Witness to Sniper Shooting Told Cops About Caprice But No Action Was Taken

PRnewswire ^

[Brian Mosely]

Newsweek: Witness to an Earlier Sniper Shooting Told Police About Seeing Dark-Colored Caprice Pull Out of Shopping Center After Shot was Fired, But No Action Was Taken
Sunday November 3, 12:30 pm ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- After he heard a gunshot, a 19-year-old told police he saw a dark-colored Chevy Caprice slowly pull out of a shopping center, Newsweek reports in the current issue. The shooting, which took place on Sept. 14 at a liquor store in Silver Spring, Md., is now believed to be the work of the sniper suspects John Muhammad and his protege John Lee Malvo.

• (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20021103/NYSU005 )

  But when Robert Wilkerson Jr., who was pushing shopping carts at the strip mall's Safeway when he heard the shot, told the police about the car, the tip was ignored or overlooked, report Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Washington Correspondent Pat Wingert in the November 11 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, November 4). "When everyone kept talking about a white box truck, I kept wondering why the police weren't looking for this car," Wilkerson's father tells Newsweek.

  The bloody trail keeps lengthening, the what-ifs keep mounting up. By the end of last week, the sniper suspects had been linked by law enforcement to 20 shootings (13 dead, five wounded). In addition to the liquor-store shooting on Sept. 14, Newsweek has learned, police are looking closely at a shooting outside a restaurant in Clinton, Md. on Sept. 5. The restaurant owner, Paul LaRuffa, was shot six times as he sat in his car after closing up at about 10:30 p.m. As LaRuffa lay bleeding and groaning, his assailant reached into the car and grabbed a Sony laptop and a briefcase with $3,500 cash. Police are checking to see whether the laptop matched the one found in the back seat of the snipers' Caprice.

  It may also be significant that the shooting occurred less than a mile from the home of Muhammad's ex-wife Mildred, Newsweek reports.

[lelio]

thanks for the post. Interesting.

[JudyB1938]

I am beginning to get the impression that the police departments do not solve crimes. If the perp isn't handed to them on a golden platter (like the clues given to them by the snipers themselves), then an arrest may not be imminent.

They didn't follow through on the tip about the car; but they'll sure bust down doors and kill innocent people, all on the word of somebody who's trying to get a lesser drug sentence.

Or am I just being too cynical?

[per loin]

And a Caprice was spotted again on Oct 3 at one of the shootings. At another early shooting, a woman reported a black man crouched down behind the dash of a Caprice. But the racist chief Moose decided it should be an evil white man doing the shooting, so a lot of innocent people died while legions of cops hunted for white men in white vans.

[GoreLoser]

You're not too cynical. This fiasco shows the deadly consequences of political correctness run amok and the continuance of PC post-9/11. The level of law enforcement incompetence in this case is outrageous and it's taken the lamestream media almost 2 weeks finally to reevaluate their initial claims of "brilliant police work." It's horrifying to imagine how many more murders would have gone down had the perps not effectively turned themselves in.

[bandleader]

This Is DEFINITELY A"NO BRAINER"!!Chief??MOOSE Already Knew That The Perps Were In A WHITE VAN(NOT TO MENTION"WHITE MAN(OR MEN)!!!!!!!!!!

[bandleader]

You Forgot About The Fact That This Particular Vehicle Was registered By The Police At A Number Of Shooting-Sites!!!!!!!!!

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

True. If these sickos hadn't contacted the police, they would still be free, out there somewhere, gunning people down. This does not give one a lot of confidence in the police.

[Moonman62]

If chief Moose were a white heterosexual male, there would be nonstop coverage of his incompetence.

[Jabba the Nutt]

"I am beginning to get the impression that the police departments do not solve crimes."

Bingo! You're getting it. Police are a 'report-taking organization'. A crime happens, you call the police and they take a report. Police have no legal obligation and this went right up to the Supreme Court, to protect anybody. They only have the obligation to protect society, whatever that means.

This is one reason, why gun control is so pernicious. The gun controllers prefer to see you dead, assaulted or raped rather than you successfully defend yourself. They say that's the police's job, but they can't be there. Besides, crooks may be evil, but they're usually not so stupid as to commit a crime with a cop standing there.

[Cicero]

The police certainly handled this badly, and it's not surprising that they did. The license plate turned up ten times at roadblocks set up after the murders, but they evidently never bothered to search the computer data to look for such repeats.

Not one but TWO different people tipped off the Washington State police and the FBI earlier that Muhammed had been asking around about getting a silencer for his rifle, but they ignored this information.

Another tipster told the FBI that Muhammed had been making Muslim terrorist threats, but this too was ignored.

The man who ran the shelter they stayed in reported their suspicious activities, including the call from a travel agent, and that was ignored.

And now this--still another accurate tip from a credible witness at the scene of a shooting. If the perps had not been stupid and given themselves away with repeated notes and phone calls to the police (who told them to call another number instead of taking their calls), they still would be out there shooting innocent victims. I said at the start that these guys would not be found until the police got a tip from an informer--as it turned out, a tip from the perps themselves, who were too stupid to keep their mouths shut. What happens if a really smart, professional sniper starts working?

[aristeides]

It would be interesting if the sniper pair did that shooting in Clinton on Sept. 5th, as that was before they bought and registered the Caprice in NJ.

[genefromjersey]

Interesting to note the Director of the Feebies (FBI) was spouting all sorts of self-congratulatory BS the other day, and going on and on about the marvelous cooperation between law enforcement agencies.

I realize hindsight in a case like this is always 20/20,but this pair of perps did everything but surrender themselves to the police - and the police were not interested !!

[aristeides]

The staff at the Silver Spring YMCA say they saw the two several times in late August and early September. At first I was thinking they might have been thinking of around the Sept. 14th shooting at the Hillandale liquor store, but this Sept. 5th shooting makes me wonder if the sightings were not a couple of weeks earlier.

According to an article in today's Washington Post, a woman in Silver Spring saw the Caprice and the two in it in late September, after the heat broke. If memory serves, it was a pretty hot mid-September, so this presumably means after the Caprice was sighted in Gulfport, MS on Sept. 28th (a sighting that today's Washington Post confirms.)

[SteveH]

Interesting to note the Director of the Feebies (FBI) was spouting all sorts of self-congratulatory BS the other day, and going on and on about the marvelous cooperation between law enforcement agencies.

They have been doing this about Unabomber too, even though the initial profile was substantially wrong.

So, maybe the line should go that the police is a report-taking and self-congratulating agency.

[genefromjersey]

The Feebies still brag about how they apprehended Nazi saboteurs during WWII.

Fact is,one of the sabotage ring surrendered - or tried to-to the FBI. He was bounced from office to office, and was about to be ejected as "just another crazy", until he flashed part of the huge bankroll he had been issued.

At that point, the Assistant Director decided there might be somethung to his story . ( The defecting saboteur was "rewarded" by being sentenced to life, rather than the electric chair...)