SNIPER UPDATE: Details on shooting gathered by local Fredericksburg newspaper

The Free Lance-Star ^ | 10-11-02 | The Free Lance-Star

[seamus]

I'll post more updates as I get them.

[Freedom2specul8]

Thanks seamus!!

Maryland Watch Ping

[syriacus]

Thank you for the update.

[areafiftyone]

Thanks for posting the update. This is soo horrible. Well it looks like someone at least got a glimpse of this psycho.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks, you are doing a great job of keeping us informed!

[seamus]

Please. I urge all Freepers to click on the newspaper's link to give it some hits. Click here if you don't want to go all the way back to the top.

The staff has done great work covering this story, and it deserves visits to it's actual website.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Will due. Thanks for the good work!

[SunnyUsa]

No problem....GLAD to click on your newspaper's website! :)

[jjm2111]

Again, thank you.

[Jened]

the driver bumping other cards was afraid he was going to get shot. does that mean he's afraid the police or a citizen will just shoot him because he's driving a white van? maybe he ought to start taking a cab and leaving his white van in his garage.

[js1138]

Sounds like there is still confusion about the white van. First there is one fleeing the scene, then another one. Is this story just old???

[seamus]

“It was loud as (expletive),” said 39-year-old construction worker Tom Bowling, who was checking into the motel at the time. “It sounded like a bomb going off.”

There's not a thing funny about this story, but reading this quote put a smile on my face. Gotta love a newspaper that would use such a quote. That's exactly the way people talk, and it captures the emotions of those who witnessed this horrible attack.

[Squantos]

Yer ruining my bad impression of Noooooze Presstitutes Seamus..........Did'nt know any good ones were out there !

Thank You, Stay Safe & CYA !

[Molly Pitcher]

Thanks you 2!

[JulieRNR21]

Just came across this:

SNIPER SCARE IN SUBURBIA
Police weigh multiple killers, vehicles
'If this is 1 shooter, he's got a helluva lot of energy – and luck'


Posted: October 11, 2002
1:15 p.m. Eastern

By Paul Sperry

WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – Authorities here are now investigating the possibility that the Beltway sniper shootings are the work of multiple shooters using multiple .223-caliber rifles and traveling in multiple white vehicles, WorldNetDaily has learned.

"We're looking at that angle," said Montgomery County Police Department Detective Paula Pascarella.

In 10 days, 10 people in Washington and four surrounding counties have been shot. Eight have died, all from a single bullet wound to the torso or head.

Authorities are growing increasingly doubtful that a single sniper could strike with such frequency over such a broad territory in such a short period – and still avoid detection.

"If this is one shooter, he's got a helluva lot of energy – and luck," said a federal law-enforcement officer.

In addition, eyewitness accounts of the vehicle seen fleeing the scenes of at least four shootings have varied.

An eyewitness to a shooting in Montgomery County last week reported seeing a white box truck with two Hispanic-looking men in the cab, according to an initial Montgomery County Police lookout bulletin released to law enforcement last week.

A witness in the Prince Georges County shooting claimed to have seen a man leave the woods carrying a duffle bag near the school where a 13-year-old boy was shot. The witness said the man got into a truck.

Witnesses at a Sunoco gas station in Prince William County say they saw a white panel van (with no side windows) resembling a Dodge Caravan leave the scene.

Now police in Spotsylvania County, site of the latest shooting which occurred at an Exxon station, are looking for two men in a white box-shaped cargo van with what they describe as "ladder racks" on top. It's said to resemble a Chevy Astro Van.

Authorities say white cargo trucks and vans are common, making it hard to track down the shooters.

They also say that – with the exception of the school shooting, which apparently came from the woods – it's possible that the sniper or snipers are firing from inside the windowless cargo areas, and not the passenger windows, of the vehicles.

[seamus]

Is this story just old???

No, it's the latest we have. The cops still consider a white van their best lead, but there are so many white vans it's bound to cause confusion.

[seamus]

Yer ruining my bad impression of Noooooze Presstitutes Seamus..........Did'nt know any good ones were out there!

We're everywhere, Squantos. Reporters tend to get better the farther away they are from the big city. Lots of great reporting is done at small to mid-size newspapers. (My paper is 50k circulation and we've dominated in winning Virginia Press awards).

[JulieRNR21]

See post #15.....if this is indeed a 'group of snipers' then it would like organized terrorism to me. It is significant, I think, that so many gas stations have been targeted.

[caa26]

I still think the white van is a red herring. Unfortunately other than the tarot card and shell casings, its the only other evidence valid or not.

If it turns out the sniper is using a white van, why would he be so stupid to keep using it, when he is able to commit all these murders and vanish without a trace?

[Ford Fairlane]

I heard a couple of news stories this AM about white chevy vans - these are all over the place as they are the most popular vehicle for tradesmen (plumbers, electricians, etc.)

Most of them are white because this is the most popular fleet vehicle color, I believe there is a added charge for any other color.

Driving thru town today I lost count of the ones i passed at 50 something.