The terror snipers
By Joseph Farah
Posted: December 8, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
2003 WorldNetDaily.com
It's time for those investigating the Ohio and West Virginia snipers to look at
a map of the United States.
John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo began terrorizing Americans in Maryland and
the District of Columbia before moving to Virginia with their sniping campaign.
Earlier this year, a similar sniper pattern was noticed in West Virginia. And
before law enforcement officials could get to the bottom of that deadly spree,
a new one has been preoccupying the nation in Ohio.
Maryland, D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio: Anyone else see anything notable
there?
Now I know the D.C. snipers are in custody, with one still facing trial and the
other awaiting sentencing. I'm not suggesting the same people are behind all
these shootings. What I am suggesting is for investigators to think of what is
apparently unthinkable to them – that we may have similar motives in all
three cases.
So far, the main thought for the cops seems to be to avoid panicking the
public. Yet, it was the public that nabbed Muhammad and Malvo after law
enforcement experts bungled the case for months – too afraid releasing
information might lead to racial profiling.
In Ohio, where law enforcement officials have consulted the D.C. sniper
investigators, they are unwilling even to refer to the shootings as sniper
attacks.
Chief Deputy Steve Martin, of the Franklin County sheriff's office, said the
word implies "a military person" who dresses in camouflage, lies in wait and
shoots from long range. "I'm not ready to say that yet," Martin said, noting
that the shooter "may be mobile."
Well, Muhammad and Malvo were mobile and they were not known to wear camo. It
looks like political correctness may be spreading East to West along with the
sniper attacks.
Nevertheless, the Columbus Dispatch has dubbed the shooter the "I-270 sniper."
Authorities investigating three apparently random fatal shootings in August
outside convenience stores in West Virginia said they are looking at recent
shootings 200 miles away in Ohio in a desperate search for clues.
"There's potential for concern that there may be some connection, and we want
to explore that obviously to see whether there is or isn't," said Joseph
Ciccarelli, senior supervisory agent for the FBI in Charleston. "It's safe to
say right now there's nothing to lead us to believe they are connected, but
that could change."
So far, who fired the shots that killed Gary Carrier Jr., Jeanie Patton and
Okey Meadows Jr. remains a mystery to the 73 investigators pursuing nearly
3,000 leads.
Carrier, 44, was talking on a pay telephone at a Charleston Go-Mart when he was
shot Aug. 10. Four days later, Patton, 31, and Meadows, 26, were killed within
90 minutes of each other at rural convenience stores about 10 miles apart:
Patton was filling her car with gas, Meadows was buying milk at a pay window.
Each was killed late at night by a .22-caliber bullet fired from the same
weapon.
The 14 Ohio shootings happened along a stretch of Interstate 270 near Columbus.
One woman was killed in those shootings, which began in May but have happened
mainly in the past two months. Police have no suspects in those cases.
The West Virginia shootings were similar to the Washington-area sniper
shootings that terrorized the region last year, and prompted authorities to
offer a $100,000 reward to help solve the cases. The investigation yielded
little more than vague descriptions of a white heavyset man with a goatee and a
grainy security videotape.
Lack of an obvious motive also has stumped investigators.
"We have looked at this being drug-related," said Kanawha County Chief Deputy
Phil Morris. "We have also looked at it being a [random] sniper-type of
shooting. We will continue looking at all aspects."
It seems they've looked at it from every angle but the most obvious one – the
same motive of Muhammad and Malvo.
Is it possible this sniper case might, too, be terrorism-related? Might the
guilty parties in West Virginia and Ohio also be al-Qaida wannabes? Is it
within the realm of possibility that these are copycat shooters? What's the
harm in asking the question? Are we likely to apprehend a shooter if we don't
understand his motive?
Let me point out that I was the guy who suggested long before they were
apprehended that the D.C. snipers were motivated by an allegiance to the ideals
of radical Islam. It turned out to be accurate. Isn't it time to think outside
the box once again?
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