FBI Analyst is Beltway Sniper's Latest Victim

You almost get the impression that the over riding strategy is “just let the sniper keep killing until he messes up so bad that we catch him.”

Sadly, I'm thinking that's about all they CAN do right now. I remarked to my girlfriend earlier that with each killing more people get a slightly better look at him and his truck/van/whatever, so it may be 1 to 2 more killings before they're able to arrest anyone.

41 posted on 10/15/2002 12:32:02 PM PDT by Future Snake Eater

He's in over his head.

You nailed it! We have too many cops in this country, and too few who are adequately trained.

42 posted on 10/15/2002 1:00:12 PM PDT by RobbyS

To: Future Snake Eater

Think how long it took to get Dillinger.

43 posted on 10/15/2002 1:01:37 PM PDT by RobbyS

Great!!! SO if you are a regular us citizen the LEO's will try to find the perp but if you are a LEO and you are gunned down then they send in the marines. Makes you wonder if our government knows who is paying the bills.

44 posted on 10/15/2002 1:07:46 PM PDT by samuel_adams_us

UAVs???

unmanned audio visuals?

45 posted on 10/15/2002 1:22:35 PM PDT by Robert_Paulson2

"How about a description of what the sniper looks like?"

No can do, as Chief Bulwinkle says, It "paints a group or causes people to be misidentified, causes them some hardship, that's the dilemma we want to stay away from."

Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/769346/posts?page=878#878

So a composite causes a certain group to be misidentified.

Or does is cause a certain group to be identified and you don't like that.

46 posted on 10/15/2002 1:25:32 PM PDT by dinasour

Yes, and when he does his duty... he will be charged with a firearms violation...

WE, citizens must die like good little "practice targets" for mullah omar's trainees...

Wouldn't want to upset the multiculturalists... now would we?

47 posted on 10/15/2002 1:25:56 PM PDT by Robert_Paulson2

Or last night on Fox, they had a camera panning the crowd scene -- and you see a bunch of cops standing around drinking coffee and joshing each other. I have no doubt these guys are working hard (heck they're out there after midnight at a crime scene), but if you see a TV camera, at least pretend to look busy.

48 posted on 10/15/2002 1:54:06 PM PDT by Maximum Leader

Sniper's latest victim worked for FBI

10/15/2002

Associated Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - An FBI analyst who assessed terrorist threats was identified Tuesday as the ninth person killed by the Washington-area sniper, shot in the head in an attack investigators say has yielded the most detailed clues yet in the hunt for the gunman.

For the first time, witnesses were able to give information about license plates on vehicles seen fleeing the scene, including a light-colored Chevrolet Astro van with a burned-out rear taillight.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said another witness gave a description of a dark-skinned, possibly Hispanic or Middle Eastern, man in a white van.

Linda Franklin

"There was some additional information that we were able to get from last night's case, and I am confident that that information is going to lead us to an arrest in the case," Fairfax County Police Chief Tom Manger said.

Law enforcement sources said there were no indications the sniper targeted 47-year-old Linda Franklin because of her job. She worked for the FBI's Cyber-Crimes Division, created last year to focus on computer crimes as well as intellectual property cases.

Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Charles Moose, the head of the investigation, emphasized that Franklin was not working on the sniper case.

Franklin, a 47-year-old mother of two grown children, was killed Monday night as she and her husband loaded packages into their convertible in the parking lot outside a Home Depot at the Seven Corners Shopping Center. Ballistics evidence Tuesday connected the sniper to the slaying.

"Linda was a dedicated employee, and she will be missed," said FBI Director Robert Muller. "All of us are deeply shocked and angry over this tragedy."

An FBI chaplain at Franklin's Arlington home said Franklin and her husband were planning to move Friday to another home in the area and were at Home Depot to buy supplies for the move and the new house.

Robert Young, a Washington construction worker, returned to the shopping center Tuesday to talk with police. He said he heard a muffled gunshot and saw a white van.

Young said as he backed his truck out of his parking spot, a white Astro van with two men inside tried to turn into his lane. He said the driver appeared very agitated to find his way blocked and instead drove by a neighboring Chinese restaurant and out of sight.

Young described the driver as a short man of slight build who appeared to be Mideastern. He said, "I got a good look at the guy."

MONTGOMERY CO. POLICE

Police released these composite photos of a Ford Econoline van (top) and a Chevrolet Astro van described by witnesses.

