The Astral Pulse

Hunting the hunter: Profiling the sniper
Wednesday, October 9, 2002 Posted: 8:29 PM EDT (0029 GMT)


   
   

 SPECIAL REPORT

• Gallery: Sniper's trail, the victims
• Backgrounder: About Tarot cards
• Gallery: School shooting reaction
• Timeline: Past sniper shootings
• Graphic: Tracing bullets



 

(CNN) -- As the hunt for the sniper who has terrorized residents in the Washington, D.C., area enters a second week, the role of the profiler in helping investigators put a face on the killer has received more attention.

Media headlines blare that the profilers are baffled by the failure of the killer to conform to known patterns. But this assertion comes from a misunderstanding of the role, function and method of the profiler, said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler.

Portrayed in television and movies as the mystics of law enforcement, people with an almost psyche link to the mind of the killer, profilers are in fact engaged in what Van Zandt calls "a broad brush art."

"A profile is an investigative tool. It is not science, it is not DNA, it is not latent fingerprints. ... It is just one more tool investigators have. But a profile does not tell you who did the crime," Van Zandt said.

Profilers are engaged is building a "constantly evolving" document that is available to investigators to focus their search, Van Zandt said.

Van Zandt disputed the popular notion that research into previous multiple killings has provided clearly defined "profiles" of killers that can be used to fit each case that comes along.

"There is a skeletal structure, so to speak, of certain individuals, but the clothes that we hang on that skeleton come from investigation. And that's what starts to form the picture, the profile of who we're looking for," Van Zandt said.

And sometimes a killer may not fall within even very general categories, which seems to be the case so far with the killings in Maryland, Virginia and Washington.

"So far it appears we have kind of a hybrid. We have what we call a spree killer, in essence someone who kills one person after another without an emotional cooling off period in between," Van Zandt said.

"And yet, because of the period of time that has lapsed, now it is starting to take on some of the traits of a serial killer, in essence, someone who kills with that emotional cooling off period, which can be days, weeks, even months, depending on the serial killer himself or herself."

What profilers may well be able to offer investigators, depending on the evidence authorities have discovered at each crime scene, is a series of statistical probabilities -- the shooter's age, his race, his academic or professional background, perhaps even his motive, Van Zandt said.

This enables those in charge of the investigation to "take the population group and shrink it until it becomes manageable" he says.

"Hypothetically, we know, it's a statistical probability that a sniper in a situation like this is likely to be a male as opposed to a female. Well, then, we have eliminated 50 percent of the population. Now does that rule out a woman from doing this? No, but we'll say it is a very small chance.

"But if a witness says, 'I saw a car with smoke coming out of the window after a shot was fired and I saw a red-headed woman in the passenger seat,' profile be damned, you have to go with the evidence that you have," Van Zandt said.

So what are the types of questions profilers will be asking?

"You start out with very generic profiles, like, Is the offender organized or disorganized? An organized person has transportation, brings the weapon with him, has the ability to get in and out from a crime scene without being detected," Van Zandt said.

"Or, a disorganized person may walk or take public transportation. He may use a weapon of opportunity. You may see overkill on the part of the victim. He may just escape because he's lucky, not because he's calculating."

"So you start with an organized-disorganized offender. Then you say: A serial killer is this, a spree killer is that.

"But, again, these are broad general titles that you kind of paste up on a wall, and then you start to work with the intelligence you have, the information that comes through investigation, and you refine that."



fides quaerens intellectum

The origin

Theories abound of Tarot's source: ancient Egypt, China, India and Morocco among them. But the cards -- as they're made and known today -- are generally thought to have come from early 15th-century Italy, where they were first elegant painted creations for the courts of the nobility. Baroque and commedia dell'arte influences were common in the early figures and motifs on the cards.

Early Italian names for the cards include carte da trionfi, or cards of the triumphs. In the early 16th century, they became differentiated from more common playing cards and were called tarocchi, which in French was tarot.

fides quaerens intellectum

Missy Lewis, mother of student:

"It makes you very scared to even step outside your front door. I mean, you don't know where the shootings are going to take place next, and I don't ever remember anything like this happening."

Kevin Walters, father of student:

"As soon as I heard it, I thought 'Oh my God, it's happening here, closer to home.' I was actually in a grocery store getting coffee ... I just kind of ran out of the store."

Kim Estrada, mother of student:

"As soon as I heard on the news I came in -- that it was a 13-year-old boy and my son is 13. And I just rushed. I just had to know. I had to be here, be with him, get inside. Things were organized in there. They took his name and they got him down right away, brought him right to me."

Andrew Kim, student:

"I was feeling nervousness. I was very excited, not like happy exctied, but like shocking excited. But after I found out what happened, I just felt calm and everyone in the classroom was calm about it."

Charles Moose, Montgomery County police chief:

"Someone is so mean spirited that they shot a child. Now, all of our victims have been innocent, have been defenseless. But now we're stepping over the line, because our children don't deserve this."



fides quaerens intellectum

i think it's a little coincidental that AFTER the newspaper reported that psychologists figured the guy had a God complex and was "playing" with the police, the very next shooting had a tarot card, a shell casing, and a note the said "Dear police: I am God" on it when all the previous shootings had NO clues left whatsoever.

I think this guy read the newspaper and is now mocking the psychologists. I don't know what his motive is (who does?), but i would have to guess that he just kinda doesn't care about the consequences and is just doing what he feels like doing. have no reason to believe this, but hey, whatever, right?

~kakkarot

Secret of Secrets

Interesting take, and you know what?  It makes sense.

fides quaerens intellectum

What I was told was that God hates tarot cards and sends anyone to hell who tries a divination method. I think that using the death card like that is a waste of a perfectly good tarot deck. There are spreads you can do with just the major arcana, but I have not heard of any with just the minor arcana. It is not the first time I have heard of someone leaving behind the death card with a note. That was a few years ago.

There was someone recently who tried to change their name officially to God. The request was turned down. Parents naming their children God might be allowed to?

What makes this serial killer so special?

I think the main thing that sets this guy apart is that this guy is killing random people, and quickly.  Normally a serial killer just goes after, say, Jews or prostitutes or whatever.  This guy kills people pumping gas or mowing their lawn, stuff we all do - so we all feel vulnerable.
Plus he seems awfully sharp to be able to avoid leaving much of any trace of himself behind.  Even the Unabomber had a sketch or two of him circulated about, and he was at large for many years.
Anyway, at the pace this guy is killing at, I'm sure he'll be caught soon (and I'm sure he knows it), but not before going out w/ a heck of a bang.  (I'm wondering if he hasn't rigged his van w/ explosives to kill whoever tries to arrest him?)

Hi all

Maybe this story should have been part of the gun debate thread we enjoyed so much. Another great illustration of why we shouldn't have guns. Especially ones that can kill people in great numbers (semi-autos & autos) or kill people from a distance (snipers rifles) without having to be seen by anyone. As much as they are fun to use (guns) & I have used them as well, it's the people that are going through a crisis of the mind that will ruin things for others & perpetuate the need in peoples minds to arm themselves in possible anticipation of an encounter. In turn perpetuating the ease for someone else to use them in a negative way when they are going through a bad time or tough period themselves.

