i just saw on the news that they got a baltimore man under arrest. hes a former military shooting instructer and they found several rifles in his possesion as well a manual book on sniping. death by burning acid, i think would be a fitting punishment. or maybe they can sniper him in his jail cell while he's not expecting it.
1. There is no <b>arrest</b> in that report. 2. There is no eye witness in that report. 3. There is no matching weapon (to a plethora of matching ballistics) in that report. 4. That white van is nothing close to being an Chevy Astro. 5. The reports states that police are questioning 3 other "Potential Suspects" who are gun collectors with access to white trucks... Conclusion: Your thread title sucks.
Update: Fairfax County, Virginia, police report a possible sniper shooting outside a Home Depot. Details soon.
From the CNN article: Authorities shut down major arteries in the area, including the George Washington Parkway, the American Legion Bridge and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. They said police were in high pursuit of a vehicle on Route 50 in the area. Hope this means they nail that b*stard! I wouldn't mind if they beat the **** out of him while apprehending him, either.
A woman was shot in the parking lot of a Home Depot store in the Seven Corners area of Fairfax County, police officials said. It was not clear late this evening if the woman was the latest victim of the sniper who has killed eight people and wounded two others in the Washington area since the shooting spree began Oct. 2. The woman's condition was not immediately known tonight. But police swarmed to the area of the shooting and began closing down roads in the area, including Routes 7 and 50 and Interstate 395 in a dragnet similar to the one that followed Friday morning's fatal shooting at a gas station in Spotsylvania County. Since the shooting spree began with five fatal shootings in a 16-hour span in Montgomery County, sniper shootings have occurred in Northwest Washington and in Prince George's, Prince William and Spotsylvania counties.
More info from the Post: washingtonpost.com Falls Church Shooting May Be Sniper Attack By Serge F. Kovaleski and Matthew Mosk Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, October 14, 2002; 10:46 PM A fatal shooting tonight in Falls Church seemed consistent with the pattern established by a sniper who has already been blamed for eight fatal attacks in the Washington region over the past two weeks. The shooting at the Seven Corners Shopping Center occurred shortly after 9:30 p.m. near the Home Depot store at the center, which is located near several major northern Virginia traffic arteries, and it prompted police to set up check points on major roads for miles around. The attack came on a day in which President George W. Bush addressed himself at the White House to the series of killings, which have curbed school activities, sowed fear and apprehension around the area and prompted many people to rethink daily routines. Consistent with the shootings that authorities have linked through ballistic evidence to the sniper, last night's attack apparently involved a single shot. It occurred in a shopping area near main traffic arteries. Tonight's slaying was the third in northern Virginia, and came more than 80 hours after the last fatal attack, which was in Spotsylvania County. It came after a weekend free from the shootings. Manuel Solis was approaching the entrance to the Home Depot from within the garage when the shooting occurred. "I heard one shot and then the whole world started running inside the store," said Solis, a construction worker from Falls Church. He turned to see the fallen victim about 100 feet away near the store's exit. President Bush today called the Washington area sniper "a sick mind who obviously loves terrorizing society" and promised to continue "lending all the resources of the federal government" to the investigation of the shootings. "I'm just sickened, sick to my stomach, to think that there is a coldblooded killer at home taking innocent life," Bush said in his strongest statement yet on the attacks that have killed eight people and wounded two since Oct. 2. Members of a task force hunting for the sniper responded today to the arrest of a Baltimore man who was driving a white van similar to one seen leaving the scene of a shooting last week in Spotsylvania County. But authorities later discounted the man as a suspect. "It's not related," said Capt. Nancy Demme of the Montgomery County police. "We can't explain any further." The investigative task force quickly dispatched a team to Baltimore after it was reported that local police had found a rifle that used the same .223-caliber ammunition fired by the sniper in a van driven by the Baltimore man, whose identity was withheld by police last night. The weapon was rushed to a federal ballistics laboratory for testing, and police sources said they determined that the gun did not match the one used in the shootings. A law enforcement source said, "We have three or four of these [fruitless tips] a day." The only difference yesterday was "you found out about this one." "This is what the police do. They follow up leads like this, and many of them sound promising," the source said. "When they say they're making progress, they mean that they're following leads like this every day." Investigators have questioned dozens of people who ultimately were eliminated as suspects, the source said. About half a dozen men were considered for a time the "most promising" sniper suspects, but none of the leads turned out, the source said. "They keep getting guys who might be good for it, and then it turns out to be nothing," the source said. "You wouldn't believe some of these people, different from you and I, guys who travel around with .223 rifles and Nazi types." Responding to reporters' questions at the White House yesterday, Bush said of the sniper attacks and the fear they have caused: "I