might want the admin. to remove your post. These people seem very tech savy.

[areafiftyone]

LOL Serial Biker!!!

[piasa]

Maybe because the number was one belonging to the police or FBI?

[JameRetief]

"It sounded like a shotgun right up in your ear," said Wilks

she heard a noise like a branch snapping

Relative to where the shooter was, both could be right, especialy if Wilks was in a position to receive multiple echoes from close surrounding buildings.

[doosee]

I hope you are right; but to protect your daughter, you might want the admin. to remove your post. These people seem very tech savy.



She is my friend's daughter and unless, God forbid, a cop is in on this, she is pretty safe. She wasnt jogging right where she lives and cannot be traced. They took their names etc so my guess is the police are back already or will be now.

[copycat]

Those ME guys like to create havoc in other areas at the same time. I can see this guy having some sort of agenda but the random shooting kinda throws that out.

Actually, just the opposite. The random shooting shows ANYONE can get hit, and the spread out distance between scenes causes as wide an area as possible to cancel outdoor activities and be "terrorized."

Imagine if the Portland, OR Al Queda cell, which was practising sniping when caught, had begun to kill random victims as the same time as the DC sniper(s)

Everyone in the country would then seem st risk.

[Congressman Billybob]

Note the other story posted this morning that the French have a deserter from their military academy, St. Cyr (their West Point), who is known to have gone to Canada, and then disappeared. It is common among French speakers, to refer to "Monsieur le flic" which in English would be the stilted "Mister Policeman." The deserter had had sniper training.

As another poster pointed out, he might be a French man, rather than a Frenchman. The former includes Algerians. The other article claims that his classmates had "identified him from a composite sketch of the sniper." What "composite sketch"? Or, is there a sketch being circulated in military and intelligence circles, but not to the general public?

We may have a North African, well-trained, French frog shooting Americans for the benefit of assorted tin pot dictators. There might even be a Khadafi angle. (Remember him? He was in all the papers over the Lockerbie plane bombing. We tried to knock him off with a missile in his tent. Perhaps he still remembers that?) This is getting weirder and weirder by the day.

Congressman Billybob

This column is based on the fine work by FReepers in a thread on FR. Click for "Ballistics and Bullsh*t"

Click for "Til Death Do Us Part."

Click for "to Restore Trust in America"

[MomwithHope]

I agree with your point that the "text" could very well be a terrorist threat, either avout Iraq or Israel. I think it is ME terrorists and they have been testing this sniper operation for use in other cities simultaneously. God help us.

[E.Allen]

The sound of a rifle is very dependent upon WHICH CALIBER it is. Typically the small, high velocity rounds, like .223, give a really sharp crack. Larger, slower calibers tend to give more of a "boom" noise that sounds lower pitched.

Most people seem to think the sharp cracks are louder, some one firing a 22-250 or 220 Swift (both fire same slug from a little bigger brass shell at a little higher velocity than .223,) at a range is typically approached by other shooters to see what's making so much noise.

Another factor is barrel length, a shorter barrel than what the caliber is intended for can give a large muzzle blast,
i.e. rifle caliber ammunition in a pistol or short carbine.
This effect is due to substantial unburned powder being ejected out the muzzle that would have been consumed in a normal barrel length.

[CobaltBlue]

>> I have noticed a concerted effort to downplay the possibility that this sniper is ME ever since the time they "discredited" the AK-74 info.<<

That's because the husband saw the guy.

I think they should tell us the race, the approximate build, and the hair color. I think it would be very useful.

[knuthom]

Authorities declined to speculate why, if the shooter is the Washington-area sniper, the assailant struck nearly two hours south of the nation's capital.

Cook would not say whether the location might have been prompted by reports of Washington-area patrols by military surveillance planes able to detect muzzle blasts and help locate vehicles

Was the information about the surveillance plane released or leaked? Either way, someone ought to get in trouble for giving out that information.

[monocle]

I cannot recall any terrorist act in which the terrorist(s) left a note at the scene of the act. Some may have given prior notice or claimed credit afterwards, but I cannot recall any leaving a note at the scene.

[Dialup Llama]

>I agree with your point that the "text" could very well be a terrorist threat, either avout Iraq or Israel. I think it is ME terrorists and they have been testing this sniper operation for use in other cities simultaneously. God help us.

Then Chief Moose is wise to withhold the content of the text, denying the terrorists a forum and forestalling wider operations in other cities.

[rintense]

WOW! Did the police come talk to them?

[blackdog]

There is no evidence. The discussion of evidence is the only thing that Mooseman & Company can tell the public to make the impression that they know something, anything.

Remember all the outrage when a tarrot card was discussed and the chief was ssoooooooo upset about that? Now he is discussing supposed "You call me, I'll call you notes?" Sounds like high school kids working up the nerve to ask for a date! His control of information has certainly taken a marked change lately. What's next? A white/cream color van with a bicycle rack?

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Have you considered that the guy wants to talk and didn't know where to call to get WHOEVER is in charge. He provides an unused phone number (something random dialing would find in a few minutes) and provides that for the cops to activate. I have read a hundred posts saying how dumb the cops are for not calling the number, but how stupid would it be for the sniper to provide a number where he could be reached?

[blackdog]

The only way this guy will be caught is if he forgets to wear his bicycle helmet. We do have laws you know! Snipe all you want, but scoff at our bicycle helmet laws and you're in big trouble mister!