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Pastimes : DC Sniper - Theories? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (1174)	10/17/2002 6:53:05 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 2746

story.news.yahoo.com Account of Sniper May Not Be True 59 minutes ago By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - A witness who claims he saw a sniper fire with an assault rifle and flee in a cream-colored van gave a phony story, investigators said Thursday in a setback that casts doubt on much of what the public thought it knew about the roving killer. Prosecutors are investigating the witness, whose name wasn't released, to determine whether he should be charged with filing a false statement. Fairfax County police Lt. Amy Lubas said the inaccurate account was exposed by checking it against that of other witnesses to Monday night's killing of an FBI (news - web sites) cyberterrorism analyst in a crowded Virginia parking lot outside a Home Depot. It was the only shooting so far that people actually saw. Asked if the witness may have intentionally misled investigators, Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who is heading the investigation, said simply, "Yes." Investigators had showed a certain optimism after the latest attack seemed to yield the best details yet about the killer. But that gave way to anger Thursday. Moose said there was no credence to the witness' description of the cream-colored van with a burned-out rear taillight. And while Moose did not give the witness' exact description of the shooter, he chastised reporters for running reports that variously described the gunman as dark-skinned, olive-skinned, Middle Eastern or Hispanic. "When we have people from the media interviewing witnesses and publishing reports, we get confusion," Moose said. "We get this noise ... out there that gives people tunnel vision and makes them focus in on things that are not appropriate. ... We would like to be able to do our job." Similar accounts of a sniper in a cream-colored van were published Tuesday in both The Washington Post and The New York Times, based on an interview with an Arlington, Va., man who said he met the witness at the Falls Church, Va., Home Depot. Glen Guymon said he and the witness started talking when police ordered them inside after the shooting. The witness said he saw a man in the parking lot standing behind a cream-colored Chevy Astro van, Guymon told the newspapers. "There was a woman walking out to her car, he said she was with a guy," Guymon told the Times. "The guy behind the van lifted up a rifle and shot her, then got in the car and drove off. He was probably about 50 feet away from where he shot her." Reached at home Thursday, Guymon told The Associated Press: "I wish my name had never been anywhere. And I don't want my name used in connection with this story ever again." Moose said the witness' description to police of the shooter's AK-74 assault rifle is also bogus. But investigators cautioned that they still believe the sniper is using one of a family of more than 30 similar assault-type weapons capable of firing a .223-caliber bullet. "The message we're trying to say is please keep an open mind," Moose said. "People saw a description of a weapon over the last day and a half and we're convinced they eliminated people they know because they say, `Their gun is not the weapon I saw in the paper.'" Moose said the disclosure of the fake story, coming a day after investigators said they were unable to draw a composite sketch, was hardly a setback. He said investigators were still chasing leads and he stood by previous composite drawings of vehicles witnesses reported seeing leaving the attacks: a white box truck and a Chevrolet Astro van or Ford Econoline van. Since Oct. 2, there have been 11 shootings in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., that have left nine people dead and two wounded. One of the wounded, a 13-year-old boy shot outside his school in Bowie, Md., was upgraded Thursday from critical to serious condition. The other wounded person, a woman in Virginia, was released from a hospital last week. The victims were men and women of varying ages and ethnic backgrounds, each hit with a single bullet while going about everyday activities. A tarot death card left at one scene was inscribed: "Dear Policeman, I am God." Law enforcement sources said the investigation by federal, state and local authorities has led to information about a number of people with high-powered guns, both legally and illegally owned. A firearms safety instructor said the FBI has been asking registered owners of .223-caliber guns to bring them in for ballistic fingerprinting. "They're looking for suspects," said Mike Heffernan, owner of Self Defense Technologies in Kensington. "They're looking at people who have a background in firearms, possess .223 weapons, and have the capability of using them." ___

To: Stephen O who wrote (1174)	10/17/2002 6:56:58 PM
From: Peter Speyer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2746

We often see on the news men firing AK-47s and other weapons into the air, maybe a dozen bullets at a time. Does anybody know of a documented case of someone being hit by the bullet returning to earth? There must be a few unfortunates out there, but I've never heard of a casualty.