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CNN Live Saturday
Sniper on the Loose, Part I
Aired October 19, 2002 - 12:01 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: First, to the sniper. We're hoping to glean more information about the examination of a bullet casing found in that white box truck at a rental car office. Our Carol Costello is standing by live from Montgomery County, Maryland, where once again, we're waiting for that police update -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, we are waiting for the police update. It was to begin at noon, and as you can see, I don't know, I can see behind me that they are getting ready to hold that press conference at any time. It will be led by Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose. And everybody is anxiously awaiting word on that bullet casing that you told us about, Fredricka, and also that white box-type truck.
Let me tell you what we know about it so far. We understand yesterday afternoon around 3:30, an employee at a car rental place was cleaning a box -- a white box-type truck. Was cleaning it out because it had been returned to the car rental agency, and he found this shell casing. So he put two and two together, and he called police. Police responded immediately. They towed that white box-type truck away. They're now combing it for fiber evidence and any evidence of any physical evidence they could find, they would appreciate. And they sent that shell casing to a laboratory, the ATF laboratories here in Rockville, Maryland.
Now, sources have told CNN that nothing new will come out about that shell casing until Monday, so we don't know quite what news is going to come out of this press conference that's due to begin in a couple of minutes. We hope something does.
Of course, the other development today is 37-year-old Matthew Dowdy. He said that he witnessed the sniper actually putting the gun to his shoulder in Falls Church, Virginia last Monday, and it turned out that he was lying. He is now in jail. He is charged with obstruction of justice. If he's convicted of that, he's going to spend about six months behind bars and possibly face a $1,000 fine.
I want to bring in Casey Jordan right now, who is the -- who is our CNN criminologist. Casey is in New York City. Casey, are you there?
CASEY JORDAN, CNN CRIMINOLOGIST: Yes, I am. Hi, Carol.
COSTELLO: I have a couple of questions for you. We have word about this shell casing that they won't have anything new to tell anyone until Monday. What's taking them so long? JORDAN: Well, I would guess that they are being extraordinarily careful with this analysis, especially after the embarrassments of the last few days where they got information which turned out to be completely fabricated. They don't need any more embarrassments.
Now, there's a few different reasons it could be taking so long. Sometimes, when you run tests, they're inconclusive. Sometimes you want some second or third opinions by other ballistics experts. If they're trying to match it to the shell casing found on the Tarot card, which is probably the big link that they're looking for, they need to be extremely careful. Just because the shell casing doesn't match doesn't mean they couldn't be linked. But, obviously, that's the link they're looking for, and they don't want to release anything to the public until they're absolutely sure.
COSTELLO: We can certainly understand. The other question I had, surely they know the name of the person who rented this white box-type truck. Do you think they're questioning him right now, or her, or whoever it might be?
JORDAN: Logically, under most police procedure and policy it would be ridiculous for them to release all of this information to the media to confirm that they have found a shell casing if they didn't have any leads or ideas on the person who had rented this box truck. And I would very much be surprised if they did not already have the renter of the truck in for questioning, possibly questioned and released if it didn't go anywhere.
You have to remember, just because the shell casing was reportedly found yesterday doesn't mean that it was -- the truck was turned in yesterday. The truck could have been turned in two or three weeks ago, it could have been rented three or four times since the shell casing was there. And I'm sure that whoever -- they're following their chain of renters and they're checking with everybody.
For all we know, they could have the last renter in questioning or even in custody, and maybe that's what the news briefing is going to be about.
COSTELLO: Well, we'll see in just a couple of minutes, hopefully. Another question for you -- this rental car place was by Dulles International Airport. Does that say anything to you at all?
JORDAN: Well, the celebration is going to be rather negative, I'm sure. Why would anyone rent a box truck and return it to an airport unless they were on their way out of town? And, yet, at the same time, I'm relatively certain the police would not be releasing this information unless they knew who the renter of the box truck was, who they could trace this shell to.
So we can speculate that the person was going out of town. Keep in mind also, box trucks don't usually get rented from airports. So, it could have been turned into the airport to maximize the chances that nobody would actually look for a box truck, which has been on our suspect list for the last two weeks or so, at an airport car rental location. Far more likely they would go to in-town locations looking for this sort of truck.
COSTELLO: Exactly. The other interesting thing is that police really aren't releasing much information as to exactly what this truck looks like. I mean, we know it's a white box-type truck, but that's about it.
Casey, I'm just getting word that the press conference is about to start, so let's go to that right now. I understand it's being by Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose.
