Sniper Killings Continue

Not meaning to sound...deranged or weird here, but really This guy could go on for weeks or years and not really make me change the way I live. While he is racking up a large kill total, there are 4 million people that live within the beltway and 10 million in the entire area. that gives you a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of being targetd by this bozo on any given day....you have a beetter chance of getting hit by lightning. the odds of any particular person being hit or even near a hit are very very low, just not as low as if he weren't out there killing. The media is pretty much feeding the hysteria, and the people who are panicing are not thinking the actuall probabilities through. I still stand outside and pump my gas.

[ 10-15-2002, 12:31 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Redblueflare]

Originally posted by MagiK: Not meaning to sound...deranged or weird here, but really This guy could go on for weeks or years and not really make me change the way I live. While he is racking up a large kill total, there are 4 million people that live within the beltway and 10 million in the entire area. that gives you a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of being targetd by this bozo on any given day....you have a beetter chance of getting hit by lightning. the odds of any particular person being hit or even near a hit are very very low, just not as low as if he weren't out there killing. The media is pretty much feeding the hysteria, and the people who are panicing are not thinking the actuall probabilities through. I still stand outside and pump my gas.

Yeah, but everyone's worried that they could be that one. I'm not really worried about him either, but it's more because Virginia's distance from Georgia than anything else. You're right the media is *not* helping. I Hope this guy doesn't watch the news... *sigh*

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by John D Harris: quote: Originally posted by Neb: Well, here's an attack from the somwhat-Anti-Gun crowd. I say okay, there are a lot of people who have guns who do no harm with them [img]smile.gif[/img] They carry them for defense or own them for hunting, perfectly alright. But the problem arises when we have someone like this guy, assuming that he/she got his gun legally. Are this many deaths really worth letting a lot of people own guns and be peaceful with them? Personally I'd love to let such people as MagiK who don't go on killing sprees with their guns keep them, but how do we let them do so while at the same time keeping them from the psycho's?

Enforce the thousands of gun laws on the books. The problem I have, aside from the US constitution, is if we remove guns because they can kill, what about Knives, plain old kitchen knives. Baseball bats, bricks, cinder blocks, rocks, hammers etc.[/QUOTE]What about searching for the guy via gun ownership records. Any objections to that from anyone here? There are likely a lot of .223 owners out there, so this would certainly inconvenience some innocent folks. Plus, it *might* turn up something, and might not. (I don't know if this is being done currently, but it seems likely it could / would be.) Do more killings make the use of such a means of finding the guy more paletable?

[Neb]

Originally posted by MagiK: Not meaning to sound...deranged or weird here, but really This guy could go on for weeks or years and not really make me change the way I live. While he is racking up a large kill total, there are 4 million people that live within the beltway and 10 million in the entire area. that gives you a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of being targetd by this bozo on any given day....you have a beetter chance of getting hit by lightning. the odds of any particular person being hit or even near a hit are very very low, just not as low as if he weren't out there killing. The media is pretty much feeding the hysteria, and the people who are panicing are not thinking the actuall probabilities through. I still stand outside and pump my gas.

Don't forget, it's a 1 in 10,000,000 chance for anyone else to be targetted as well. Might as well be you as your neighbour as an entirely different person, low odds aren't a good reason to stop taking precautions. Just because hardly anyone gets hit by lightning you shouldn't prance around wrapped in copper wire whenever there's a lightning storm [img]tongue.gif[/img] Even if the chances of getting hit are minutely small you might as well make them smaller.

[Sir Taliesin]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: [/qb]

What about searching for the guy via gun ownership records. Any objections to that from anyone here? There are likely a lot of .223 owners out there, so this would certainly inconvenience some innocent folks. Plus, it *might* turn up something, and might not. (I don't know if this is being done currently, but it seems likely it could / would be.) Do more killings make the use of such a means of finding the guy more paletable?[/QUOTE]

I have no doubt that was the first method they exhausted in finding this freak. However, my guess is your probably talking about a few hundred people alone in the Metro DC area. It's a pretty popular rifle among firearms enthusists. Also Whoever said it was an AR15. Could be a Remington Model 7, or 700, Winchester Model 70, a Savage Model 113, a Ruger Mini 14, AK-74... etc, etc ad nausem... Point is, the police haven't been able to identify a weapon yet or haven't pubilized it, if they have. No telling how many rifles there are out there in the area in .223.

He/they all most slipped up last night. Apparently they have some partial license tag numbers. I'd think partial numbers along with a vehicle description would narrow the field quite a bit. That's going to be the best way to catch this freak. Someone will see them sooner or later and that will be the end.

BTW, as far as I know there are NO personal restrictions on the use of slingshots, blowguns, crossbows, bow and arrows, air guns or mussleloaders in the US. Anyone can buy any of them with out filling out any sort of form. Anyone can by a knife or sword as well, no questions asked.

One thing I though of, what if these guys leave in another state, such as West Virginia. Maybe they commute to the Metro DC area for a week at a time, then go home on weekends. That could explain why they don't kill on the weekend. Construction workers come to mind. Most of them travel like that.

[Larry_OHF]

I just wanted to put in a side note about what I heard today, aside from this latest shooting. A person that I have met before and talked with on several occasions was knifed to death a couple days ago by her boyfriend. She was six months pregnant.

Curse this horrible world.