You can say that if we didn't have guns, people would use other means, but most of the time, that will involve you getting very physical with the other person, potentially bringing about a situation where the killer could get injured or killed or be identified. Guns like these make it so easy to be impersonal about it & not even see or hear what you are doing to someone.

Kakkarot may be right & the killer is just playing with authorities & peoples fears. Then again he might have been watching that Dirt Harry movie about a sniper (scorpius I think the characters name was) who killed people from a tower by snipers rifle. Or another movie called something like "The Tower" or something. A more fitting & possibly accurate card to leave would have been "The Tower card" which truly reflects this persons actions of "anger,strife & ignorance". He obviously never read about tarot cards as he would know that it is what other cards the death card precedes or follows is what matters. On it's own the "death" card is actually a positive card & it's obvious the sniper is taking it as face value.

The "death" card represents the finishing of something, a new beginning, changes, the death of old habits, ways of life & the birth of hopefully more positive thoughts & actions. If the words were written on the card upside down, then it MAY have meant something, but on it's own & like that, illustrates that the sniper is a fairly ignorant sort of person, with a lot of built up angst.

Quoting CNN, CBS, Washington post, New york times, Associated press or Reuters is like being a real life character inside the movie "the matrix" & asking the men in suits what their opinion is about something. They will tell you the information in the way that they want you to see it, not so much the facts. In Australia, here we actually have a comedy show on T.V called "CNNN" which puts a comedic spin on the stories which come out of CNN. CNN is known in places outside the USA as a platform for misinformation & sensationalism.

I don't have anything against americans or america in general, it's not them, it's the same people as here in Australia that I'm against, the upper echelon who manipulates the greater population & politicians too, for their own ends.

Good journeys all, promote peace & understanding.

Mobius

The card in all likelihood is just the killer's way of creating a myth around himself (self-perceived) and of taunting the authorities. He's getting cocky and sure of himself.
The randomness of the killings isn't surprising to me. Some serial killer was bound to go for the chaotic approach. Maybe the act itself is meaningful to him and not any particular victim. Living a delusion?
The way events are unfolding he'll get too clever and nopnchalant of his actions and will get identified (they already have spotted a possilbe car).
Let's just hope no-one else has to die before he get caught.

2cents

jouni

Hey all!

That had a similar incident in the same area several years ago back in the 50s I believe. It may be just a copy cat thing. But have you noticed that he is going around D.C.? I think thats because he wouldnt get three blocks had he done it in the D.C. area itself.

I believe there to be more than one sniper and that they are part of a cult making ritual killings. The fact they are taking place in places such as Maryland and Virginia is, well, ya know.

Mobius

what a great comment , yeah, what about gun control? If you give a guy a gun then you need someone else to have a gun too to make sure that first guy doesn't use it. Now this is typical Rifle Association thinking, a justification for the First Ammendment for everyone to have a gun in their house.

What I think is that the DC sniper is not just one but several nutters who have jumped on the band wagon. You can just hear their thoughts when they watched TV that first night:

"What a great idea! I think I want to go out and do that too! I want to be on television!"

Then you have the terrorists who want to have a go too, and they get together and plan it properly, as good role models should, for the other nutters. Soon we have snipers all over the state, and country, who all think that this is a grand idea.

Astralc


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
www.shoal.net.au/~astralc
"The marriage of the ancient arts of astrology, taoism, tantra and the modern science of psychology."

Hi Astral

I would like to think there is nothing more to this event than a lunatic that is shooting people & needs to be caught. But suppose it IS something more sinister. When words like that are mentioned people become defensive of the authorities & governments & there is an almost inbuilt need to cringe at the thought of manipulation or the whole thing being a set up. IMO, for all we know, it IS just some idiot on a rampage & there is no need to look further into the case than that. But our history tells us to be aware that the superficial story is not always the correct one.

For one, the guy seems to be either military trained (if there is only one) or a successful competion rifle shooter. To get a kill shot on these people, first shot & no witnesses, seems to lend more to the theory the person could be military, or a special op's guy or swat or something. When no-one has been caught, regarding any horrendous crime, the people begin to get angry with police, further pressuring them & giving rise to the possibility of using a scapegoat/patsy/fall guy to take the blame & take the pressure off.

If I was a shareholder in one of the many gun & armament industries in America (& didn't have a conscience) I would be rubbing my hands in glee at the advertisement of terror & the increase of gun sales to come. The armaments industry is huge & definately in a good position to reap good returns if there is war with Iraq. Or if Americans are panicked into thinking they need to arm up. I'm not against the concept of the share market either, it's just that it's in the interest of armament companies, & the people who supply them (mines, smelters, petrochemicals, metal manufacturers) to have war & have unrest to the point where people need to resort to guns to resolve their differences.

The sniper is shooting random innocents, so seems more focused on creating terror & fear than avenging something done to him, such as killing fellow employees or bosses he had a gripe with. I hope they don't try to pin it on some Muslim, which would readily be accepted. But if it was/is a fundamentalist muslim, why shoot innocent people? What is there to gain from that? Why not political or business targets?

There is a new generation of weapons out that don't require you to be ovely bloody & a consumer of guns. But not available to the public. Weapons like HAARP & EM machines, biological & chemical weapons, that don't require you to be anywhere near your enemy. The only use for guns then is for the people against other people, but not the business elites. I bet there isn't gun,ammunition & liquor stores everywhere in the top 10% earning areas of the USA. Just like here in Australia.

Lets hope some schmuck is found & he is not a scapegoat.

Good journeys all

Mobius

First of all, about the gun thing, you know anyone could do the same thing, minus the long distance aspect of it, with a screw driver or with poison...it all depends on how it's done.  Besides, most guns which are not classified as "assault" weapons or "autos" are indeed hunting rifles which are made for killing from great distances.  Think about how many other individuals own a gun of the same caliber (.223 REM) and are not out sniping people.

Next thing, the shooter is not necessarily someone who has been trained or even competes as a shooter.  The .223 (5.556 x 45mm) travels at about 1800 fps, therefore as long as someone knows how to use it and can hold still, they can hit a target at long range.

Anyway, forget all the minutia and the fact that I am obviously "pro-gun", the main thing is that this individual is sick and needs to be stopped, arrested, tried and then hopefully killed.  Does anyone here live around that area?  Are there any new developments in the case?


fides quaerens intellectum

Hi PW

Your right, this individual needs to be stopped & he/she IS a very sick individual. I've shot plenty of rifles myself & ones with scopes too & I know I could easily hit someone from a distance with a rifle. But whether it would be a kill shot & only shooting once & scoring 7 out of 9 people from a long distance, is a different matter. He's obviously smart enough to realise that if he fires twice, someone will almost certainly make his position, so he makes the first shot count. He also knows the lay of the land & has probably scoped out these positions to shoot from months ago, to see what the escape route would be like & who would be likely to see him.

