Archive through October 15, 2002
TV ClubHouse: Archive: Beltway Sniper (formerly 5 Shootings...):
Archive through October 15, 2002
Jo_5329 | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:11 am     I know someone on one news station last night, maybe Fox, said they, the police, are looking at this fellow having some military sniper training in his background. |
Fluff | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:19 am     I think that it could be highly possible also. Either way, they've had some training in what they do, whether it's shooting or driving. |
Juju2bigdog | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:26 am     From Yahoo news: "Spotsylvania County Sheriff Ronald Knight said authorities had pulled over several white vans on Interstate 95 after the 9:30 a.m. shooting and had reports of a white van bumping other vehicles, apparently trying to get out of the area." |
Whowhere | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:27 am     Yeah and I also heard (on the news) something to the effect of the military putting death cards on victims. Going off of memory here, so correct me if you heard different. |
Vanillarose | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:35 am     I've just heard that the shootings are probably racially motivated. This whole thing just makes me sick to my stomache, but the fact that it may be a string of racially motivated hate crimes bothers me even more. I just thought that we were more evolved than that as human beings. *sigh* |
Jo_5329 | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:46 am     Racial motivated? Are the victims "one race"? I've not really paid attention to that myself, nor have I heard it stated "the black male victim", etc on the news. |
Fluff | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:46 am     You think so? Hmmm. I thought he shot people of all races. I know that the guy that was shot today was black. Geez. I am totally stuck in a rut then. Not only that, but I work in VA, I go to school in VA, and I live in DC. This is the one time that I am glad that I don't drive. I never thought I would say that in a million years. Grief. Oh my gosh!!!! I just heard that a woman was DRIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Whowhere | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:48 am     What race are they thinking they are? So far he's shot white, black, men, women, children and a person with the name 'Prem Kumar Walekar' (not sure of his ethic background). It seems to me if there's any motivation theory, the sniper is targeting innocent Americans period. I would have liked to hear their explanation for thinking this is racially motivated. I just don't see the connection. Who knows?? |
Whowhere | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 10:54 am     Where'd you hear that Fluff?? |
Fluff | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 11:05 am     I tell you, the media is retarded somtimes. But, I did just hear on FOX 5 news in DC that they think that it was a woman driving. Check this out: My mom said that they arrested a guy and took him away in handcuffs. They didn't say anything about him driving a white van. Then there was a woman with him. They let the woman talk and she sounded so nervous. She said that they were from Alabama, but they live in Virginia. They were staying in a hotel by the gas station because the were "on a tour". The news reporter asked how did she get to the hotel and she said Greyhound Bus. That doesn't sound right to me. Why in the HECK would you be staying in a hotel to take a tour if you are from VA? She never said what kind of tour she was on. What she was touring..... Okay, so it's possible, but I still think she may have been fibbing. She sounded shaken up really bad and she was laughing nervously. Then what I found weird, They asked her if she heard the gunshot and she said, "No." The hotel is right by the gas station and she said that she was already up when it happened. Either she is deaf, or she's fibbing, because I don't buy that. Then they asked her why does she think they took her man or whoever he is away, she said she didn't know. But they had bloodhound doggies on the scene and the dogs led the police to a piece of paper that was either in the gas station or near the hotel. I don't know the complete details. I was just listening on the phone to the TV that my mother is watching. Anyway, she said her guy friend or whoever he is, is 37 yrs. old and will be 38 in November. |
Fanny | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 11:07 am     Did any of you catch Mark Furman's interview on CNN the other night? (Furman was the detective who allegedly perjured himself during the OJ Simpson trial.) When asked about the sharpshooting "talent" of this killer, Furman said this guy isn't that great of a marksman. With the kind of weapon he's using and the distance from which he's shooting, Furman said it wouldn't take a whole lot of training for anyone to be able to match the shooter's accuracy. I'm sure the sniper is taking great pride in his "work". Interesting from a law enforcement viewpoint that this guy may not be the great shot he thinks he is. (Although his record speaks otherwise.) |
Karuuna | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 11:32 am     From CNN.com "The victims appear to have been selected at random and were as different as eight people could be from one another. They were men and women of different races and walks of life, ranging in age from 13 to 72." You can read this article about the victims, and see some of their photos here: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/South/10/09/shooting.victims/index.html |
Jo_5329 | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 11:42 am     Thanks for the link Karunna -- although it's tough for me to look at anything from CNN, I will try Jo |
Vanillarose | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 12:23 pm     For anyone who is wondering where I heard that the shootings were racially motivated: I heard a supposed expert speaking on one of the news networks this morning, who said that because nearly all of the victims were minorities that he believes that it has been a string of racially motivated hate crimes. I wish I could remember which network (CNN, MSNBC or Fox News...I flip channels between those three, so I can't remember which one I heard it on), or that I could remember other details like the "expert's" name or background. I'm sorry I can't recall any of those details, but I will try to listen for it to be aired again, or for someone else to express the same ideas. I do hope it is not true, although the circumstances are bad enough!!! If anyone has anything more specific or accurate to add, please do!!! |
