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American Morning

Second Composite Expected in Hunt for Sniper

Aired October 14, 2002 - 08:02   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get back to that intense manhunt for the Washington area sniper who has taken eight lives to date. Police say they have received numerous tips after releasing a composite of a white truck that was seen at least near one of the shootings, possibly many more.
Jeanne Meserve tracking the investigation this morning at headquarters there in revoke -- Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. And we're expecting a second composite, this of a white Astrovan seen in the vicinity of the Spotsylvania County shooting on Friday. No word when we'll get that. Also, CNN has learned that investigators asked the Army and Navy to go through records to see if they had any current or recently discharged personnel with sniper training in the D.C. area. A senior Army official telling CNN no names have turned up. There are no military related suspects.

Also, CNN has learned about a possible new piece of ballistic evidence. The very first shooting in this spree took place at a Michael's craft store in Aspen Hill. No one was injured. CNN has been told that recently a customer at that store bought a magazine and found what appeared to be bullet fragments. Those have now been turned over to investigators for evaluation -- Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Jeanne, thank you.

We want to get back to it and talk about it more. Is it significant now that the sniper has not attacked over the past two weekends? Last weekend no shootings and again this weekend shooting free.

More on the case now. CNN's criminologist, Dr. Casey Jordan, with us here again on AMERICAN MORNING.

Great to see you.

DR. CASEY JORDAN, CNN CRIMINOLOGIST: Great to see you, Bill.

HEMMER: The weekend significance is what, in your estimation?

JORDAN: Well, like one robin doesn't make spring, two incident free weekends doesn't quite make a pattern, but it does give us some clues, and maybe even some hope. Two things that I take on this. Number one, the manhunt actually has had a chilling effect, perhaps even a deterrent effect on this predator. But alternatively...

HEMMER: How so? Because the shootings, instead of hour after hour, have now gone to sometimes a day and a half, sometimes 36 hours?

JORDAN: We're up to three days, and that's a good sign. The thing is, though, that we now have composite graphics of box trucks and Astrovans. If we're on target, if one of those vehicles or both of those vehicles is, indeed, involved, then maybe you're talking about somebody who's had to rethink his modus operandi and get a new vehicle. Alternatively, Bill, it could just be a complete coincidence. You could be talking about a person who has a family, who has obligations, who has a partner, children, parents, and he can't get out on the weekends without them knowing.

So it could go either direction.

HEMMER: It could be a father who has custody on Saturdays and Sundays.

JORDAN: Absolutely.

HEMMER: Let's talk about the message that's coming out from Rockville, Maryland right now. A week ago they were calling him a crowd. They have since backed off any strong language. Prior to that, they were saying the schools are safe, the kids are OK and a week ago today an eighth grader was hit, shot in the chest. He will survive. Great news for him and his family.

Why not change the message? Why not come out and call him a crowd? Why not go out with a strong message once again, strong words that challenges him? In essence, they haven't stopped this guy. They can't catch him. At this point, based on the dragnets they've set up, why not challenge his mentality?

JORDAN: Well, because even though he has not struck in the last three days, we are not sure of what is going on in his mind. Remember, we don't really have any good parallel cases to compare this to to determine what his next move might be. So if you do challenge him, perhaps that will provoke more killings. Right now we have...

HEMMER: Perhaps it will, but they can't catch the guy as it is right now.

JORDAN: But catch him or don't catch him, the important thing is that no more people are killed. If they have him standing back, if they have him on the defensive, then maybe that's a good place to keep him, in this little chess game that he has provoked, until we see what his next move is.

HEMMER: All right, here's my logic. I'll just complete the circle here. If, indeed, you go out and challenge him once again, you call him a crowd, you get into his own mentality, perhaps that's when he makes a mistake. Perhaps that's when he gets more angry and more careless.

JORDAN: It is possible. The question is is it worth it? Remember, it's not like we challenged him to go shoot a school child. We said the schools are safe. He wanted to prove that we were wrong. It worries me, you know, the more you cancel soccer games, the more he might think ah, a soccer game might be my next place to go.

The key, I don't think, is to try to provoke him as to simply stay safe and try to focus on the evidence and the clues that are at hand and get closer to him. Because I think we might be getting closer to him and that's why we haven't seen him.

HEMMER: You believe that?

JORDAN: It is possible.

HEMMER: But you also believe the police are not coming forth with all the information they have. Which may lend credence to the fact that perhaps they are being more successful behind closed doors.

JORDAN: You never know. It's going to be one extreme or the other. We don't need to know everything the police know. Maybe silence from the police indicates that they really are onto something. But there's a big difference between playing possum and being possum. So I really do hope they are working on something in the background.

HEMMER: Anything that you see in the chief's comments yesterday? He made them with Wolf Blitzer on "Late Edition" yesterday afternoon, saying that America as a country will not be intimidated. If there is a message that's going out to the killer, is there anything to read into that?

JORDAN: I simply hope that it's not a bluff. It smacked a little of Sheriff Corona, who really did have very strong words back this summer when he was searching for that child predator, child killer. He said, you know, we will find you, we will hunt you down, we will get you, and he kept his word. So maybe Chief Moose does have some leads. Maybe he is trying the strong words to let this person know, we are closing in on you and let's hope that he really does have something going on in the background to back that up.

HEMMER: Good to talk to you.

Dr. Casey Jordan, CNN criminologist.

JORDAN: Great to see you.