I wouldn't be surprised if he wears a maintenance workers uniform, possibly with a tool box too, to go unnoticed to the roof level of a building. As a person from the public or someone wearing office clothes could likely draw attention if they were seen going to the roof or a maintenance level of a building, as he could quite easily shoot through the louvres of a ventilation shaft.

PW, you are right too, that the majority of people with rifles out there are not out sniping people & I don't have anything against farmers or people on land owning them. I just don't see the point if you are a city dweller. And you are right also, that people can kill someone with a screwdriver, or poison, but these things bring with them the chance that the killer could be identified through DNA fingerprinting. All they would need is a bit of hair, saliva, blood or semen & the identity of the killer has been narrowed down significantly. Being able to kill from a distance (with a rifle) & with nothing to be able to identify the killer besides the bullet, leaves a very broad base in which to profile the killer & trying to find scraps of DNA in a 200m radius would be pointless.

Lets hope he trips & shoots himself, cya's.

Mobius

Hi Folks !

Hopefully the sniper will be caught very soon, it must be terrible at the moment over in DC.

regarding Mobius' last point....

"Being able to kill from a distance (with a rifle) & with nothing to be able to identify the killer besides the bullet, leaves a very broad base in which to profile the killer & trying to find scraps of DNA in a 200m radius would be pointless."

....If rifle and bullett identifiers were introduced (e.g. tag every rifle / bullett with an indelible bar code), then an "audit trail" would be established.

Can anyone explain why the NRA is strongly opposed to such a scheme ?
Mark

One highly skilled remote viewer should be set on the task of finding this lost mind...  they´re putting up planes to spot him I heard today, that´ll not result much I´m afraid, but of course actions has to be taken....

 Be well //Rick

- Your focus determines your reality -

The latest victim was a woman who just recovered from cancer and her and her husband had bought them a house and they went shopping at home depot to buy some things to stock it.  As they were loading the car in front of the store, there was one shot.  It was a head shot.  They 'think' they have a witness..  Hopefully the media is smart enought to keep his identity secret and not let that leak.

This person is an excellent shot..  I hope whoever does the eventual arrest takes him/her alive for questioning and does not get gung-ho.. I think however many policeman will find that hard to do, but I think getting the person alive is important.

My husband's sister works very very close to where this is taking place.  We have been very worried but she works in a pretty protected enviroment so she is probably safe.

I hope they get them/him/her soon.. It's gotten where my husband and are leary of the news every morning now when we turn CNN on.  

Sincerely,
Blossom

Mobius --

Hey, if you guys enjoyed the gun discussion so much, why did you go away?  -- Just kidding.  

Gosh, the inputs seem a lot more tolerant of "conspiritorial" ideas than when I last was able to view the buzz.  I was amazed to hear so many callers getting through on the monopolistic, bottle-necked, Coast-To-Coast overnight radio talk show ( www.artbell.com ) with "shocking" and "disturbing" ideas about government complicity in this latest novelistic horror movie, the "One-Shot-One-Kill" sniper murderer.

Is it possible to manufacture a human "lethal weapon"?  Whether it was done at the sponsorship of the firearms manufacturers, Al Caida, Iraqi Republican Guard (the last two heavily determined by the CIA), or an Hegelian scam to FURTHER the strictures of an ALREADY gun-controlled DC; or maybe just an incredibly frosty and focused, self-made, narcissistic S.O.B. stumbling into the agendas of those entities...it seems really to be cutting into the psyches of many many folks.  The demographic cross-section of victims is remarkable.  The location in the "DC area" where the national government is debating about war with Iraq at this particular time: again, remarkable.  I heard the radio host George Noory comment about the "message" in the victim statistics so far: 9 killed, 2 wounded seriously -- "9-1-1."  This reminds me of the "DC area" murder investigation of Shandra Levi's death last year before September one-one.  There's still no resolution to that crime -- even a scapegoat.  Jean-Benet Ramsey's murder case is still unsolved too.  IF THIS ISN'T PSY-OPS, THEIR TAKING NOTES LIKE CRAZY.

Mobius --

Hey, if you guys enjoyed the gun discussion so much, why did you go away?  -- Just kidding.  

Gosh, the inputs seem a lot more tolerant of "conspiritorial" ideas than when I last was able to view the buzz.  I was amazed to hear so many callers getting through on the monopolistic, bottle-necked, Coast-To-Coast overnight radio talk show ( www.artbell.com ) with "shocking" and "disturbing" ideas about government complicity in this latest novelistic horror movie, the "One-Shot-One-Kill" sniper murderer.

Is it possible to manufacture a human "lethal weapon"?  Whether it was done at the sponsorship of the firearms manufacturers, Al Qaida, Iraqi Republican Guard (the last two heavily determined by the CIA), or an Hegelian scam to FURTHER the strictures of an ALREADY gun-controlled DC; or maybe just an incredibly frosty and focused, self-made, narcissistic S.O.B. stumbling into the agendas of those entities...it seems really to be cutting into the psyches of many many folks.  The demographic cross-section of victims is remarkable.  The location in the "DC area" where the national government is debating about war with Iraq at this particular time: again, remarkable.  I heard the radio host George Noory comment about the "message" in the victim statistics so far: 9 killed, 2 wounded seriously -- "9-1-1."  This reminds me of the "DC area" murder investigation of Shandra Levi's death last year before September one-one.  There's still no resolution to that crime -- even a scapegoat.  Jean-Benet Ramsey's murder case is still unsolved too.  IF THIS ISN'T PSY-OPS, THEIR TAKING NOTES LIKE CRAZY.

I personally don't think our government or any other government at this time has a human lethal weapon..  and I certainly don't think the CIA has anything to do with killing innocents in this country where I live in such a randomized way..  For what purpose would that serve?  

Radio shows are there and remain in existance for ratings only and keep their ratings high by stirring people up...

I think the only reason the shooter did not have 100% kill is because of the movement of the victims.  

I will be so glad when he messes up and is caught..  My husband just wishes he would stop whether he gets caught or not..  He believes the value of the human life is more important than the punishment of this particular crime.. I personally don't think he is going to stop.  He/she obviously doesn't care about his victims race, age, or sex..  Children are as much at risk as anyone else.  That feels me with absolute dread.  

At times like this, I am so glad I live in a tiny tiny little town in the mountains where all strangers are noticed.  The people still smile at each other when they meet on the street..  Life is simple here and beautiful to wake up to.

One of my biggest fears right now is my 20year old son..  He is joining the military right as we are on the brink of war.  He is a good son and I hope he doesn't choose to be a hero.

