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Well, that might explain the longer periods of time between the shootings. He had the first several plotted out before the first shot was fired. Opened with a big production. Maximum effect. Maximum attention. Maximum show. That got the LEAs attention. However, it took some forensic work to tie them together. He still had a little free hand as to timing. but as this thing progresses, he is got a little less freedom to roam about. 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. If it is a terrorist ie: Islamic, type, he had probably been on the ground for a long time. I would bet that the first several places had been reconned for sometime before the first shot was fired. I would speculate that even the last several places were reconned early on. He probably has several plans. Several A spots, B spots, and C spots. Depending on the heat. And this guy is very patient. If he feels the heat one day, big deal. Wait for tomorrow. He is in no hurry. That is another reason I sway away from wacko nut-case. Because they are not the patient types. It takes a special type to be this patient. That is why his agenda is so important. His patience is remarkable.

But, back to the question at hand. He is very patient in recon. He may make several trips to the spot(s) at different times of day. To determine the traffic load. Both in the realm of witness considerations, and in the getaway considerations. He won't likely strike at rush hour, because escape is a lot harder then. So we have midmorning, midafternoon, or late evening. the only one that could be argued as rush hour was the school shooting. And I would suspect that may have been the one non-preplanned hits. That was done for maximum effect. Police say schools are safe. "oh yeah" Boom.

You probably would never notice this guy reconning. Again, possibly not the shooter. May be others in his team. They will blend in. May be shopping. Eating out. Etc. And if they are Middle Eastern, they may be mixblood. they aren't going to be the kind with the scraggly beards and the head garb, and the Shoe Bomber look. They will be very clean cut, professional, next-door neighbor like. May even be very personable to the waitress, cashier, etc.

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.