HEMMER: All right.

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 14, 2002 - 08:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get back to that intense manhunt for the Washington area sniper who has taken eight lives to date. Police say they have received numerous tips after releasing a composite of a white truck that was seen at least near one of the shootings, possibly many more.
Jeanne Meserve tracking the investigation this morning at headquarters there in revoke -- Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. And we're expecting a second composite, this of a white Astrovan seen in the vicinity of the Spotsylvania County shooting on Friday. No word when we'll get that. Also, CNN has learned that investigators asked the Army and Navy to go through records to see if they had any current or recently discharged personnel with sniper training in the D.C. area. A senior Army official telling CNN no names have turned up. There are no military related suspects.

Also, CNN has learned about a possible new piece of ballistic evidence. The very first shooting in this spree took place at a Michael's craft store in Aspen Hill. No one was injured. CNN has been told that recently a customer at that store bought a magazine and found what appeared to be bullet fragments. Those have now been turned over to investigators for evaluation -- Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Jeanne, thank you.

We want to get back to it and talk about it more. Is it significant now that the sniper has not attacked over the past two weekends? Last weekend no shootings and again this weekend shooting free.

More on the case now. CNN's criminologist, Dr. Casey Jordan, with us here again on AMERICAN MORNING.

Great to see you.

DR. CASEY JORDAN, CNN CRIMINOLOGIST: Great to see you, Bill.

HEMMER: The weekend significance is what, in your estimation?

JORDAN: Well, like one robin doesn't make spring, two incident free weekends doesn't quite make a pattern, but it does give us some clues, and maybe even some hope. Two things that I take on this. Number one, the manhunt actually has had a chilling effect, perhaps even a deterrent effect on this predator. But alternatively...

HEMMER: How so? Because the shootings, instead of hour after hour, have now gone to sometimes a day and a half, sometimes 36 hours?

JORDAN: We're up to three days, and that's a good sign. The thing is, though, that we now have composite graphics of box trucks and Astrovans. If we're on target, if one of those vehicles or both of those vehicles is, indeed, involved, then maybe you're talking about somebody who's had to rethink his modus operandi and get a new vehicle. Alternatively, Bill, it could just be a complete coincidence. You could be talking about a person who has a family, who has obligations, who has a partner, children, parents, and he can't get out on the weekends without them knowing.

So it could go either direction.

HEMMER: It could be a father who has custody on Saturdays and Sundays.

JORDAN: Absolutely.

HEMMER: Let's talk about the message that's coming out from Rockville, Maryland right now. A week ago they were calling him a crowd. They have since backed off any strong language. Prior to that, they were saying the schools are safe, the kids are OK and a week ago today an eighth grader was hit, shot in the chest. He will survive. Great news for him and his family.

Why not change the message? Why not come out and call him a crowd? Why not go out with a strong message once again, strong words that challenges him? In essence, they haven't stopped this guy. They can't catch him. At this point, based on the dragnets they've set up, why not challenge his mentality?

JORDAN: Well, because even though he has not struck in the last three days, we are not sure of what is going on in his mind. Remember, we don't really have any good parallel cases to compare this to to determine what his next move might be. So if you do challenge him, perhaps that will provoke more killings. Right now we have...

HEMMER: Perhaps it will, but they can't catch the guy as it is right now.

JORDAN: But catch him or don't catch him, the important thing is that no more people are killed. If they have him standing back, if they have him on the defensive, then maybe that's a good place to keep him, in this little chess game that he has provoked, until we see what his next move is.

HEMMER: All right, here's my logic. I'll just complete the circle here. If, indeed, you go out and challenge him once again, you call him a crowd, you get into his own mentality, perhaps that's when he makes a mistake. Perhaps that's when he gets more angry and more careless.

JORDAN: It is possible. The question is is it worth it? Remember, it's not like we challenged him to go shoot a school child. We said the schools are safe. He wanted to prove that we were wrong. It worries me, you know, the more you cancel soccer games, the more he might think ah, a soccer game might be my next place to go.

The key, I don't think, is to try to provoke him as to simply stay safe and try to focus on the evidence and the clues that are at hand and get closer to him. Because I think we might be getting closer to him and that's why we haven't seen him.

HEMMER: You believe that?

JORDAN: It is possible.

HEMMER: But you also believe the police are not coming forth with all the information they have. Which may lend credence to the fact that perhaps they are being more successful behind closed doors.

JORDAN: You never know. It's going to be one extreme or the other. We don't need to know everything the police know. Maybe silence from the police indicates that they really are onto something. But there's a big difference between playing possum and being possum. So I really do hope they are working on something in the background.

HEMMER: Anything that you see in the chief's comments yesterday? He made them with Wolf Blitzer on "Late Edition" yesterday afternoon, saying that America as a country will not be intimidated. If there is a message that's going out to the killer, is there anything to read into that?

JORDAN: I simply hope that it's not a bluff. It smacked a little of Sheriff Corona, who really did have very strong words back this summer when he was searching for that child predator, child killer. He said, you know, we will find you, we will hunt you down, we will get you, and he kept his word. So maybe Chief Moose does have some leads. Maybe he is trying the strong words to let this person know, we are closing in on you and let's hope that he really does have something going on in the background to back that up.

HEMMER: Good to talk to you.

Dr. Casey Jordan, CNN criminologist.

JORDAN: Great to see you.

HEMMER: All right.

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