My understanding is that .223 ammunition was selected for the M-16 came down to carrying weight. A 10% increase in a bullet’s velocity will impart more energy on impact than a 10% increase in weight. And infanty could carry more high-velocity, low-weight cartridges than big fat slower slugs.
White Male
5’ 8"
160 pounds
brown hair
late 20s to early 30s
No military background
His motive is the power trip he gets by eluding the police. IIRC, there was a police officer nearby (about 30 yds maybe) one of the shootings.
White male in early twenties. Learned to shoot from his abusive, demanding father. No military training.
Impotent. Possibly a virgin. Socially awkward. Just left (read:fired) another in a string of dead-end jobs with no prospects on the horizon. A complete and utter loser. Hates the world because he cannot compete in it.
Wants to be caught. No, needs to be caught. It will be his one and only time in the spotlight. Right now, he feels like a man for the first time in his miserable life. But it won’t last. Everyone will have to know his name. Then he will be a God.
Your points are good. It was really after 2 or 3 killings when the media was still talking about 2 killers that I thought about the possibility of high school kids. I would bring the likelihood of that down a good deal at this point.
When they catch this guy, my guess is that they’ll find a copy of GTA sitting in his PS2.
If the current trend of violent games like GTA (not bashing the genre - I have a copy myself) remains popular through the next 5 - 10 years, technology will have advanced to the point where shooting a video bad guy will look and feel no different from shooting a real person.
My guess-2-3 man PLO/PLO trained team,driver,shooter and spotter because 1)all shootings are occuring near Washington D.C.,US capital.If this was happening almost anywhere else I would agree with the lone white male hypothesis.2)Very similar pattern to Isreali Army snipers in West Bank and Gaza Strip, thus giving Israel’s greatest supporter a taste of what they(Palestinians) put up with every day.3)The fact that the getaway is clean and no one sees anything,despite what “witnesses” who were inside at the time report.4)If it were a disgruntled loner,he would have shot the policeman who was standing near one of the victims.5)The very definition of terrorism is to randomly spread fear,panic and uncertainty in the targeted population,and this has achieved that.
They think the sniper has hit another victim. They are reporting the deal about the white van with the ladder. Maybe this freak sits and waits for a van that fits this description to drive through the area and then fires. This would provide a diversion and allow get- a- way.
Judging by the pattern of attacks, the shooter lives west of I-95 and south of the Potomac. After the first few attacks, police responded by shutting down the Interstate. There are only six bridges across the Potomac from the Woodrow Wilson up to near Antietam.
That means that, after he shoots, the clock is running, and a high chance that someone might spot his vehicle or he gets caught in a roadblock. That means he needs to get off the streets fast and use back roads.
Hence, it makes sense that he lives south of the river and not north (else, why make all those attacks near home, then increase the chance of getting caught by shooting near Fredericksburg?)
I wish it were of more help. Switching to night firing increased his chance of escape, if only because vehicle colors are harder to identify.
I wonder if it were possible to set up a rapid notification system to pass on messages to drivers via radio stations once a shooting takes place that’s similar to the sniper’s MO.