Langenator
November 4, 2003, 10:35 AM
It's only the second reference I've seen, even after searching Yahoo, Google, and Alltheweb, that the rifle used by the DC snipers was stolen.
Money quote:...the rifle, which is believed to have been stolen from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma...
Note that it is even 'believed' to be stolen, not just 'alleged'. Might help punch a hole in the suits against Bull's Eye and especially Bushmaster. Amazing that the NTY editors would let something like that slip.
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http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/4336212p-4345282c.html
Man in white van reported Caprice
JAMES DAO; The New York Times
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - For several weeks last fall, people watched Whitney Donahue, a supermarket refrigerator repairman, with nervousness bordering on terror. The reason, he says, was his truck: a white Ford Econoline van, similar to the vehicle the police thought the Washington-area sniper was driving.
So when Donahue learned on Oct. 23, 2002, that the police had identified the sniper's car as a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, he was more than a little relieved. He jotted down that car's New Jersey license plate as it was broadcast on the radio - NDA-21Z - then headed home to Greencastle, Pa., from a job in Virginia.
Less than two hours later, at a rest stop near Myersville, Md., Donahue's headlights illuminated a battered Caprice. It was dark blue with New Jersey plates, NDA-21Z.
"As I read the tag off, I said, 'Oh man,'" Donahue told jurors Monday in the trial of John Allen Muhammad, the man accused of masterminding the sniper shootings.
Donahue called the police, and two hours later, an elite FBI team dressed in black flight suits and body armor stormed the Caprice, arresting Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who is accused of being his accomplice.
"We felt the safest way was to take them by surprise," testified Charles Pierce, the leader of the team from the FBI.
With that, prosecutors closed the first phase of their case, one filled with emotional appearances by victims' relatives, wrenching 911 tapes and graphic descriptions of wounds. Over two weeks, prosecutors have presented evidence from 16 shootings, 10 of them fatal, that they say the defendants carried out in four states and the District of Columbia last fall.
Next, prosecutors plan to move into a less dramatic but potentially more significant phase of their case. They plan to introduce the dry forensic evidence - fingerprints, ballistics tests and property seized from the Caprice - that they say will show that Muhammad instigated, organized and helped commit the killings.
Muhammad is charged in only the killing of Dean H. Meyers, a 53-year-old engineer, who was shot while pumping gas at a Sunoco station in Manassas on Oct. 9, 2002.
Similarly, Malvo has been charged in only the killing of Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst who was shot outside a Home Depot in Falls Church on Oct. 14, 2002. But both men face the death penalty.
For more than three hours Monday afternoon, prosecutors began introducing jurors to the crucial pieces of evidence they collected from Muhammad's Caprice last October.
Most important of these was the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle. Ballistics tests show the rifle, which is believed to have been stolen from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, was used to kill at least eight victims, prosecutors say.
Investigators also found in the car a rifle scope hidden inside a pair of filthy white socks; a right-hand glove that matched a left-hand one near a shooting scene; a Sony laptop computer stolen from a Maryland restaurant owner; an electronic organizer; a pair of walkie-talkies; and books about the I Ching, Taoism and the Black Power movement.
In the coming days, prosecutors are expected to argue that the computer and electronic organizer contained information showing the efforts of Muhammad and Malvo to plot the shootings.
Investigators also found a slip of paper with the names and addresses of schools in the Baltimore area. Prosecutors contend that the pair were planning to single out children to spread panic.
Money quote:...the rifle, which is believed to have been stolen from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma...
Note that it is even 'believed' to be stolen, not just 'alleged'. Might help punch a hole in the suits against Bull's Eye and especially Bushmaster. Amazing that the NTY editors would let something like that slip.
--------------------
http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/4336212p-4345282c.html
Man in white van reported Caprice
JAMES DAO; The New York Times
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - For several weeks last fall, people watched Whitney Donahue, a supermarket refrigerator repairman, with nervousness bordering on terror. The reason, he says, was his truck: a white Ford Econoline van, similar to the vehicle the police thought the Washington-area sniper was driving.
So when Donahue learned on Oct. 23, 2002, that the police had identified the sniper's car as a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, he was more than a little relieved. He jotted down that car's New Jersey license plate as it was broadcast on the radio - NDA-21Z - then headed home to Greencastle, Pa., from a job in Virginia.
Less than two hours later, at a rest stop near Myersville, Md., Donahue's headlights illuminated a battered Caprice. It was dark blue with New Jersey plates, NDA-21Z.
"As I read the tag off, I said, 'Oh man,'" Donahue told jurors Monday in the trial of John Allen Muhammad, the man accused of masterminding the sniper shootings.
Donahue called the police, and two hours later, an elite FBI team dressed in black flight suits and body armor stormed the Caprice, arresting Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who is accused of being his accomplice.
"We felt the safest way was to take them by surprise," testified Charles Pierce, the leader of the team from the FBI.
With that, prosecutors closed the first phase of their case, one filled with emotional appearances by victims' relatives, wrenching 911 tapes and graphic descriptions of wounds. Over two weeks, prosecutors have presented evidence from 16 shootings, 10 of them fatal, that they say the defendants carried out in four states and the District of Columbia last fall.
Next, prosecutors plan to move into a less dramatic but potentially more significant phase of their case. They plan to introduce the dry forensic evidence - fingerprints, ballistics tests and property seized from the Caprice - that they say will show that Muhammad instigated, organized and helped commit the killings.
Muhammad is charged in only the killing of Dean H. Meyers, a 53-year-old engineer, who was shot while pumping gas at a Sunoco station in Manassas on Oct. 9, 2002.
Similarly, Malvo has been charged in only the killing of Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst who was shot outside a Home Depot in Falls Church on Oct. 14, 2002. But both men face the death penalty.
For more than three hours Monday afternoon, prosecutors began introducing jurors to the crucial pieces of evidence they collected from Muhammad's Caprice last October.
Most important of these was the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle. Ballistics tests show the rifle, which is believed to have been stolen from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, was used to kill at least eight victims, prosecutors say.
Investigators also found in the car a rifle scope hidden inside a pair of filthy white socks; a right-hand glove that matched a left-hand one near a shooting scene; a Sony laptop computer stolen from a Maryland restaurant owner; an electronic organizer; a pair of walkie-talkies; and books about the I Ching, Taoism and the Black Power movement.
In the coming days, prosecutors are expected to argue that the computer and electronic organizer contained information showing the efforts of Muhammad and Malvo to plot the shootings.
Investigators also found a slip of paper with the names and addresses of schools in the Baltimore area. Prosecutors contend that the pair were planning to single out children to spread panic.