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Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Monday, Oct. 21, 2002
Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences | October 21, 2002 | Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences

Posted on 10/21/2002 4:29:22 AM PDT by Peach

Let's keep a live commentary thread going again today. The FBI Tip # is 1-888-324-9800.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: dc; maryland; shootings; sniper; terrorism; virginia
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To: bcoffey
Isn't it wonderful they are here? Hate it is under these conditions though.
1,481 posted on 10/21/2002 8:35:45 PM PDT by Letitring
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To: per loin
I left earlier around post #790. I haven't even tried to read the thread from there and have no idea what's going on.

What are the odds that this guy on the bike wasn't the shooter. Too weird. We should ask bc. He's had "friendly" arguements about statistics on these threads? Hmmm, bc?
What are you thinking (about the odds of this? :)
1,482 posted on 10/21/2002 8:37:10 PM PDT by valleygal
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To: yukong
He has to blend in to do his recon. But really that is not that hard. Just drive around. Look for a busy spot with easy ingress/egress. With multiple avenues of ingress/egress. He must have route A, and then an emergency route B or C. Look for cover. A must. A spot that is dark. Even in the daytime. A spot that when wearing dark clothes, he is less visible.

Very easily done around here. And it would be easy for anyone to look suspicious. Boyfriend and I drove around half the weekend looking at houses, checking out new parks. Just because we were bored, felt like driving around. Maybe we looked suspicious, dunno, but I imagine we're not the only people who do things like this, so we don't really stick out. Especially in heavily-populated areas.

That blending in thing wouldn't be difficult. This guy seems pretty cool and collected. So maybe when he reconnoiters his spots, he takes his dog, looks like his dog had to have an emergency pit stop. Especially not unusual just off interstate highways. Or maybe he jogs to the spots and acts like any old jogger around here - we have lots of walkers, joggers, bikers.

Speaking of, not specifically directed to you, yukong, but I've heard several people talking about the biker with the backpack: not at all uncommon. And wouldn't be surprised to see something long sticking out of a pack, as bikers/joggers and the like sometimes carry sticks in the event of wayward dogs/thugs.

But yeah. Mapping out his spot would be easy around here, especially if he has some familiarity with the area, which I believe he does. I would guess he lives in one of the more rural counties of Northern Virginia: Prince William, Fauquier, Loudoun, Spotsylvania, Stafford. Maybe works in Maryland, or did. (Pet theory is that he maybe lost his job just before all this began.) As for the Ashland shooting, it's right off the highway and serves as a major point of refueling for a whole lot of travelers. If the guy has traveled the 95 corridor at all, he's likely familiar with the Ashland stop, and parts of Richmond right off the highway, and similar.

This has been all over the place. I guess playing Sherlock is about all any of us can do right now. But yeah - recon would likely be quite easy for the guy, especially if he had even the slightest familiarity with the areas where he's shot and the rhythms of the places he's targeting.

1,483 posted on 10/21/2002 8:37:30 PM PDT by poppyseed
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To: yukong
That makes complete sense, to me. I'll pass it along to the ones who aren't lurking, thank you very much.
1,484 posted on 10/21/2002 8:37:55 PM PDT by Letitring
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To: Fred Mertz
It seemed plausible at the moment, but now unlikely, as the two were released to the INS.
1,485 posted on 10/21/2002 8:38:30 PM PDT by per loin
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To: Route66
Up until today, we have no reason to believe anyone has communicated with the sniper and we really have no reason to believe that Moose is not just handling the on camera communication because that's what he's done since the very first day.

Communicated--there was communication via the tarot cards, written messages similar to the original, "I am God", that have been left at the crime scenes, per the news the last few days..Also, who really KNOWS if and when any of the authorities have any form of verbal communication w/ the alleged sniper since they've been keeping their info closer to their chests other than today....

1,486 posted on 10/21/2002 8:39:39 PM PDT by Bella
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To: per loin; doosee; Fred Mertz
Thanks. When I read this before, I took Shortly after the woman was shot to mean that the sighting occurred shortly after the shooting of Linda Franklin at Home Depot. It occurs to me now, rereading it, that it could mean that Linda Franklin was shot shortly afterwards, i.e., shortly after the sighting. I wonder which Doosee meant.

A getaway on bicycle would make a lot of sense. I suppose that's why I read this the way I did the first time. An approach to the site on bicycle is a bit harder to understand.