Sincerely,
Blossom

 

Blossom --

Good, decent people, raised with love, support, patience, and positive values find evil to be literally incomprehensible -- even invisible.  I recently read People of the Lie by Dr. M. Scott Peck.  This is a book about the nature of human evil.  He wrote in the foreword that his famous first book The Road Less Traveled was a "nice book," but that this book was definitely not a nice book.  Truly evil people are obsessed about always appearing good and harmless -- even colorless and bland -- most importantly to themselves.  Their disguises are perfect -- even preferring "do-gooder" type professions.  It may only be the inexplicable feeling of revulsion that pushes at one's stomach when being approached by them that may give you a tip-off.  But if one worries about perhaps being evil oneself, then one probably is not.  If one never has a doubt about being in the right at all times...well, does one feel that queasy pressure in the stomach?  How does willy Cheney's image, for example, affect one, if at all?  
                                                 *************
THIS JUST IN!!! --
Nevada (and Arizona too I think) are considering a proposition in the up-coming elections to legalize medical marijuana and the private posession of under 3 ounces.  The Feds are furious that these propositions might actually pass.  OK, just last month in Reno a motorcycle policeman was struckt and killed by a hit-and-run driver.  It has just been announced on the news that a young woman has been arrested as the suspected hit-and-run driver.  IT IS STATED THAT SHE WAS APPARENTLY HIGH ON MARIJUANA WHEN SHE COMMITTED THE SLAUGHTER.  The election is just a couple of weeks away.  But our government would never -- do you think? -- no no no no no.

I guess I have never really known an evil person then..  I don't think I have ever felt that..  Wait, one time along time ago..  I worked in a convenience store for about 3 months on the night shift..  I was about 25 then or so.. But one night two people came in and they had satanic rings on and black robes and were obviously black magic people.  My heart started pounding very rapid and I had trouble breathing..  I felt literly like I was in a daze.  But I continued what I was doing as they paid for their items, but I got the impression that they knew how they were affecting me..  I know the feeling you are speaking of..  It's nearly like a physical thing.  Is this what you mean?  That is the only example I can use of something that felt really really evil to me..  

As far as marijuana:  I personally don't feel anything that changes our perspective of reality should be legalized.  And in the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, that seems really two-faced to me..  They give it for pain they would say, but at the same time, it causes other medical problems..lung problems from the tar which in turn could cause lung cancer and believe it or not, at a much faster rate than cigarettes.  It stays in the brain [without someone feeling high from it] for a long long time.  THC is a dangerous thing.. The memory loss associated with it doesn't come back.  It causes permanent damage.  

But yes, I think our government will eventually legalize it in spite of potential health risks to people..  Why do I think that???  Because they are greedy and it will be a taxable item and make them money.. like cigarettes and like alcohol.. Everyone knows when they smoke or drink that there are viable health results involved in their consumption. I think however in legalizing it minors will continue to use it, just like they drink now and just like they purchase cigrettes..  The only way to rid our society of drugs and alcohol is to quit allowing them to be grown, as in tobacco and shut down the alcohol plants and then have stiffer penalites for it..  It would however cause such a major impact in employment world wide and not just in the us, as these things are big business, that this would never happen..  

It is all about greed....  and that's why marijuana, in my opinion, is next on the list.. for tax money.. It will sit beside cigarettes and alcohol..

Sincerely,
Blossom  

One more thing:  I am not some do-gooder and don't want to give that impression.  I just feel the long term ramifications of legalization outweigh any short term good from doing this for whatever reasons legalization would be justified for.. But the government has it's own value system and live in a world all their own and of their own making..  I just don't understand how they can legalize something AGAIN that is bad for the people when they say they are for the people?

I think real progress is made by taking a step backwards at times .. It gives a broader perspective of any issue.

Wooo, Blossom, I really enjoy your comments -- very refreshing.

The sense of confusion and disorientation in the presence of evil is exactly as Scotty Peck describes it.  His perspective is that evil people are essentially terrified to their depths and react by erecting an all powerful narcissism which must be made to work both on the world of reality AND upon themselves simultaneously.  That seems to beg an external power (diabolical) to modulate that two-way, synchronized deception (lie).  There is no atrocity that an utterly terrified soul may commit that is as terrible as the inner terror that they feel they can never escape.  Peck calls them the sickest of the sick, and really the most pitiable -- probably only accessible with the most determined spirit of love.

I favor people being able to grow their own fruit and turning some of it into wine or cider.  I was a beekeeper as a kid, and among all the products that those wonderful little animals can provide is of course honey, some of  which can be delivered into mead.  Just so hemp, a very evolved plant entity, may be raised to flourish in miriads of ways by the honest gardener and farmer.  George Washinton was the foremost sponsor of disseminating hemp far and wide, and eased his own bones by contemplating the sunset from the porch of Mt. Vernon puffing on a pipe full of "hemp crowns."

Do some investigation into the Bush and "Windsor" families who amassed fortunes in the opium and related drug trades up to the present day.  "Dubya" okayed the re-introduction of poppy farming into Afghanistan to aid their (and his family's) fortunes in the wake of the recent war there.  The D.E.A. is a trade control entity set-up to "bust" the free enterprize "cowboy" enterloper's cutting in on the "company business."

ALL governments have targeted ETOH (ethyl alcohol) for taxation.  George Washington did so and provoked the West Pennsylvania "Whiskey Rebellion" by farmers who deeply objected to the naked greed of the new Continental central government.

Alcohol...tobacco...firearms: it has it's own agency made up largely of thuggish wash-outs from other police entities.  Substances which change moods include all the Earth.  Thoughts and ideas change perspectives and conceptual energy flows.  Hemp tends to support individualistic and libertarian styles of thought, e.g. Victor Hugo...and a great number of the American Founding Fathers, by evidence.  

The Founding Farhers warned us that government easily becomes a narcissistic (evil) beast, and should never be deferred to as a father, mother, or benign guardian.  "It is error alone which needs the support of government.  Truth can stand by itself." -- Thomas Jefferson.

All the discussion about banning this and outlawing that NEVER includes provisos about insuring that the people and resources dubbed "government" will ITSELF be "governed."

Example: nearly EVERYONE now has accepted that the "Gulf of Tonkin" event, which cleared the way for the vast escalation of the American war in Vietnam, was a scam -- a manufactured deceit.  "Government" did that.  A friend died in that war.  Too bad?  What will "government" NOT eventually do?  How long has "The War on Drugs" been in business?  

Now we are witnessing a war on "evil" firearms.  We need to tag, chip, and inventory EVERY gun out there.  But if we trust "daddy" government, why even keep private guns?  Why not save ourselves from all the DC-style snipers, etc. by CONFISCATING and banning all guns (but the Gulf-of-Tonkin-conjuring sick beings' guns, that is).  "Power grows from the barrel of a gun" -- Mao.  If "government" has all the guns, "government" has all the power -- absolute power.  "Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  THAT'S what government has to gain from a DC shooter.  Yet if we do not even blink at the idea that elements within governments can indeed contract heinous acts against us, they've already won.