Max | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 12:42 pm     I just love all the so-called "experts" that come out of the woodwork to "help" news programs with coverage of these events. Half the time, they are only expert in getting themselves on TV. |
Hermione69 | Friday, October 11, 2002 - 01:07 pm     I think the sniper(s) are just really sick individual(s) who are getting a lot of enjoyment out of watching the reactions of the people, the police and the media. About 2 p.m. today, the principal of my school came on the loudspeaker and said there was an alert for our city and the surrounding counties. I-95 comes through here and they still seem to think he may be coming south on I-95, athough why they think that still, I'm not sure. Doesn't seem like anything new has developed in the last couple of hours. Anyway, outdoor athletic events for my school system and neighboring systems have been cancelled. It's very frightening. My mother was the victim of a random act of violence when I was in the first grade. She was stabbed while out for a walk in the neighborhood with my little brother. She was able to grab my brother and get away, but she was hospitalized for a few days for her injuries. Having an experience like that affects you for life. You know it can happen to you. Your safety zone is forever violated. This thing is tying in to a lot of old fears for me. I hate it and wish they would get the person or people responsible. |
Gail | Monday, October 14, 2002 - 08:38 pm     There was another shooting this afternoon in Virginia. They don't know yet if it is related to the others. FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (CNN) -- A woman was shot and killed outside a Home Depot store in this Washington, D.C., suburb Monday night, and police were investigating whether it was related to the string of sniper shootings in the area, authorities said. CNN |
Curious1 | Monday, October 14, 2002 - 10:01 pm     Doesn't it seem like they should be able to catch this guy now? This last shooting should have been the closest one to catch him yet. This is just awful! |
Jo_5329 | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 05:14 am     I was hoping all day that the sniper had gotten into some wreck over the weekend and was laying in a coma or something. I didn't hear about this until after WWE was over and I flipped over to Fox News to get the top of the hour news. I heard this morning, on Fox, that evidently the women's husband was standing with her or was close to her when she was shot. I am not going to scream "why can't they get this guy" because I have worked too many years in Law Enforcement --- understand this THE COPS ARE JUST AS FRUSTRATED if not more that they can't get this guy. Please support your local law enforcement people instead of bash them - they have a thankless job. |
Jagger | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 05:19 am     I heard this morning that they may have gotten a partial licience plate off the vehicle, this may help catch this bas****. |
Rissa | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 06:13 am     I don't even know what to say about all this. The first couple shootings, I thought..well this is obviously someone who has lost it for whatever reason.. hope they catch him. Now though, it's so far beyond that. He's had time enough to digest whatever break with reality he had, yet he hasn't stopped. Makes me think that he had this planned out long before he started, as opposed to just wigging out one day. Curious, I think the difficulty is (folks, correct me if I'm wrong) that he is using a very long-range rifle, so if you are standing near the victim when they fall... you wouldn't be able to see the shooter. It does seem that the police are getting closer though. They started out with a white van, now CNN says a cream coloured van with a left tail-light out and possibly part of the license. |
Draheid | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 06:34 am     Rissa, you are correct. I believe the weapon in question, or more specifically, the caliber of bullet, can easily have a range of several hundred YARDS. The time it takes for the round to reach the target and the sound to arrive to those near the targetis probably enough time for the shooter to 'disappear' before anyone could get a bearing on the whereabouts let alone a positive identification. More likely, if someone were close to the shooter, they would have a better chance of seeing them before those near the vicitim. The problem there is that a bystander, hearing the shot, might not realize what's going on when the round is fired and therefore not be 'looking' when it happens. They could simply assume it might have been a vehicle backfire or some other noise. Hope this helps. |
Hermione69 | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 06:35 am     Part of the problem for law enforcement is not just the distance from which the shooting occurs, but the sheer randomness with which he selects his victims. There is no starting point for the investigators. If they did get a partial license plate, shame on the media for reporting it. All that does is tip the shooter off and he can get rid of the plate. Don't you think? It seems flagrantly irresponsible to me that the media would report that, particularly since the police do not want the plate released for whatever reasons. |
Jo_5329 | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 06:46 am     FALLS CHURCH, Va., Oct. 15 — Ballistics evidence has “conclusively linked” the fatal shooting of a woman Monday night to earlier sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area, police said Tuesday. A dragnet covered suburban Washington as authorities searched for a light-colored van seen moments after the woman was killed in a mall parking lot by a single bullet to the head. |
Goddessatlaw | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 08:31 am     According to FoxNews, the woman who was killed Monday night, Linda Franklin, was an employee of the FBI. |
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