1,487 posted on 10/21/2002 8:40:21 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: Fred Mertz
her daughter's eyewitness report

I don't think it was her daughter. I think she said it was her friend's daughter who was with a friend. (Third hand report)

1,488 posted on 10/21/2002 8:41:25 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: poppyseed
he's likely familiar with the Ashland stop

After you leave Northen VA, Fredericksburg and Ashland are the two biggest spots to gas up, easy to blend in ...

1,489 posted on 10/21/2002 8:41:28 PM PDT by 11th_VA
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To: bvw
That's right...they need to get this ******* pronto before more innocent people die..
1,490 posted on 10/21/2002 8:41:33 PM PDT by Bella
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To: valleygal
"What are you thinking (about the odds of this? :) "

Well... (pondering whether to give a technical explanation this late in the evening) ... oh well, you asked what I thought :)

We get confused between the "odds" (probabilities) and the significance we assign events. Our minds are good at picking out patterns, but the patterns could be statistically insignificant yet we assign GREAT significance to them.

Think back to the "pattern" of victims: black, white, black, white... etc. It SEEMED to be important.. until the pattern was broken on Saturday night. Now it seems unimportant and meaningless. The difference is not the probabilities - which remained unchanged - but the significance we assigned to the pattern.

OK.. I think what I just wrote is clear as mud. What do you think, vg?

1,491 posted on 10/21/2002 8:41:43 PM PDT by bcoffey
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To: Bella
This thread was going along so well w/ discussion of the sniper...doesn't the protest pix you're talking about belong on another thread??

I have been on this thread all day. And I hope you are not trying to tell me where to post. And I don't think that I posted anything to you or responded to any of your post. I are several ideas going on on this thread, all of which is pertaining to the above title. So if you don't get where I'm coming from then do me a favor and skip right on over my post. Thank you, have a nice night.

1,492 posted on 10/21/2002 8:41:55 PM PDT by TexKat
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To: valleygal
Too little info to figure odds. 'Bout all we can do is pass on the tidbits that leak out, and speculate.
1,493 posted on 10/21/2002 8:42:41 PM PDT by per loin
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To: poppyseed
If the sniper scouts the sites himself, he risks being captured on security videos.
1,494 posted on 10/21/2002 8:42:45 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: bcoffey
No, starting a prayer thread was discussed on a thread prior to the prayer thread being started. Boy that was a mouthful. the previous thread is linked to it.

Kayak and I and a few others. I hope they forgive me for forgetting who all was there. And, Kim4VWRC's, was there of course. She posted the thread.
1,495 posted on 10/21/2002 8:42:46 PM PDT by valleygal
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To: per loin
LOL! I know, I was joking!
1,496 posted on 10/21/2002 8:43:37 PM PDT by valleygal
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To: valleygal
OK - I was thinking of something a couple years back.
1,497 posted on 10/21/2002 8:43:54 PM PDT by bcoffey
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To: 11th_VA
After you leave Northen VA, Fredericksburg and Ashland are the two biggest spots to gas up, easy to blend in ...

But he didn't choose a gas station, for some reason.

1,498 posted on 10/21/2002 8:44:30 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: Letitring
Well, there isn't much of anything else there either. And Va is a pretty state, spent some time at Fort Eustice(think thats the spelling) and really enjoyed it.
1,499 posted on 10/21/2002 8:44:34 PM PDT by cavtrooper21
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To: Bella
MSNBC - Forrest Sawyer had an exclusive segment with Nachman. Did anyone else see this?

Nachman was talking about the letter. He said that sources revealed that the shooter called the police after the shooting last night and told them that there was a letter at the crime scene - go find it.

The letter was apparantly in a sealed envelope and had a certain time for the police to respond or number to call or something. (bear with me, it's been a long day) By the time the police actually opened the envelope and read the letter, that time had passed and this prompted Chief Moose coming out early this afternoon and saying the "We are preparing our response" line. They were telling him that they needed more time.

The reason, according to Nachman, was because it took them so long to actually open the envelope. They were probably x-raying and looking for finger prints and DNA or anything else they could find. By the time they opened it, they realized it was too late.

There's more - I'll follow up in a bit or maybe someone else saw this too and can add to it.

1,500 posted on 10/21/2002 8:44:53 PM PDT by slimer
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