I hope not to offend or step on any toes, but here goes.
Bar code on guns.......they would be "registered" to whomever bought them. If stolen and used, how to prove it wasn't you? As well as invasion of privacy. I think the whole thing is going way overboard.
Legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.....have you ever seen someone who is terminally ill and in great pain? First, after a while pain meds stop working and just dull your senses, not the pain, and greater ammounts would result in overdose and death. Second, if a person is terminally ill, they are dying so why are you worried about the state of their lungs and their memory? That seems to me a moot point. I know legalizing it for medicinal purposes would be opening the door for further legalization, but after being around terminally ill people and what they go through, it's worth the risk.
Our government being capable of wrong doing to further it's own ends and agenda......of course it is capable. I do not believe for a minute this war is on "terrorism". Their is too much oil to be had in Iraq. And who do you think put Saddam in power in the first place.....and where do you think the training and supplies for all his weapons (both nuclear and biological) came from? The good ol' USA. I do agree, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If our president gets everything he is asking for from congress, he will have what our founding fathers warned against. I am sorry, I have just seen too many things over the years to ever trust our government to be for the people anymore. My husband spent quite a few years in the military and was stationed both here and over seas.....you would be surprised at what can be done to make a human killing machine. I do not buy into all the conspiracies though either....I try to think for myself and go by what I have seen and experienced.
I will get off my soapbox now. I hope and pray they find the sniper soon. No matter what their reason for doing this, it is a terrible thing and should be stopped.


Dance to the music of your dreams, enjoy the steps along the way and keep smiling!

I reckon that it is not the work of a serial killer, they usually want to know just how good they are and enjoy watching their affects on TV. For them it is an ego trip as well as a release of their internal tension. They make mistakes and rarely use accomplices like a driver.

But if it were hired killers, paid for by terrorists (or the CIA, NRA) then it could be professional hitmen. If so it will be far more difficult to find them.

If it were terrorists, then they will make mistakes, devotees to a spiritual belief system I don't think have the professional approach that a hitman has, they will be caught.

But then again, are we sure it is a 'him'? Could it be 'catwoman'?

Astralc


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
www.shoal.net.au/~astralc
"The marriage of the ancient arts of astrology, taoism, tantra and the modern science of psychology."

Hey guys

Koshka, hey me no run away from gun debate. I had a bit of backup there in the gun debate, but the majority of people posting were pro gun (and american I might add), not surprising since the USA is the biggest producer & exporter of guns & the people who have the major shareholding in these armament businesses also have the major shareholding of CNN,Washington Post & New york times, so the information that gets broadcasted corresponds with the shareholder interest of these armament companies.

So it's no surprise that CNN broadcasts a very jingoistic,patriotic stance on "THE WAR ON TERROR". The more the american public are convinced to bay for blood, revenge, stop the terror, secure peace or whatever chest beating stuff they come up with, the more the gun sales go up & the wealthier these people who started it all in the first place, get. In these days of corporate collapses & unattainable profit rates, how do you think armament companies improve their bottom line & turn over? It's not like banks, where they just close down a few branches, sack employees & run some add campaigns that portray bankers as part of your family. Gun companies can't exactly do that. So how do you increase the bottom line of armament company & convince people they need more of your product?hmmmmmm

If the DC sniper was an Al Quada or Saddam goon, why would they target civilians? Why not political or business targets? that would really make a difference for them?

Blossom you are probably right for all we know, that your government ISN'T responsible for the Dc sniper. If it WAS some inside government setup, it would be highly unlikely any that ANY politicians would know about it. Our governments are set up so that everyone competes against each other & information is not available between each department.

WHY HAS MARIJUANA COME UP IN THIS DISCUSSION????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.................................................I like it,hehe.

Another product that has been manipulated & shut out because of big business. Anyone ever seen the documentary "The Billion dollar crop"? For thousands of years Hemp was used for sails, rope, paper, clothing, even the American flag & was far superior to other products like cotton & nylon. Marijuana as a drug has been used even longer than it's other material purposes. There has never been a recorded death with people overdosing on marijuana. Yet people somehow decide that alchohol & ciggarettes are allright. I'm sure everyone in here knows or has heard of someone dying from alchohol poisoning, choking on their own vomit.

The younger members in here might not realise it but alchohol was a banned substance in the early 1900's in America. The days of prohibition gave rise to people like Al Capone & underworld bootlegging gangs. Mr Annslinger was given the job of demonising alchohol in the publics minds & destroying underground brewers. When the government realised that so many of the public were ignoring their warnings & drinking anyway & the gangs had got so powerful they were buying politicians & judges, they had to legalise it, so they could at least make money from it themselves, instead of all the money going into gangsters hands.

When Mr Annslinger realised his whole department & he himself would soon be out of a job, he quickly moved his attention to something else that he could demonise & help perpetuate his lifestyle. All of a sudden, the product that was so useful to the american public (hemp) was determined to be "evil".

Fast forward to the present & you can see that it is NOT the consuming of marijuana the government is worried about, it's appeasing big business that they are worried about. There are many people that stand to lose if Hemp is allowed to be used again as product. The alchohol industry doesn't exactly want a competitor. Neither does the cotton, nylon industry & the petrochemical industries that supply fertilisers, pesticides,herbicides etc all of which Hemp needs very little of. The timber industry doesn't want people to know that our daily paper needs can be met by this fast growing annual crop, instead of their 10 -20 year old trees they cut down.

Funny how heroin & Opium is so demonised also (BTW I don't advocate their use), but if it's called "Morphine", "Codeine" or "Oxycontin" it's allright. Now that afghanistan has been brought under US control, the levels of opium production have gone through the roof. That was handy wasn't it? that the guy who was scapegoated in 911 & CIA trained, Osama, happened to be in a country that was/is the largest producer of opium in the world. Now big business has a monopoly on that product, it only leaves oil & cocaine as the next biggest business targets, so after the oil has been secured & the american economy is saved, watch out Columbia.

Blossom, what is "reality" anyway? And isn't just being on this site a deviation from what mainstream people class as "reality"? Does that mean you would disagree with the use of alchohol or anti-depressants? After all, they change your perspective on reality don't they? Why do americans advocate so much the right to own guns & call that liberty, but sneer at others desire to have liberty & choose to do the things in life they want?

Btw all, Michael Moore has made a movie soon to be released (maybe allready released) called something like "........Columbine", promises to be very controversial & get right up the nose of the political & business elites of america. It's the side of things Bush & big business don't want you to see & from the sounds of things, most viewers leave the cinema pretty ticked of with politicians & big business.

Good journeys all

Mobius

Hey, Mobius, you got da vinegar.  What I said about the gun thing being a "discussion" instead of a "debate" has to do with my own doubts about all these things.  There was no more non-violent group than the ancient Essenes, for example.  They carried a small wooden spade in their belts, and long white caftans for use when they would answer nature's call.  They would dig a small pit in the sand and lay their hem all about so as not to pollute the eye of the sun: the sky was the tent of the Holy of Holies.  Yet their is an abundance of evidence that the main defenders of Masada were members of the Essene brotherhood.

