From: "Pedro Martori"
Newsgroups: alt.law-enforcement,alt.politics.org.fbi,alt.politics.org.nsa,alt.politics.r
Subject: School shooting linked to sniper
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Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 21:47:56 -0400
NNTP-Posting-Host: 65.94.171.108
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 21:47:16 EDT
Organization: Bell Sympatico
Deviating the attention of the public and engaging the police
and FBI toward other objectives ?
October 7, 2002 Posted: 9:24 PM EDT (0124 GMT)
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Police Monday linked the shooting of a 13-year-old boy gunned
down outside a middle school in Prince George's County to sniper
attacks in the Washington area last week that left six people
dead and another wounded.
"The projectile is identical to those that have been recovered
from other scenes," said Joe Riehl, a special agent for the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Prince George's Police Chief Gerald Wilson refused to discuss the
sniper's possible motive.
"What I want is him," Wilson said.
ATF special agent Mike Bouchard said it is "more troubling" that
the sniper was now "attacking innocent children."
"The stakes are raised. All of us are taking it more personal.
... It makes us more determined. The gloves are off," he said.
Authorities said the reward for information leading to the arrest
and conviction of the killer or killers has risen to $160,000 --
$100,000 from the state, $50,000 from Montgomery County and
another $10,000 from a victims' rights foundation.
The boy was taken to a nearby hospital by his aunt, a nurse, who
had just dropped him off at school. From there he was airlifted
to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, where he
underwent surgery for a single gunshot that entered his abdomen.
He was described in critical but stable condition, on a
ventilator. Doctors removed his spleen and parts of his stomach
and pancreas.
"We're happy with how he is doing at this point, but we can't
anticipate how that might evolve over the next several hours,"
said Dr. Martin Eichelberger, the boy's surgeon.
Eichelberger said a bullet broke into fragments and that doctors
recovered a "significant portion," which should help to determine
any connection with last week's attacks.
Five people were shot and killed in Montgomery County during a
16-hour period from Wednesday night into Thursday morning. A
sixth victim was shot dead Thursday night on a Washington street.
A seventh person was wounded Friday in Virginia.
Each of the victims was shot once and police said the victims
appeared to have been picked at random.
Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose told CNN that were
witnesses to Monday's shooting.
"We have what I would consider to be witnesses," he said. "Many
people that provided a different piece of whatever they may have
seen. And we're trying to put it all together and come up with a
composite that we can consume and give to the community."
Asked if witnesses also observed a vehicle, Moose said, "There
may be a vehicle."
Although federal authorities have been assisting local
investigators with the case, Moose wrote a letter to Attorney
General John Ashcroft to officially request assistance.
Montgomery County officials said schools would open as scheduled
on Tuesday.
"We are asking people to walk their children to school, and to
get children together and to assist them as best they can,"
County Executive Douglas Duncan told reporters. "We're asking for
parent volunteers to look as they're walking if there are other
kids walking separately, to bring them into the group and assist
them that way."
He said about 120 police and fire recruits would be assigned to
the county's schools Tuesday.
In the District of Columbia, police officers are being held over
after the end of their shifts to help patrol schools, said
Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey. Officers on patrol duty
will also make extra stops at all district schools -- public,
private, and charter -- and check in with the principals.
The District of Columbia Board of Education was meeting Monday
night to decide on a further plan for schools Tuesday.
It was not clear what measures Virginia counties would take for
their schools; representatives of the state's Department of
Education could not be reached for comment Monday night.
An official with the Maryland Department of Education said not
all school districts will have made decisions on Tuesday's
procedures until as late as 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Authorities urged citizens to call police with tips.
"We're still not convinced we've heard from people we want to
talk to," said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose. "We
still want to hear from people."
Police continued searching for a white van seen speeding from the
parking lot of a post office Thursday immediately after a
shooting there.
Moose said local, state and federal investigators are following
up on 952 credible leads. There are 15 investigators "at the
ready" who will answer phones, he said. He urged callers who
don't get an answer when they call to try again.
While looking for leads to connect the sniper attacks,
authorities ruled out the possibility that one shooting -- a man
sitting in his car in Washington -- was related, because the man
was shot at close range with a handgun. That case appeared to be
a robbery, police said. The victim survived the attack.
Moose said investigators are pursuing geographical and
psychological profiles and a "bountiful amount" of information
has been gleaned.
"It is a tool to help our investigators," Moose said. He said the
profiles are adjusted as more information is amassed through the
investigation. He cautioned that while profiles have helpful
information, police have to keep an open mind and not exclude
anyone, cautioning against "tunnel vision."
D. Kim Rossmo, a former Canadian detective working with
investigators, said Sunday that geographic profiling compares the
location of the crimes with other information collected by police
to give investigators "some idea of the likely base or residence
of the offender responsible."
"In effect, it provides an optimal search strategy," Rossmo said.
Rossmo, director of research for the Washington-based Police
Foundation, said crimes typically take place "fairly close to an
offender's home but not too close."
"At some point, for a given offender, their desire for anonymity
balances their desire to operate in their comfort zone," Rossmo
said. "Where that exact point is will vary on the offender, their
mode of transportation and also maybe their degree of
confidence."
Mourners attended a funeral Sunday for one of Thursday's victims,
Prem Kumar Walekar, 54, an Olney, Maryland, cabdriver who was
killed while filling his minivan with gas at a service station in
nearby Aspen Hill.
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