The driver "seemed to be excessively irritated because he couldn't pull into my lane," he said. "I thought this fool was going to want to get out of the van and duke or something. But he didn't. He kept on going."

Since Oct. 2, nine people have been killed and two others wounded, all of them cut down by a single bullet fired from a distance with a high-powered rifle as the victims went about their everyday tasks. The sniper's only apparent communication with investigators has been a tarot death card inscribed, "Dear Policeman, I am God."

In a continuing appeal for the public's help, Moose released composite images of a white van with roof racks that witnesses saw after Friday's slaying of a man at a gas station near Fredericksburg, Va.

Moose said there appeared to be similarities between the van seen at Friday's shooting and the light-colored van from Monday night's attack.

Manger would not say whether the witnesses to the latest attack were able to give complete license plate numbers to investigators.

"Each shooting has revealed more to this investigation. We're encouraged every day," said Michael Bouchard, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The sniper escaped a huge dragnet that closed down a tangle of highways around Falls Church, 10 miles west of the nation's capital. Traffic was backed up for miles as police surrounded and searched dozens of white vans.

Tod Burke, a former Maryland police officer who teaches criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia, said the killer is either escaping before the dragnet comes does or has some kind of hideout where he can watch the chaos that erupts.

Outside the Home Depot, shoppers tentatively returned while officers made a last sweep for evidence and towed the victim's car away.

"Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place," Lorraine Burns said as she walked up to a Barnes and Noble bookstore.

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/101502dnnatsniper.3d789.html

49 posted on 10/15/2002 2:58:47 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP

Were gonna need some more FBI guys...

Maybe call out some of the retired ones?

50 posted on 10/15/2002 3:27:15 PM PDT by archy

Maybe you'd have a few minutes to correct the address and hand deliver it to Moose?

I think that can be arranged:

51 posted on 10/15/2002 3:30:36 PM PDT by archy

Or someone could rat him out for the reward. For some reason Montgomery Co. county executive Duncan has capped the reward at $500,000 and is diverting any donations beyond that to the victims' families. Capping the reward makes no sense. Maybe Virginia will add its own reward.

52 posted on 10/15/2002 3:35:03 PM PDT by aristeides

Really? For years the chief and the bulk of the force were drawn from the still semi-rural "up county", where some families have been on the force for generations. The gov worker/libs who now rule had to change that. So they got a chief who perhaps had not proven his worth but fit their criteria.

53 posted on 10/15/2002 4:15:38 PM PDT by AmericanVictory

Rita Cosby (Fox news) just reported that Linda was a Breast Cancer Survivor.

As IF she and her family didn't go thru enough, she gets gunned down buying things for the move to their new home.

This just stinks!

54 posted on 10/15/2002 4:25:02 PM PDT by spectre

To: AmericanVictory

Are you kidding? Chief Moose handled the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding case in '94. He's no stranger to publicity.

55 posted on 10/15/2002 4:33:23 PM PDT by johnb838

We hate to point this out, but the FBI handled this type of thing and foreign totalitarian operatives in this country under the late and much ridiculed J. Edgar Hoover.

56 posted on 10/15/2002 4:42:48 PM PDT by AmericanVictory

To: areafiftyone

These are not small departments, but very large ones, if you are speaking of Montgomery in Maryland and Fairfax in Virginia. Fairfax county is more populated and far wealthier than D.C. and its department by and large is better run. It has far more business and revenue. Tysons Corner alone has more office space than downtown Miami.

57 posted on 10/15/2002 4:45:56 PM PDT by AmericanVictory

We note that the tactics being used are those of the IRA and that the IRA has been training the narco-Marxists of Colombia, who have announced that they are going to join in the Islamist terror campaigns. Further, all of this has been subtly assisted and egged on by Clinton's allies in Beijing.

58 posted on 10/15/2002 4:48:10 PM PDT by AmericanVictory

To: PleaseNoMore

"this woman's death made me reconsider. She worked for the FBI's infrastructure department that ASSESSES THREATS ... " I wonder too. It is probably just a coincidence - but still. I do have a feeling of doubt.

59 posted on 10/15/2002 4:57:32 PM PDT by BlackVeil

And that proves his competence?

60 posted on 10/15/2002 5:14:34 PM PDT by AmericanVictory

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