Well, I’m about ready to leave my Maryland suburban home to go to work in Montgomery County…wish me luck!
The young woman vacuuming her car was white. One of the men was Indian (I think the one shot at the bus stop). I think one of the other men was black.
I’m not sure about anyone else. Seems to be pretty random.
The man shot on Thursday morning while mowing the lawn was white. CNN has pictures of all of the victims.
I really wouldn’t play up any race angles just yet. Forty percent of Maryland’s population are minorities. This percentage increases on the eastern side of the state and likely increases more the closer you get to the cities, which is where most of the shootings have taken place. Add to this a white woman was shot and I think it’s unlikely that the killer is picking his targets based on skin pigmentation.
And for the record would they please catch this fucker?
Weird, but plausible (if not very probable) theory: It’s been said that, if you want to kill one specific person, you can kill a few people before and after to make police think it’s a random serial killing. Since this person is acting in the DC area, maybe he is going to kill a politician in the middle of the shootings.
Oops, I meant western side of state, not eastern.
Killings, then extortion demands, maybe?
I think what is astounding to most, including police, is that the shooter has hit his victims by firing only one single shot. One shot, one kill. Yes, there are people out there capable of hitting a target from a distance but, by taking only one shot? That’s pretty good aim.
I’d disagree that the shooter is a “mental midget.” From what I read and hear there’s a degree of planning and thought going into these acts that indicates to me the perpetrator is pretty intelligent. Or maybe he’s damn lucky, but I doubt it.
I think the shooter is certainly getting satisfaction and inspiration from the massive news coverage of the shootings, and I think an escalation of shootings is imminent. Whether this escalation will involve an increase in the number of victims, or a sort of “social outrage” as in the shooting of the Maryland student, I don’t know.
Most often–I’ll find a cite later–spree killers either commit suicide themselves or choose to go out via “suicide by cop” in a standoff/shootout. Then again, the shooter may just stop on his own, and never be seen again. Also, the agenda or purpose of the spree is hard to decipher during the events, and may only be explained posthumously, either by things the shooter leaves behind or by biographical statements from people who knew him. In this case, efforts to identify the shooter are compounded by the fact that there’s no connection between the victims.
The only reason why the police haven’t discredited the white box truck as a lead is because no one owning a truck matching that description has come forward. Not only was it a white box, delivery type truck with black lettering, it also had damage to the back. Rather specific information and one might think, given the amount of attention these shootings are getting in the metro DC area, if a company had a truck doing deliveries around the times of the shootings on Thursday morning in the Aspen Hill area, they would call authorities, if only to help with the investigation.
Actually, no, I didn’t have just as much of a chance of being gunned down before these shootings occured as I do now. I live in Montgomery County, where the homicide rate increased 25% in one day with 5 shootings - so I live(d) in a low crime area where, typically, random or even less-than-random shootings do not occur.
Also, I’m not a crack dealer or crack user. Basically, my activities and recreational hobbies do not lend themselves to increasing my chances of randomly or not-so-randomly being a victim of a shooting.
And, I don’t own a gun. I only mention gun ownership because owning one does increase your chances of being killed someone you know with a gun.
Actually, for some people, it’s precisely that lack of control that makes them so fearful. You mentioned driving in a car and the chances of dying in a car accident as much greater than being shot by a sniper. This is true but, for many people, driving a car is something that they can control, hence, they have less fear of the experience. That’s why some people have a fear of flying. They aren’t flying the plane, hence they have no control and that freaks them out.
My profile:
- White male, early to mid 20s
- High school education/possibly h.s. dropout. No college education
- Possible military background but low level.
- Definite hunting background. Probably has a large cache of guns - fascinated with them.
I keep picturing Timothy McVeigh.
And I think this guy definitely lives or works very close to where the first set of shootings took place. Actually, I’ll be even more specific. I think he lives/works on or right off of Randolph Road. I think he went to Spotsyvania County and Bowie to try to lead the police to look for him somewhere else - but he chose those two locations because they are near major traffic routes, like 50 and I-95, where he could shoot and leave very quickly.
That’s pretty much what I’m thinking.
And I’d agree with brondicon’s comment from the first page; this person isn’t a mental midget. I think he’s probably reasonably intelligent.
Regarding #4: A caller on WBAL (1010-AM, local Baltimore radio talk show) last week mentioned checking with local gun clubs. This guy can shoot. It definitely isn’t just someone who walked into K-Mart last week and picked out the first gun he saw.
To begin with the traditonal. “He always seemed nice and quiet, kept his lawn cut, never any trouble out of him.”
That being said:
Native of Monty Country (very familar with good places to shoot).
Working alone (spree killers rarely work in teams, but is not unheard of).
Out of work (shooting times do not seem to line up with regualr rush hours).
Probably black (Am I right in saying no black person has been shot yet?).
Male.
Gun nut.
Of course I also have to admit I could see him being some lone wolf trying to support his "brothers in Iraq, Afganistan, whatever. In this case, i would go for non-White and native-born.
If he were a mental midget, they would’ve already caught the guy.
Seems like the profile is “Hispanic-looking” men…Could they be Arab?
The man shot in DC on Thursday night was black. The victims have run the gamut from white, black, Indian, hispanic, old, young, male and female.
Here is the list of victims with pictures:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/graphics/sniper_attacks.html
Yes, and after the crime spree has abated, it’ll return to normal. Or are you saying this is how it’s going to be from now on?
Right. So the odds are the same.
And as I said, that fear is silly. If you have no control over it, then whether you’re fearful or not, the result is the same.
I guess I just find it pointless to worry about things over which I haven’t the slightest control.
There are a lot of misconceptions held by non-shooters and I think this is one of them. So far none of the documented shots terribly difficult for a modestly skilled shooter. Thousands of hunters who get nore more practice than a box of ammunition when sighting in their rifles every year make far more difficult shots than this. I’d wager that a few dozen members of the SDMB alone are at least as skilled and could make such shots standing. Shooting from a benchrest or bipod it becomes trivial.
Shooters are not guessing where the bullets will land. Bullets travel in very predictable and well documented trajectories. Actually the .223 has such a flat trajectory out to 200-250 yards that it isn’t even a factor in this case.
I’m not saying the shooter isn’t highly skilled, he very well may be and is certainly organized and has the logistical skills to make the shots and not get caught so far.
I’m saying that my odds of being shot by a sniper have increased dramatically just by the fact that I live in a county where there is now a sniper on the loose. My odds are no longer the same as before, which were practically nil. They might not be astronomical odds but they have increased.
There are a lot of fears that are “silly”. Actually, that’s a large component of many fears - that they are not apart of your rational or logical psyche. If they were, they probably wouldn’t be called “fears”.
I can say that I’m fearful. I am. Not enough to lock myself in my house. But, being out on street, in a parking lot, pumping gas…things that should be normal activities, do make me think.