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American Morning

Ohio Shootings

Aired December 01, 2003 - 09:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Strange case to tell you about now. Police in Ohio have hundreds of tips but no suspects in a series of highway shootings near Columbus. Since May, there have been eleven shootings along a five mile stretch of Interstate 270. One of them has been fatal. At least two of the incidents are related. Who could be behind such attacks? That's what authorities want to know.
Candice DeLong, a former FBI profiler, joins us from San Francisco with her thoughts.

Candice, thanks for being with us.

CANDICE DELONG, FMR. FBI PROFILER: Good morning, Anderson.

COOPER: Do you think this is one person, several people? What's your take on it?

DELONG: Well, under normal circumstances, or generally speaking, these crimes are committed by one person, but as we all know, just over a year ago we had a series of crimes like this committed by two. So it's possible it's two.

COOPER: What is the purpose of it? I mean, not that this really has a purpose, but what is in this person's mind or in these people's minds? What do they get out of it?

DELONG: Well, sometimes these things are just what we call a thrill killing. Sometimes the individual is angry and he's taking out his anger on innocent strangers. As I mentioned, sometimes it's just for fun, the thrill of it all. Sometimes it's getting even with the world. It varies. Of course, it's never a very good explanation.

COOPER: Can you profile who -- what type of person might be involved in this?

DELONG: Well, there's really not too much to profile. There isn't much in the way of interaction between the offender and the victim, such as in a murder. Those are the types of crimes that lend themselves to profiling the best. But it probably can be safely said that the shooter or shooters is a male, and this is generally not the type of crime that we see a very, very young person doing on their own, such as a, you know, 14, 15-year-old.

But I would like to say that a profiler really is just a tool, and the most important part of the investigation is the forensics, the crime scene analysis, and things like that. COOPER: And sadly right now it seems like police do not have too much to go on given the random nature of this, it's been going on since the past May, but at a press conference recently, police did ask this person or persons to try to initiate some sort of a contact with them. Do you think that could actually happen? I know it happened in the sniper cases in D.C.

DELONG: Well, you never know. They may be operating on the belief that the shooter or shooters is trying to send a message. He's trying to say something. And of course their primary goal is to start an interaction with him and start negotiating with him and for people to stop being shocked.

COOPER: How common is something like this? I mean, of course, we all think of the D.C. Area sniper shootings. But prior to that, I hadn't heard much about this kind of a crime.

DELONG: Right, it's really not a very common crime, thank goodness, and we don't see it very often. And I think one of the reasons that the police are steadfastly avoiding the use of the term sniper is they don't want anyone to lock their mind into what they think a sniper is, and therefore, possibly not turn someone in to the police because he doesn't look like a sniper.

COOPER: All right, Candice DeLong, thanks very much for talking with us this morning.

DELONG: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 1, 2003 - 09:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Strange case to tell you about now. Police in Ohio have hundreds of tips but no suspects in a series of highway shootings near Columbus. Since May, there have been eleven shootings along a five mile stretch of Interstate 270. One of them has been fatal. At least two of the incidents are related. Who could be behind such attacks? That's what authorities want to know.
Candice DeLong, a former FBI profiler, joins us from San Francisco with her thoughts.

Candice, thanks for being with us.

CANDICE DELONG, FMR. FBI PROFILER: Good morning, Anderson.

COOPER: Do you think this is one person, several people? What's your take on it?

DELONG: Well, under normal circumstances, or generally speaking, these crimes are committed by one person, but as we all know, just over a year ago we had a series of crimes like this committed by two. So it's possible it's two.

COOPER: What is the purpose of it? I mean, not that this really has a purpose, but what is in this person's mind or in these people's minds? What do they get out of it?

DELONG: Well, sometimes these things are just what we call a thrill killing. Sometimes the individual is angry and he's taking out his anger on innocent strangers. As I mentioned, sometimes it's just for fun, the thrill of it all. Sometimes it's getting even with the world. It varies. Of course, it's never a very good explanation.

COOPER: Can you profile who -- what type of person might be involved in this?

DELONG: Well, there's really not too much to profile. There isn't much in the way of interaction between the offender and the victim, such as in a murder. Those are the types of crimes that lend themselves to profiling the best. But it probably can be safely said that the shooter or shooters is a male, and this is generally not the type of crime that we see a very, very young person doing on their own, such as a, you know, 14, 15-year-old.

But I would like to say that a profiler really is just a tool, and the most important part of the investigation is the forensics, the crime scene analysis, and things like that. COOPER: And sadly right now it seems like police do not have too much to go on given the random nature of this, it's been going on since the past May, but at a press conference recently, police did ask this person or persons to try to initiate some sort of a contact with them. Do you think that could actually happen? I know it happened in the sniper cases in D.C.

DELONG: Well, you never know. They may be operating on the belief that the shooter or shooters is trying to send a message. He's trying to say something. And of course their primary goal is to start an interaction with him and start negotiating with him and for people to stop being shocked.

COOPER: How common is something like this? I mean, of course, we all think of the D.C. Area sniper shootings. But prior to that, I hadn't heard much about this kind of a crime.

DELONG: Right, it's really not a very common crime, thank goodness, and we don't see it very often. And I think one of the reasons that the police are steadfastly avoiding the use of the term sniper is they don't want anyone to lock their mind into what they think a sniper is, and therefore, possibly not turn someone in to the police because he doesn't look like a sniper.

COOPER: All right, Candice DeLong, thanks very much for talking with us this morning.

DELONG: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com