Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002 [Another Shooting?]

Fox News, CNN, Press Releases | October 22, 2002 | Fox News, CNN, Press Releases

[Peach]

Let's keep a live commentary thread gonig again today.

[Letitring]

LOL yes he is and he said he would "deal with you later." ROFLOL. See you later, Friend.

[MTCJK]

Not that i would ever defend the media, but military sources instructed the media (leaked) to spread that information to scare the sniper and perhaps thwart him

[Mo1]

Oh my ... now I am worried

[mitchbert]

Covering the entire region would be next to impossible to accomplish in any meaningful timeframe and there's another issue I'll get to in a bit, but...

If the shooter(s) really do have the cops totally confounded there's one approach that might bear fruit. If they have reason to believe that he/they are using the main highways to either enter or egress from the target areas they could install traffic cams at the on/off ramps of the exits. I'm pretty sure there are some wireless solutions out there so running cable (time consuming and expensive) could be avoided. The cameras connect to an always monitored central facility. Tape record all camera activity and archive. If a shooting takes place review all camera feeds for suspect vehicles. You may not get success the first time but eventually unless the perp(s) are switching vehicles all the time you're going to see the same one or two vehicles consistantly either entering or leaving the area via the freeway exits in close relation to the time of the attacks. Proceed to apprehend as possible. Might seem like grabbing at straws but unless they have more to go on than they're telling us (and I suspect they do) this could yield benefits. Pick some key traffic flow points and hope for the best.

Only problem with using cameras is they don't currently exist in this area if I'm interpreting people's posts correctly. That means they have to be installed. Hard to do with no one noticing, plus the cameras may be visible after installation. In this case the perp simply changes their pattern or moves outside of the coverage area.

I wish I had a viable answer to this problem. I suspect we all do.

[alisasny]

This whole police using the media crap is confusing at best. Yesterday some dolt on TV was talking about being used and is it the media's moral obligation to act as the conduit. I was floored. It was as if the media if they knew in advance that Moose was going to be relaying a message to the suspects that they wouldn't cover it. MY ass, they thrive on every single word Moose says so they can fill the 24/7 news day with more and more fluff. FOX is guilty of this as well regardless of this fair and balanced crap.

[TexKat]

Even if this particular Killer does not turn out to be a ME Terrorist, I am sure AQ and others are watching this with interest.

I thought the same thing yesterday.

[rintense]

Ha! I knew this thread would be well over 1200 by the time I got back!

Ok, so give me a quick summary of what's happened since noon.

[Dems_R_Losers]

Good analysis. It's easy for us to armchair quarterback this situation. Fact is that finding a lone sniper in an area of 3 million people, with many freeways, many urban parks and wooded areas, is like finding a needle in a haystack. I am being very patient with the authorities here. I think we have very good local police and FBI, but this is a very tough case and in some ways "the perfect crime."

My one opinion is that the sniper is a man who works nights. He operates either at night or early in the morning. He must have staked out the area near where he hit this morning, and lives or works nearby and knows that this bus stops there every morning for a while. My guess is he goes home every day and acts like nothing has happened. Either that, or he knows someone who works nights and owns a van that he can "borrow" without arousing any suspicion. There have been so many shootings in this area of Maryland that it seems clear he knows this area very well. The other Virginia shootings have been in places very close to major highways.

[aristeides]

Newspapers in France tend to be national, rather than local. Saint Cyr is in Brittany, I believe. I would imagine the nearest large town is Nantes.

[Darlin']

"He may be the designated spokesman by the sniper(s) demand."

I think that is probably true. The sniper has connected with Moose and they/he have directed their messages to him. No doubt the FBI and Secret Service are in charge behind the scenes but Moose is the front man for now.

[alisasny]

Even if this particular Killer does not turn out to be a ME Terrorist, I am sure AQ and others are watching this with interest.

I thought the same thing yesterday.

Every freak in this country is watching this to get ideas for future kills. I have never in my entire life seen such irresponsible reporting or whatever you want to call it. This same media made a stink years ago that you could get bomb making info online, now they are guilty of giving every miscreant in the world ideas on how to pull off the crime of the century. Truly amazing to witness if you ask me. Second guessing of the police needs to be re-evaluated at this time in our country. It is doing much more damage than we even know yet.

[valleygal]

"Where were you when I got married?"

I don't know, when did you get married? :)

[Quilla]

It seems to me the easiest was to find this killer is an area as large as this is to publish his picture. With news reports insinuating that a composite has been developed, releasing this to the 3 million in the area could only help. I've always thought this was standard operating procedure.

[TexKat]

but speculative brainstorming on global TV news is a poor excuse for journalism.

Thats Nachman, he thinks he is the lone saviour for MSNBC. He nauseats me.

[Lucas1]

I wonder if these airplanes have heat sensing devices on them? How much area could a plane cover in a short amount of time...possibly seeing a lone gunman sitting in the woods? If they just covered the areas where most of the shootings have been happening. Perhaps they could see someone just sitting in the same spot...in a wooded area? Just an idea...

[aristeides]

I wonder if Saint Cyr has a school paper, or a Web site. What about alumni organizations?

[poppyseed]

Only problem with using cameras is they don't currently exist in this area if I'm interpreting people's posts correctly. That means they have to be installed. Hard to do with no one noticing, plus the cameras may be visible after installation. In this case the perp simply changes their pattern or moves outside of the coverage area.

There are tons of traffic and red light cams in the area already, though I reckon the red light cameras wouldn't have much application in this situation. The cameras are, by the way, visible - but they don't really look out of place. I would suspect that resources are an issue here - whither the money to install all these cameras? LE resources, financial and otherwise, are already stretched quite thin, to the point that locals are asking for federal financial assistance. Also, as stated previously, putting cameras everywhere is a tall order for the simple reason than this is Roadland. It's impractical to consider covering every stretch of likely road from Maryland down to Richmond - too many roads, too many miles to cover.

[conservativejunkie]

I have been lurking the past few days and get so much info from you guys. Your great! I have something to ask all of you, since you seem to have so much collective common sense. When Moose came out the second time to tell this sniper they didn't understand the message, I said to my husband Oh.Oh. this is going to piss him off and he is going to send a very bad message to them. I think in the snipers mind he thouhgt they were playing head games with him and he went back to Mont. Co. to make his point.

[justshe]

It was a relief to get a report from Cameron from St.Louis. Anything to break the non-stop coverage that goes no where. And to have FoxNews do a NEWS ALERT 8 hours after the fact is ridiculous.

BTW.......Cameron reported that Talent is now 6 points up on Carnahan and Talent did well in the debate last night.

[TexKat]

If that had been me, I would have had to change my underwear too!

Too funny, but at the time I was a nervous wreck.