Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Wed., Oct. 23,2002

Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences | October 23, 2002 | Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences

[Peach]

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

All seems quiet since yesterday's news the shooter may target children specifically. It was released on various news outlets the shooter's 3-page letter to police was in broken English and threatened extreme violence. Police announced an electronic transfer of $10m as requested by the shooter was not possible but other options for transfer remain open. No one seriously believes police will actually give the shooter $$, but police are trying to keep a dialogue open with the shooter in an effort to capture this monster.

[OReilly]

The number he gave them was to a payphone that they (the cops) now have redirected to the police station but there was some problem with it. Read a few of the links that were posted very early in this thread.

I know that... I was just pointing out that he does not have his private 800 number yet. (Not sure we (you and I) are communicating fully)

[yukong]

IMHO, he doesn't stay there and mingle. Too good of a chance that some investigator will recognize that this same guy is at several of the scenes in different areas, without some plausible explanation. I believe that he takes his shot, gets up, drives away like nothing happened, and is sitting at Dennys a few blocks away having a nice cup of coffee, some eggs and bacon, waiting for the roads to re-open and the car to car search to stop. Then he drives back to whatever rock he crawled out from under and crawls back in and watches the talking heads on the cable new channels talk about the "sniper", and what he does, how he does it, blah, blah, blah, and plans his next shoot. After a few hours, he may even go back our and recon the next shoot. This guy is good enough. IMO, he is not so much getting his rush from the killing, he is getting his rush from the control he has over the LEAs, and the public. Hey, when you can get the lead investigator, the public LEA figure to say whatever makes you comfortable or somesuch. The killing is not the rush. It is just the means to an end. I have believed from the outset that the killing was not the objective. It was just the means to the objective. The objective is (from what we know now) money, and/or just jerking people around/terror. Thus said, he doesn't need to mingle around the scene for jollies sake. He isn't getting his jollies from the killing. It is business to him. It is work. Not for fun. People that hang around scenes are people that commit the crime itself because they get off on the crime. And those types, in murder cases, kill up-close and personal. A guy that kills from a distance, who kills long-range, is normally not one that is really getting off on the killing itself. This is just business. He is long gone within moments of the shot. Long gone even before the call is made to the LEAs.

[stlnative]

taking = talking

[Jim Noble]

>>Besides i'm convinced that if it is foreign we will never know.They just won't ever let thst happen<<

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you're right.

Why do you think "they" would withold this information? What possible motive could there be?

[TexKat]

Kudos for the Washington Times.

[katnip]

Sorry Brigette, post # 436.

I didn't think it deserved its own thread.

[stlnative]

sorry bud... I am tired and should stop making you people suffer through my babblings. :-)

[bvw]

This ninny-nanny phone chase that the police are engaged in is to my view, stupid, worthless and conterproductve as all get out. Some good chance the sniper and any team he is with are doing it all as the psy-ops part of the job. In any case, you don't play their game. Period. This is NOT hostage negotiations!

[ET(end tyranny)]

Too good of a chance that some investigator will recognize that this same guy is at several of the scenes in different areas, without some plausible explanation.

That was my first thought when this was brought up several days ago. Maybe the shooter doesn't stick around for all? With so many shootings in different cities, different cops....

[Kerberos]

""The above is 100% pure speculation; accept no substitutes"

Yeah I thought it was pretty funny and pretty descriptive of what has been going on at this site since these shooting began.

But seeing how we really don't have any hard information to go on, speculation is all we are left with.

[BaghdadBarney]

Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland are about the same size as Fredericksburg, VA. Frederick is surrounded by major roads (I-270, I-70, Route 15) as is Hagerstown (I-70, I-81, Route 40). A Virginia plate as far north as these two cities won't look out of place. Now... if the shooter wishes to venture into Pennsylvania, things get a little a more dangerous for him. If he's smart he'll stay within a couple of miles of the major roads up there. Small towns litter the outlying areas. He'll look like the elephant in the living room if he tries something in those areas...

[BuckeyeForever]

You have a vivid imagination. But none of the things you point out are very persuasive. Conspiratorially-minded people can conjure up all kinds of things in a scenario like this one to support their theories, but most rational folks are going to now realize this sniper has nothing to do with the ME terrorists. The terrorists don't write long, rambling letters, and there is no indication there is anything political in the content. The terrorists don't go around declaring they ARE God, they call God Allah, etc. Your theory is just too far-fetched given what is now known.

[Fred Mertz]

Could be blackmail.

[stlnative]

thinks kat... I passed over it before, but it is interesting now that I tracked back to it.

[OReilly]

I believe the shooters will use the 800 number to set up two more chumps like they did with the Mexican and Guatemalan, and made the cops look like fools. The shooters will test the police response again using decoys.

That crossed my mind immediately (that the sniper used the Mexicans as a Mine-Canary), but then I heard that they were releasing the Mexicans (that stumbled into the wrong phone booth). Then I thought, Hmmmmm what if they put that out to get the sniper to think that the Mexicans didn't spill the beans and they fooled the cops?

[katnip]

I agree that the shooter is all-business, not in it for jollies.

I hope you get to hear this if it's replayed again. He sounded very professional and matter of fact.

[berkeleybeej]

Wouldn't the LE be videotaping each crime scene for on-lookers so that they can compare faces?

[Yaelle]

I agree with you completely. It is 100% obvious that we are talking about an American-grown nutjob now. He asked for a DOMESTIC bank transfer. His notes in garbled English just show that he was one of the millions of sub-par-educated Americans.

I do not think he has the means or ability to carry out his biggest threats; he is bluffing with anything more than just his usual sniper attacks, one shot one victim.

Though he is good as egressing, he is no smartie. He thinks he is G-d and is in charge of this, but he is just an angry loser who, if denied his way, will make his fatal mistake and end up caught or dead.

He may well want to go out in a blaze of glory, and I would still consider him dangerous, but if I were the police I would risk making him angry, treat him as the idiot killer that he is (stop talking about his genius, maybe print all his error-filled letters in the press!), refuse to negotiate with him, and let him get so angry that he reveals himself and can be caught. That risks other deaths or innocents, though... that may be more than the police are willing to do.

[bvw]

There are times when blind inertial following of past patterns -- such as *you* are hewing to -- turns deadly. Remember that TV clip of the car driving off the broken section of that SF bridge a few years back during a severe earthquake? The driver -- as I saw it -- had plenty of time to see that the section was gone, yet that it was *just not there anymore* didn't fit the driver's preconceived and normal view of how things should be.

So that person drove onward .... into oblivian, into a cold hard death in the bay below.

Wake up.

[KE]

It should be apparent to everyone now that the sniper is a lone operative.

About 1 hour ago, MSNBC stated that they have found out that the second letter left yesterday was definitely written in the same manner as first, BUT the handwriting was different. (2 people ?) I've only heard this report once so far. I'm monitoring MSNBC and will update. Karen.