You have let fall a couple of references to "Americans" and guns.  As I can read it, your point would seem to be that Americans are brainwashed and manipulated by and for the profit of the firearms manufacturers.  An interesting point.  I would agree: America is a brainwashed and manipulated society.  Smith and Wesson was the foremost vendor of personal firearms until what, PeacefulWarrior, a few years ago?  The British had purchased S&W a decade or more ago.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms coerced S&W into declaring that purchasers of S&W products really did not OWN those pieces, but had them on perpetual lease, subject to mandatory recall for refitting with IDs or "safety" devices as they were developed.  Gun buyers organized a boycott of S&W, driving them from #1 to #50 or something in market ranking.  Gun manufacturers are being pressured by governments everywhere to institute ID and disabling devices which gun savy civilians read as de facto and incremental civilian gun confiscation.  The profits for gun manufacturers has always been in war contracts.  Big war contracts now are being awarded to technology which disables civilian guns and ammunition, perfects military armor, night vision, "non-lethal" weaponry, electronic surveillance, etc. -- all the stuff that's out of the economic reach and interest of the ordinary populace.  Yet again, "ordinary" ordinance in the hands of millions of households is a strategically threatening situation to any potential military occupational force.  And that IS a scenario for some factors in government.  

I have read comments from Australia, U.K., Finland, Austria...suspicious of the U.S. government.  I am a new member, but I cannot recall many comments regarding governments other than the U.S. as subjects of suspicion.  Is it that these governments are not effectual -- that what they do does not matter?  The nation of Iraq has the population and gross national product about equal to the state of Kentucky in the U.S., for example.  Australia is generating a lot of the new generation of first rank movie stars.  There isn't much criticism or suspicion of these other governments being expressed by their citizens it seems.  Trashcan crude: Americans HAVE a tradition of private gun ownership (eroding), and they DARE to question their government.  The first national flag was a rattlesnake which spoke: "Don't Tread On ME."  By "Tread" one may read: chip, mark, inbed, invoice, implant, clone, irradiate....  "Don't."

No government in the world allows marijuana to be "legal."  Some places are more "liberal" than others about tolerating flaunting of the law, but it's still in chains BECAUSE it's use undermines groveling to authority.  Have you seen the film "Men With Guns?"

I like Michael Moore.  His new film seems to be anti-gun.  I would like to see what he has to say.  

There is a difference between guns in the belt and guns in the hand.  Intent.  Capability.  The free individual has the capability of pulling the gun, but the presence to leave it in.  This DC PsyOps blood theatre is meant to obliterate confidence in the presence and inalienability of the individual, and stampede the public into demanding what the Police State planners already have waiting in the wings: block by block surveillance camers, implanted weapons "owned" by implanted citizen-subjects, with indexed finances and...souls.

Do they have something in mind so horrible that they must see the confiscation of a kid's 22, or even a "Wrist-Rocket" sling-shot as they have in Australia?  Task the search engine for images in the mural of the Denver International Airport for a clue.  Perhaps just (some) Americans wonder about this.

Mobius and Koshka

great discussion, good input. I might add that there has been no debate whatsoever in the media about gun control in the US, why is that? When we had the Martin Bryant masscre in 1996 it was everywhere. You couldn't pick up a paper without reading about gun control.

Why has the Amercian public allowed the censorship of its rights to an existance free of the threat of being gunned down by a punk who just went out and bought himself a gun that afternoon? This is plain crazy, guns are a privalage not a right. And for the average American to fear being popped off by an angry motorist for cutting across in front of him on the street must be a violation of their personal rights too.

Gun control for the yanks, take money off the gun manufacturers and put it into welfare for the starving street sleepers in New York where it is needed.

Astralc


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
www.shoal.net.au/~astralc
"The marriage of the ancient arts of astrology, taoism, tantra and the modern science of psychology."

Hi Koshka and others ! nice to see this discussion has opened again, unfortunately under the current sad climate.

just a couple of points :
Koshka :
"I have read comments from Australia, U.K., Finland, Austria...suspicious of the U.S. government. I am a new member, but I cannot recall many comments regarding governments other than the U.S. as subjects of suspicion. Is it that these governments are not effectual -- that what they do does not matter? "

Yes, most comments do appear to be suspicious of the US govt. I genuinely believe that this is because the US govt's foreign policy, allied with their financial clout, affects too many other nations and individuals, often in ways that those nations \ individuals would never have wished for.

E.g. the US bombing dams in N Korea in 1954, resulting in the flooding of rice fields and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people  through starvation. A blatant war crime.

Unfortunately, we could go on and on and on and on with examples like the one above (OK the above is by far the worst instance), where the US has "intervened" and caused misery; this is the reason why MOST OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD harbour suspicion over US govt motives.


Sorry.....back to the gun discussion. I heard a comment on the radio last night, which surely ISN'T TRUE...just thought I'd share it with you guys anyway.....here goes...

The DC sniper is a us govt operation, designed to facilitate gun control in the US....the reason ? To prevent Americans invoking the Patriot act, which allows them to overthrow their govt by force if they feel that their govt is not acting according to their wishes. What with the US / UK about to invade Iraq against their citizen's wishes, the US govt will takes steps to secure themselves.

All very ridiculous.

Clandestino, what you heard on the radio I read a few days back at http://www.rense.com/general30/sdnip.htm - well it relates to what you heard anyways...  it being a US government sniper TEAM..  if this would be true, it can´t be the "official" gov., but you never know what the shadow government is up to...  and believe me, there IS a shadow government..

Oh and Daniel, what you said on the first post uner this topic; "Can you believe this? It's horrible and has to be stopped."
 Sure I can believe this, in fact I do not understand why things like this happens more often, considering humanity as a species accept for example thousands of children EACH day starving to death, thousands of dogs a day being ´skinned´ ALIVE in front of their absolutely terrified friends lying on each other in a small cage a few meters away waiting for their turn, as part of the completely unneeded fur industry etc. etc.
  You are right, the DC killing is terrible and has to be stopped - but there are far crueler ´things´ going on at a daily basis (like the ones I mentioned)  that needs to even more (if you can use the word more in this context) be stopped...  
 
         Be well //Rikard

- Your focus determines your reality -

Qui-Gon, Clandestino...

HBO produced a documentary a number of years ago about the uglier aspects of culturally condoned (humanly unfelt) cruelty to animals.  An ordinary day at work in a South China restaurant: a worker goes out and clubs one of the numerous stray cats running the streets -- a fluffy white female.  Back at the kitchen the dazed cat (the clubbing didn't kill her) is skinned of her fluffy coat and tossed into a huge cauldron of boiling hot water.  We can clearly see her sinking slowly, trying to paddle to the surface, her mouth opening for breath or a scream, but only an air bubble escapes.  She wasn't worth even a second, merciful club stroke.  These are "little," working people who did this that day -- and every day before and since.