weep for those who lost their loved ones. . . . The idea of moms taking their kids to school and sheltering them from a potential sniper attack is not the America I know." The president said he has been updated daily on the investigation – including "a full briefing" yesterday by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III – and said authorities have found no indication that the shootings are linked to a foreign terrorist group. "First of all, it is a form of terrorism, but in terms of the terrorism we think of, we have no evidence," Bush said. "But anytime anybody is randomly shooting, randomly killing, randomly taking life, it's coldblooded murder. . . . And we're doing everything we can to capture whoever that might be and bring them to justice." FBI Special Agent Gary Bald said yesterday that the full weight of the federal investigative ability has been employed in the case and that he saw no reason for his agency to take command of the effort. "There hasn't been any talk among the investigative team of the FBI taking this case over," Bald said. "There are no resources that we have that are at our disposal that we aren't bringing to bear. . . . The group is working very effectively together." After three days without a reported sniper shooting – the longest quiet stretch since the attacks began Oct. 2 – Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose said yesterday that authorities "are indeed making progress" in the case. "We will not be at peace in this community until we catch whoever is doing this," said Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan. When asked why police would not release a psychological profile, which the FBI has been working on, Moose said: "None of that has been released because, again, we do not want to paint a picture that somehow causes people to exclude the possible suspect or people involved in this. "I've looked at some of those things from a historical standpoint," he said about cases in which publicly releasing profiles have helped investigators. "I've studied those cases as part of my training. But in this case, we again don't want to create tunnel vision. We want to keep an open mind. We'd like for people to look at the big picture." Besides Montgomery, where five people were slain, sniper shootings have occurred in Northwest Washington and in Prince George's, Prince William and Spotsylvania counties. The fact that the sniper is not known to have shot anyone during either of the last two weekends could be a tantalizing clue for law enforcement authorities as they try to develop a profile of the assailant, outside experts said. "It is a glimpse into the killer's possible activities," said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston. "Typically, serial killers strike when they have some free time, meaning no work or home responsibilities." He said the pattern "is not something we can depend on. But since the past two weekends were attack-free, we could speculate that the killer was either busy with other, more mundane activities or was involved in planning his next move." Fox, however, stressed that the back-to-back weekend lulls are not enough to suggest that the killer will continue holding fire on Saturdays and Sundays. "We are only talking about behavior that has happened, and not making predictions . . . because he has already shown his unpredictability," Fox said. "So far, he has been a weekday warrior. But what he will do in the future, God only knows." Meanwhile, investigators have broadened the search for a possible military connection to the sniper attacks and have asked military officials to search records of personnel discharged from the Marine Corps or Navy who have been trained as snipers. More than 100 Marines annually receive advanced training as snipers at Quantico Marine Corps Base, and thousands more learn basic sniping skills at other installations across the country. Navy special operations units also include snipers. The Army's Criminal Investigation Command has been conducting a similar search at the request of the FBI, looking for discharged soldiers who have "had sniper training," a Pentagon official said yesterday. Before last night's shooting, J.T. McCann, a former D.C. homicide detective, was among several law enforcement experts who said that despite the weekend lull in attacks, they did not believe sniper would cease fire permanently. McCann said he based his opinion on the general behavior of serial killers. "It is very rare that they just stop," said McCann, now a private investigator. "To think that this guy is going to stop and drift back into everyday life is just not going to happen. Psychologically, he could not be content or happy with the mundane life he led before this happened. "These guys just don't stop," he said. "They get caught or they get killed."
If and when they find this person. I don't think the death penalty is the answer because this person would not suffer, he would just be dead. ( I wouldn't argue the death penalty though) He should be put in jail for life so he can suffer too.
I am very fearful that they may have already caught the guy and the latest killing is a copycat crime. Anything that has this much publicity and this many people fearful is bound to have copycats. When they catch the guy they need to just shoot him in the left kneecap on the spot. And then in the head on the way to the hospital.
I worry about this too Because i just can feel the fricking mentally deranged copycats clamoring to do this. . . . plus i read where at one of the shooting they thought there were two people in the van Rocket River
They just had a press conference about this, they confirm that the woman's shooting is related... They are not releasing any information other than this..every question the reporters asked, he answered "We are not releasing any information about that at this time"..standard stuff.. once again, you guys up there in that area...Be careful, keep your eyes open..
