Cops Hung Up Phone On Beltway Shooter(!)

Houston Chronicle ^ | 10/23/2002 | Sari Horowitz and Carri Morello

[Dirk McQuickly]

An angry letter found tacked to a tree behind a restaurant where the sniper wounded a man this weekend complained of six failed attempts to reach police, and threatened more killings, of children in particular, if millions of dollars were not deposited in a bank account within two days, law enforcement sources said.

The letter listed half a dozen calls that had been "ignored" by operators answering phones at the command center in Rockville, Md., the Montgomery County police station and the FBI. It even named some of the people who had answered the phones.

[bonfire]

Where are you hearing all this? No tv's on here, hubby asleep. Is this new info tonight?

[Dirk McQuickly]

Also, he's apparently very abusive i.e. "Shut the he$% up and listen" etc. I thought the abusive part was when he started shooting people randomly. But your point is well taken.

[Prodigal Son]

I think this fellow sounds like a desperate person. I bet he lost his job recently or a girlfriend or both. Probably has a lot of anger at his local community- maybe figures it's their fault somehow. Everything started looking hopeless. He's got all that anger. His money's running low. He just snapped, went out and shot all those people to start with. Probably figured he'd go out with a big angry "F++k You!" Police didn't catch him.

Maybe shot a couple more and then started calling the cops- trying to wrangle something. Couldn't get through- shoot some more people. Now, he's wanting money. He's probably wanting this whole thing to be over. Probably just begging to be caught actually- maybe on a subconcious level.

I bet if the police started checking into people that recently lost their jobs in the area where the shootings began, they'd run across their nut sooner or later. Maybe somebody with a pretty good idea of the parks and cemetaries- a garbage collector? Groundskeeper. Something of that nature.

To give Chief Moose some support- I would imagine the FBI told him to make those televised pleas. The Investigative Support Unit or whatever they're calling it nowadays (formerly known as Behavioral Science or BS) do a lot of that kind of stuff- telling local cops how to word press releases, what kind of clues to put out, what kind of suspect to look for that sort of thing. They probably told him to do it, even if it made him look like an ass.

I bet the cops catch this guy within the week and I bet they take him alive.

[ConservativeLawyer]

Now Moose's prior message to the shooter makes more sense.

That bit about "we want to talk to you. You gave us a number. Call us at that number."

It seems the shooter wrote something like "I called the sniper hot line at (555) 111-1111 (or whatever) and was hung up upon by (insert name)"

Thus, they don't want to release a copy of the note, lest they harm the self-esteem of the phone-answerer.

Moose wanted him to call the sniper hot line back.

The shooter evidently also wanted their own private 800 number to call the police at (evidently, on top of being a murderous scumbag, he is also a cheapskate).

When I call for delivery pizza, the pizza joint's computerized phone system automatically tells them who I am, where I live, and what I ordered last time. Why can't the police have a system half that good?

[per loin]

But letting the public know how quickly he angers, and the phrases that come out when he is in that state, would help someone to recognize him as a suspect.

I find it unforgiveable if the cops are keeping this letter secret just because it puts the keystone jacket on them.

[hole_n_one]

There was no mistaking CNN's assertion........that scene was on, in, near or about where the sniper positioned himslef less than 24 hours earlier.

[billclintonwillrotinhell]

You're right. It's time to yank this guy's chain and get him off his game.

The sniper is trying to mess with our minds, so police ought to go ahead and mess with his. Bump up the REWARD MONEY to $10 million and offer to work a deal with any non-shooting accomplice. If there are two people involved, that may create some uneasy tension between them. Start memorial scholarship funds in the names of every shooting victim. Start re-naming streets for all the shooting victims. Talk about how this sniper probably has some sexual problems and is killing people because of it.

[ingodwetrust]

Very well said. I couldn't agree more as I stated nearly the same thing in a previous posting. It is unbeleveable to me that we are cutting deals and going out of our way to make this low life piece of dirt "comfortable." What the heck have we become?

[stlnative]

I agree... but they also should look for a home that has rotting corpses in it, because he probably killed off his family before going out and killing strangers. If they check photos on the mantel in the house and they will have a picture of the sniper.

[VaBthang4]

LOL

[SicTransitGloriaMundi]

You mean, kinda like back in '93 when Mohammad Salameh came around to the rental agency to reclaim his deposit on that truck that got lost in the WTC garage?

That's why I think all the speculation about night vision, formal training, Contender pistols, and so forth is off the mark. We finally get a murderer with an IQ of 100 instead of 65, and we think he must be Superman. These guys are always given credit for being sophisticated because we like to believe that if they weren't, they'd have been caught.

[Howlin]

And you know he hasn't done that how? It's easy to be so critical when you're not in the hot seat.

[bonfire]

Maybe that's why the police were monitoring phone booths yesterday. They may already have traced him to those booths.

[ingodwetrust]

How many more will die because of their incompetence? Geez, it is the American way though these days. I can't call the phone company, Dr.'s office or my bank without having my call routed to a different department only to end up repeating, no less than three times, why I'm making the call in the first place.

[bonfire]

I haven't heard of any deals yet. Did I miss something?

[ValerieUSA]

If moose had half of a gerbil testible, he would challenge the sniper to shoot him...

[ingodwetrust]

:-)

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

WHY HASN'T THE NOTE BEEN RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC?

There is a simple single reason why this letter has yet to see the light of day…

It would reveal the true identity and speak loudly of the shooter(s), they are terrorist. The letter quite possible contains such Islamic ramblings as anti-USA anti-Israel statements maybe even more…

The police saw this when they opened it and it solidified what, up till that point was just and underlying concern, that it might be a terrorist. There is simply no other reason for the continuous delay and the lack of “other” messages contained in the letter. They say it is “chilling” and as such cannot be made public, well… WTF is in there the launch codes for the nukes?

Me thinks its terrorist psychobabble and the FBI is crapping Toyota sized turtle shells over this, they are hemmed in a corner, the media is tearing the door down, the public wants information and is rapidly loosing faith in LE and the killing continues.

It’s a bad spot, but IMO it will pale in comparison to the spot that all LEO involved will find themselves if they continue to hold back this info for no reason other than to keep the public in the dark and the later, much later it comes to light that we suffered a terrorist attack and the government hid it from us.

The police need to get out in front of this one and fast! They need to enlist the public for help, not this touchy feely tip line that hangs up on snipers but real honest to God info the public can use to help the cops catch these guys before the death toll hits 20, 30 or God forbid 50 or a 100.

[Howlin]

No, you have not. That's not true.

[hole_n_one]

Call his bluff

His "bluff" has killed 9 people.