What about the "big" people: the Rothschildes, Rockefellers, Warburgs, etc.?  There is a website called (I think) www.sauductionofwashington.org -- or the organization is called "The Sauduction of Washington" ("Sauduction" after Saudi Arabia).  Families who have lost children, fathers, uncles...to State Department and Department of Justice protected abduction by the Saudis, formed this organization.  The Saudi Royal Family: fond friends of George Bush.  Children as sexual bon bons for the rich trash of the World....  American veterans as status symbol slaves for exhibition.... (Other news stories about modern slavery, ritual atrocities, missing children, engineered violence...  are archived at www.infowars.com .)

Clandestino, the "USA Patriot Act" has been attacked by civil liberty groups of both the Left and Right in this country as an encyclopedic codex of tyranny.  The Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights already established Americans' obligation to throw off tyranny when it becomes intolerable and lethal.  This Act which was voted in WITHOUT THE CONGRESS BEING ALLOWED TO READ IT (can you believe THAT!?).

I haven't checked out the new book Children of the Matrix yet.  Where are our children going?  Why are so many of them becoming autistic...?

I'm running short of time right now.  Let me put it this way about guns.  Let the government keep us "safe" by keeping all the nasty guns from the mob (us).  Let everyone know the nature of these "protectors" -- that's all.  Know the ENTIRE extent, depth...anatomy and physiology of the Evil you're leaving yourself naked to.  It will not buy you peace or security.  "How humble should a person be?" someone once asked Gandhi. " More humble than the dust," answered Gandhi, "for even the dust can be crushed beneath the wheel of the cart."  Non-violence meant cracked heads, prison, and worse for those fighters in Gandhi's army.  They knew what they were taking on, and agreed to the crusade -- the sacrifice.  So far, the proponents of gun control don't believe that they'll be called upon to sacrifice anything.  They seem to think it's all win -- all free -- all easy.      

Koshka> It is horrific what is going on with the animals (and no, not only the animals) in the world...  I made myself - forced myself even though I knew I would have nightmares about it - watch a documentary showing how the animals are being treated in Asia, so I would know....  it makes it hard for me to sleep sometimes, and it makes me just cry when I think of it...  and although I am a non-violent person I really don´t know if I would be capable of NOT killing someone treating an animal (same for a person of course, but they usually aren´t skinned/cooked alive) like this in front of me.

  I feel like a cowardly egotripped poor bastard really, I mean going on living my life while these things occur globally every single day, and I often think to myself to give it all up to be able to stop it, but the thing is I do not know where to start, after all words are not enough....  although I am not powerless, I feel that way when it comes this...   just think if we all decided to live in peace with each other, respecting all beings from all walks of life, accepting one another for whoever we choose to be and learning to appreciate the full diversity of life.....  so simple, yet it feels so "impossible" here on earthy..

- Your focus determines your reality -

Qui-Gon --

I guess that's where it starts: tears.  I have mentioned the psychiatrist and writer (really a revolutionary), Dr. M. Scott ("Scotty") Peck before.  My favorite book of his -- favorite because I experienced what he proposed -- is The Different Drum: The Creation of True Community -- The First Step to World Peace.

Peck was an Army psychiatrist working in the Pentagon during the latter part of the Vietnam diabolism.  He was assigned to experience and research ALL forms of the "encounter group" (e.g., Esalen Institute at Big Sur), AA, transformational groups, churches, dojos....  This was the time of "Acid Tests," communes, and "happenings," etc.  Perhaps the Army thought it could ID and exploit whatever "magic" these groups were able to produce.  Scotty Peck, however, discovered his own spirituality after attending the whole plethora of human gatherings.  In this book he explains the 4 phases that EVERY group cycles through in arriving at a sacred place called
(True) Community.  ("Any organization which calls itself a 'community,'
probably isn't," writes Peck.)

I discovered that a fellow worker was a fan of J. Krishnamurti (Peck quotes Krishnamurti in Drum).  I knew that a "Community Building Workshop" was being held at Santa Maria, California, close to Santa Barbara and Ojai.  We agreed to visit Krishnamurti's home (and site of his devastating Enlightenment Experience some 60 years earlier), and participate in the two-day, 16-hour workshop in Santa Maria as well.

We visited the old ranch, headquarters now for the Krishnamurti Foundation of America and the Oak Grove School he started there.  Being inside that house and on the grounds, we both experienced the energy like a super hyperbaric chamber -- very palpable.  The next morning back in Santa Maria we began the community experience work.

Peck says that the first phase of a group is the superficially polite, falsely civil so-called "community,"  like a cocktail party.  About 25 diverse people gather in a circle of chairs.  Sooner or later, someone will step on someone else's ideological toes, and things froth up into a healthy, beautiful chaos: the second phase.  

Everyone tries to "convert and heal" everyone else.  As the process whirls along, however, the reality dawns on one and then another that no one is going to adopt anyone else's version of truth, homeostasis, or "heaking."  Enter third phase: "Emptiness."  Profound quiet.  

This phase is sometimes so un-nerving that people elect to try and return to Chaos, or demand that the facilitator take control, establish a plan, organize action -- anything.  A dictator strongman may indeed establish laws, but True Community cannot appear out of tyranny that way.  The group individuals must dwell stoicly with this emptying, wilderness experience.

Something mystical begins to come about, like a dawning, or the descending of the Holy Spirit.  True Community.  Peck says that a group at this point constitutes the most intelligent creature on the face of the planet.   Any problem placed in its midst will be solved easily.

When our group began bobbing into True Community Consciousness at about 10 o'clock the second morning, where no one is a leader and ALL are leaders, I experienced dazzling and infinitely detailed architectural visions EACH time I even blinked -- a whole different vision for each blink of my eyes!  It was a big juicy bite of world piece right there in my mouth and mind.  If the group had so decided, we could have absolutely laid hands on someone and healed them....  Nowadays I hear that a third day has been added to allow the Community to utilize its coherent, authentic, loving intelligence on what it might.

There's more to say, but I'll leave it there for now.

To add --

Peck wrote that the phases of Community Building DO resemble Dr. Kubler-Ross' stages for dealing with death.  First sage: Denial.  Second stage: Anger.  Third stage: Depression.  Fourth stage: Acceptance.

Peck says that part of America's sin is it's refusal to admit Emptiness/Depression.  It has never faced nor accepted defeat in Vietnam, for example.  Instead, it has scape-goated, then abandoned veterans of that era, both soldiers and counter-culture activists.  It has abandoned the veterans of the first Gulf War.  

No debates about gun control, or any of the other critical issues which are screaming for attention like so many starving orphans?  That's Denial, boys and girls.  America is told (covertly) that it is a hopeless, chronic bi-polar patient.  It is bounced and shaken between the poles of false and silly pseudo community (Denial), and terror and Chaos (Anger), as if these are all there is to life.  But people ARE hungry for the truth.  Tears and Depression?  The social shrinks prescribe proto-psychotic drugs such as Prozac to maintain one in the drift between Denial and Anger.  The DC Sniper.

Shall we demand tyranny to "save" us from Emptiness?  Shall we face our sins, on the other hand?  Interesting times.

Now that the sniper is caught everyone seems to have already lost interest.  Who would have guessed?  It makes sense now though, right?