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 October 19, 2002 - 12:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: First, to the sniper. We're hoping to glean more information about the examination of a bullet casing found in that white box truck at a rental car office. Our Carol Costello is standing by live from Montgomery County, Maryland, where once again, we're waiting for that police update -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, we are waiting for the police update. It was to begin at noon, and as you can see, I don't know, I can see behind me that they are getting ready to hold that press conference at any time. It will be led by Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose. And everybody is anxiously awaiting word on that bullet casing that you told us about, Fredricka, and also that white box-type truck.
Let me tell you what we know about it so far. We understand yesterday afternoon around 3:30, an employee at a car rental place was cleaning a box -- a white box-type truck. Was cleaning it out because it had been returned to the car rental agency, and he found this shell casing. So he put two and two together, and he called police. Police responded immediately. They towed that white box-type truck away. They're now combing it for fiber evidence and any evidence of any physical evidence they could find, they would appreciate. And they sent that shell casing to a laboratory, the ATF laboratories here in Rockville, Maryland.
Now, sources have told CNN that nothing new will come out about that shell casing until Monday, so we don't know quite what news is going to come out of this press conference that's due to begin in a couple of minutes. We hope something does.
Of course, the other development today is 37-year-old Matthew Dowdy. He said that he witnessed the sniper actually putting the gun to his shoulder in Falls Church, Virginia last Monday, and it turned out that he was lying. He is now in jail. He is charged with obstruction of justice. If he's convicted of that, he's going to spend about six months behind bars and possibly face a $1,000 fine.
I want to bring in Casey Jordan right now, who is the -- who is our CNN criminologist. Casey is in New York City. Casey, are you there?
CASEY JORDAN, CNN CRIMINOLOGIST: Yes, I am. Hi, Carol.
COSTELLO: I have a couple of questions for you. We have word about this shell casing that they won't have anything new to tell anyone until Monday. What's taking them so long? JORDAN: Well, I would guess that they are being extraordinarily careful with this analysis, especially after the embarrassments of the last few days where they got information which turned out to be completely fabricated. They don't need any more embarrassments.
Now, there's a few different reasons it could be taking so long. Sometimes, when you run tests, they're inconclusive. Sometimes you want some second or third opinions by other ballistics experts. If they're trying to match it to the shell casing found on the Tarot card, which is probably the big link that they're looking for, they need to be extremely careful. Just because the shell casing doesn't match doesn't mean they couldn't be linked. But, obviously, that's the link they're looking for, and they don't want to release anything to the public until they're absolutely sure.
COSTELLO: We can certainly understand. The other question I had, surely they know the name of the person who rented this white box-type truck. Do you think they're questioning him right now, or her, or whoever it might be?
JORDAN: Logically, under most police procedure and policy it would be ridiculous for them to release all of this information to the media to confirm that they have found a shell casing if they didn't have any leads or ideas on the person who had rented this box truck. And I would very much be surprised if they did not already have the renter of the truck in for questioning, possibly questioned and released if it didn't go anywhere.
You have to remember, just because the shell casing was reportedly found yesterday doesn't mean that it was -- the truck was turned in yesterday. The truck could have been turned in two or three weeks ago, it could have been rented three or four times since the shell casing was there. And I'm sure that whoever -- they're following their chain of renters and they're checking with everybody.
For all we know, they could have the last renter in questioning or even in custody, and maybe that's what the news briefing is going to be about.
COSTELLO: Well, we'll see in just a couple of minutes, hopefully. Another question for you -- this rental car place was by Dulles International Airport. Does that say anything to you at all?
JORDAN: Well, the celebration is going to be rather negative, I'm sure. Why would anyone rent a box truck and return it to an airport unless they were on their way out of town? And, yet, at the same time, I'm relatively certain the police would not be releasing this information unless they knew who the renter of the box truck was, who they could trace this shell to.
So we can speculate that the person was going out of town. Keep in mind also, box trucks don't usually get rented from airports. So, it could have been turned into the airport to maximize the chances that nobody would actually look for a box truck, which has been on our suspect list for the last two weeks or so, at an airport car rental location. Far more likely they would go to in-town locations looking for this sort of truck.
COSTELLO: Exactly. The other interesting thing is that police really aren't releasing much information as to exactly what this truck looks like. I mean, we know it's a white box-type truck, but that's about it.
Casey, I'm just getting word that the press conference is about to start, so let's go to that right now. I understand it's being by Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