[Bardan the Slayer]

Originally posted by John D Harris: quote: Originally posted by Neb: Well, here's an attack from the somwhat-Anti-Gun crowd. I say okay, there are a lot of people who have guns who do no harm with them [img]smile.gif[/img] They carry them for defense or own them for hunting, perfectly alright. But the problem arises when we have someone like this guy, assuming that he/she got his gun legally. Are this many deaths really worth letting a lot of people own guns and be peaceful with them? Personally I'd love to let such people as MagiK who don't go on killing sprees with their guns keep them, but how do we let them do so while at the same time keeping them from the psycho's?

Enforce the thousands of gun laws on the books. The problem I have, aside from the US constitution, is if we remove guns because they can kill, what about Knives, plain old kitchen knives. Baseball bats, bricks, cinder blocks, rocks, hammers etc.[/QUOTE]The difference that it takes effort to kill someone with a baseball bat, but not much to pull a trigger. Also, you'd need a very big knife to kill someone from 150 metres away.

As to my ideas? As has been said before, this guy is obviously smart. That does *not* necessarily mean he has a good job, or earns alot. There are plenty of smart poeple who don't have flashy jobs. He is very probably quite unconspicuous, hidden by his very obviousness. Therefore I would say that he is a white male, aged 25-40 or so. To become a good shot takes *some* practise, so if there are any gun ranges or the like, he may have been an occasional visitor.

By now, he must know that the white van is a talking point, so may well have dumped it, allowing the media to continue chasing one of thousands of white vans in the area. We have the white van stuck in our heads - he will probably use that. He may well be so smart as to cruise around looking for white vans now, and killing someone close. Maybe that's a long shot, but it would be a nice deception.

Why is he leaving clues sometimes? Because with every shooting, he gains confidence, and it becomes more and more like a game to him. the more he kills, the easier it gets, and he likes it. He likes even more the feelings of power he gets from doing it, and these feelings are heightened by the failure of the police to catch him yet.

Are there two people instead of one? Hmm ... I don't know. I would guess that the person doing this wouldn't want anyone else stealing his glory, or wouldn't like having to share his little game with another. He *may* have an accomplice - two people who have decided to play a sick game, but that's not my gut feeling.

Will he keep killing? Absolutely. Every person he kills heighten his sense that he is invincible and untraceable.

Is he a loner? I wouldn't say that. More likely he has some job that has irregular hours, or more likely still, has a job that involves shift work and travelling. Self-employed is also a definite possibility.

I would *guess* that he's unmarried, and not living with anyone else right now. After 10 killings, even a wife or girlfriend would be noticing if their husband/bloke was always out of the house when a shooting happened. At the very least, she'd be getting concerned for *his* safety, believeing he could be the next victim. this would possibly heighten her awareness of when he was out of the house and when people were killed.

Does he have an axe to grind? A political motive? Is he an angry white male getting revenge for somehting? I doubt it. Disgruntled employees tend to go on shooting sprees and go out in a blaze of glory. Terrorists and the like target people to send a message, but there doesn't seem to be any message here - just killings for sport. The only message left was a taunt to police - this seems to me to say that the man himself is the focus of the game - he enjoys killing and getting away with it.

Will the weapon he is using be registered? Unlikely, I think. He wouldn't take that risk. This is someone who has taken precautions to not be caught, and will know that the first thing the cops would do is check on registered firearms. He may well be a gun owner. He probably is - but will not be using a registered weapon.

Will he move to another area as the net tightens? I don't think so. Even though he is smart, he is obviously enjoying the game of not being caught. He won't be able to hang 'em up - he thinks he'll never be caught. He'll probably think he could stop at any time and be safe, but he'll always want to do *just that one more, and that'll be the last*, but it never will be.

Anyway, these are just my ramblings. They may be waaaaaaaaaaay off the mark, and very probably are, but these are just the impressions I get.

Just wait - it'll turn out to be a blue dwarf from mars, fighting for political freedom from turnips or something, now that I've set my stall out.

Anyway, as I have said before, I sincerely hope he is caught before anyone else is shot. The cops are obviously doing everything they can (the lockdown of the roads in such a fast time being one example). Also, they have people a hell of alot smarter than me doing a profile of this guy, and form experience I knwo that what the cops release to the media is often just the tip of a rather large iceburg of leads and ideas. I do have faith that he will be caught. I just hope it is soon.

[norompanlasolas]

i do hope they catch him. but i noticed that after lots of people said he probably wasnt a good shot because he wasnt going for the head, the last 3 victims have killed with gunshots to their... heads. its like hes daring everybody, killing in front of a police office, in front of lots of witness, etc. plus, he may be using the .223 and not another more high powered rifle because of all the different ones that use that shell, and not because hes untrained or cant access or use a better one. what im saying is that underestimating is the worst possible thing to be done with this guy right now. he has managed to murder his last victims and escape huge dragnets set by the police. that is not easy, especially when done in broad daylight and more than once.

[pritchke]

The really sad part is he will cause himself to be immortalized in movies, books, plays, etc. Some provinces and states are working on laws to prevent this from happening but Hollywood will find a way to make a movie of it and turn a profit. I kind of think that is why this guy is doing this, he knows he will eventually be caught but he will have acheived his fame.

[Sir Taliesin]

MSNBC has reported that authorities believe the weapon being used is a Soviet made AK74, which fires a .223 bullet. It's not the same cartridge used by NATO and the US. A witness also say he saw a white van with two men in it drive away and he also claims to have got a good look at the driver, whom he descibed as dark skinned. Other witnesses also claim that the shot was fired from around 50 yards. Not a hard shot at all!

We may be getting closer folks! Let's hope so! Time for this nightmare to end!