I'd like to hear what people think about the individual and about how this is going to affect or not affect us as a society.
D

fides quaerens intellectum

"I'd like to hear what people think about the individual and about how this is going to affect or not affect us as a society."

I obviously don´t know the individuals but I know one thing and that is they´re angry at the world...  It´s one hell of a wicked way of showing it though.  
Is it going to change us?  I think not, afterall things just as ´evil´ occur all around the globe, at a dialy basis, only this event was one of those that made more people afraid than ´normal´ and draw big-time media attention....
... tomorrow or the day after there will be another event that will occupy peoples mind...  and sadly it probably won´t be of a positive kind, since media seem extremly relluctant to cover all the good going on......

     Have a nice day //Rick


- Your focus determines your reality -

i think what these people did is absolutly disgusting and to kill children ! sometimes I despair. However one of the more chilling factors is that it shows how easy it is to do and that scares me more than anything.

                 lysear

The following news you've all probably seen already, but what do you think?  Can you believe this?  It's horrible and has to be stopped.  
Oh yeah, and what do you make of the Tarot card he left (death)?

Man shot and killed at Virginia gas station
Friday morning 'emergency situation' on I-95
Friday, October 11, 2002 Posted: 11:23 AM EDT (1523 GMT)


Police inspected vehicles and questioned motorists Friday on I-95 just south of Washington.  
 
 SUSPECT INFORMATION:
Tip line:
888-324-9800
$350,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people involved in the shootings.
Reward contribution line:
240-777-8970

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suspect vehicle:
White van, possibly an Isuzu or a Mitsubishi, with black lettering on the side.



 

MANASSAS, Virginia (CNN) -- A man was shot and killed at a gas station near Fredericksburg, Virginia, Friday morning. Police responded by launching a manhunt on Interstate 95, closing exits and stopping vehicles.

The man was killed at an Exxon gas station on U.S. Route 1 in Spotsylvania County, in the area of Massaponax, Exit 126 on I-95, about 9:30 a.m., according to Virginia state police and county police.

It was not known whether the killling was related to the recent Washington-area sniper shootings that have killed seven people and wounded two others.

Three of the sniper shootings targeted people filling their cars at gas stations.

State police are looking for a white Chevrolet Astro-type minivan with ladders on top. The task force investigating the sniper shootings is sending investigators to the scene.

Closer to Washington, in Alexandria, Virginia, police reported making a traffic stop of a person in a white van, and officers have surrounded the van.

FBI calls for help
Meanwhile, an FBI team is developing a "graphic aid" to be released to the public that police hope will help capture the elusive sniper or snipers.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said investigators have received "very helpful" information from witnesses as the hunt for the shooter widens, but gave no hint that authorities are close to bringing the shootings in the Washington D.C.-area to an end.

"We're very hopeful that the special projects unit will have that information ready," Moose said. "We'll have that aid as soon as possible and then get it out."

Fear throughout the district has led schools to place restrictions on outdoor and extracurricular activities.

The sniper case has baffled and tested investigators, but FBI Special Agent Gary Bald praised the public input.

"We do have information that is very helpful to us. It's not as much information as we would like to have and we have appealed to the public. I'm very confident that there are people that have observed the shooter or shooters and that they -- some of whom we've heard from, not necessarily the people that have given us complete descriptions, but we have the information from citizens," Bald said.

Bald urged witnesses to come forward.

"I'd like to encourage the people that are out there that, I believe, have seen the shooters, perhaps in his vehicle, in their vehicle," Bald said. "We are interested in the information. We are not interested in the individual's identity. And I would like to encourage the citizens to contact us as they have."

Also, Bald was asked about the profile investigators are developing of the sniper. He said investigators have received "significant information" from witnesses and crime scenes. "I don't want to comment specifically on the profile, but it has been of assistance." (Full story)

Moose also said "people are talking to us" and urged potential witnesses to contact authorities if they think they have a viable tip.

"People need to be open-minded in what they saw and what they think they know," Moose said. (Moose profile)

In the latest shooting, ballistics evidence confirmed a man killed Wednesday night at a gas station in Manassas, Virginia, was the latest victim. Police were scouring the area for clues, talking to witnesses and trying to gather surveillance video from the filling station where the killing took place.

"As a result of the autopsy, ballistics evidence has linked these cases," said Prince William County Police Chief Charles Deane.

Forensics evidence, including ballistics tests on the bullets, have shown that each of the nine victims, seven of whom have died, was hit once with a .223-caliber bullet fired from a rifle from a relatively long distance. (Trail of the sniper)

Police said the bullet was fired from "some distance" away, similar to all the other cases. (Tracing the bullets)

The victim was alone when he was shot and was hit once in the upper body. He was identified as Dean Harold Meyers, 53, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, who was the third person to be shot at a service station.

At one of the earlier sniper shootings, a witness reported seeing a white boxy van speed away from the scene, and police were continuing to look for that vehicle. No one has been able to report a license plate number.

Police said a white minivan being sought earlier with a possible connection to the crime had been found, and its driver was being interviewed, but it appears as if the driver was "innocently there." No other vehicles are being sought in Wednesday night's killing, Prince William Police Chief Charlie Deane said.

Investigators say there was no communication from the sniper as there apparently had been in Monday's shooting, when a 13-year-old middle school student was shot and critically wounded. An unidentified source said a Tarot death card had been found at the scene with the message -- "Mister Policeman: I am God."

Donors from 20 states have contributed $350,000 to a reward fund for information leading to the capture and indictment of the killer.

A source said authorities had planned to comply with a reported message on the card asking police to keep the contents of the message a secret to build rapport and possibly begin a dialogue with the person who dropped the card.

Moose was angry Wednesday that the information about the card was leaked to the media.

The evidence was taken to an FBI lab for fingerprint and DNA tests as well as analyses of the handwriting, spelling and the card's origins.

The card was the one depicting death in the deck used by fortune tellers. The death card, which often shows a skeletal figure on a horse, represents endings, transitions, eliminations and the experiencing of inexorable forces.

Authorities said the card could have been left by a prankster.

A week of killings
Wednesday night's killing in Virginia came exactly a week after the first shooting was reported in Montgomery County.

Five people were killed in Montgomery County during a 16-hour period from October 2 into the next morning. A sixth victim was shot dead the night of October 3 on a Washington street.

Two of the Maryland victims were killed at gas stations. (Victims' profiles)

A woman was wounded last Friday in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was released from a hospital Tuesday.

Wayne Curtis, the cousin of the boy shot Monday at Benjamin Tasker Middle School, made a short statement Thursday regarding his relative, who is still at Children's National Medical Center in critical but stable condition.

Curtis thanked law enforcement and the public for their support and asked the media to respect the family's privacy.

He said the family hopes to be more forthcoming as the boy's recovery continues and said the family doesn't want to place the boy at risk or hinder the investigation.

"He's a fighter," Curtis said of his cousin, who has not been identified. "We remain optimistic."



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