Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Authorities Have Rough Description of Suspicious Person in Sniper Attacks
Aired October 16, 2002 - 08:04 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time, authorities have a rough description of a suspicious person in the sniper attacks. There are also some new composite photos of vehicles spotted at a shooting on Friday. A Ford Econoline van and a white Chevy Astro.
But how do law enforcement agencies pull all the clues together?
For that we are joined from Atlanta by CNN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks.
Good morning, Mike.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Mike, let's start off with these descriptions. We reported yesterday morning that the police scanners, starting Monday night, I guess, started issuing this witness description of an olive- skinned man fleeing the scene. Why haven't we heard more about that?
BROOKS: Well, Paula, from what I've -- talking to law enforcement sources, there have been also some conflicting witness accounts of what they exactly saw. There have been the olive-skinned. There have been, one person, two people, male, a female. There have been some different ones. So they're trying to get all the witnesses back together again, reinterview them and find out exactly what kind of description they can have to put together a composite.
You know, when people are under stress, that is stressful or at a scene of a stressful situation, sometimes what their mind, what they think their mind sees isn't really what they see. So sometimes investigators want to go back and reinterview these people.
ZAHN: What's your understanding of the license plate numbers and what witnesses were able to tell investigators?
BROOKS: What we're hearing from law enforcement is that they were, the witness, some witnesses were able to get a partial plate. So we don't know if it's part numbers and part letters or exactly what kind of partial plate they got. So investigators are now taking this partial plate and running it through the DMV records of D.C., Maryland and Virginia, to start off with, to see if there's any match to any Chevy Astro van or any other vehicle similar to that.
ZAHN: We aren't going to make you stand for no reason there today. The reason why we have Mike posted there, he's going to share with us some of the ballistics information he's been able to compile. And you can learn a lot about a weapon that was used for firing from the caliber of the discharge, right?
BROOKS: Right. That's exactly right. And there's been a lot of talk, Paula, about the different kind of weapon that this shooter could possibly be using. Law enforcement believes that he is most -- he or she is most likely using a weapon similar to this. This is the Colt AR-15. This is the civilian version of the m16, which we're all very familiar with. You've seen it in movies. And it is the standard issue and standard weapon that most military, U.S. military train with on a regular basis, from the time they go through boot camp till the time they go into combat.
It's very easy to fire. It doesn't take a lot of training to fire one of these, because you take a recruit in boot camp, get he or she up to the line and they're shooting 300 yards in no time at all and would be able to hit their target.
This particular rifle has, as you can see, has a scope on it, which makes it even easier to shoot. This particular scope is a 20 powered scope, which means it'll bring images about 20 times closer when you look through the optics.
But there's a lot of technology out there on the market today, Paula, that makes it even easier. There are some scopes that all you have to do is look through the scope and put the little dot right on your target and pull the trigger.
Now, this is a semi-automatic weapon, as opposed to the m16, which is a fully automatic weapon, which means every time you pull the trigger it goes off, whereas the m16 you can put it on fully automatic and have a three round burst, a four round burst or, as they say, full rock and roll where you just pull the trigger and it goes off until you stop, until you release the trigger.
Now, the round that they're talking about that is fired from this weapon, and also initially they thought possibly a hunting type rifle, is the .223 Remington. It doesn't look very ominous when you look at the round, but it's very powerful. It's, it comes out of the muzzle, out of the end of this barrel, at approximately, from between 3,000 and 3,500 feet per second. That is a fast, high powered weapon. And that's what, all they're able to compare all from the different witnesses and also from the different victims, I should say, to say that this is the same kind of round that was used in all the shootings.
Now, there have been two shell casings left at different scenes, one in Spotsylvania County and also one at the Tasker Middle School in Prince George's County. There's a lot of things that the investigators and the forensics experts can glean from this, also.
On the shell casing, you can have fingerprints from where the perpetrator, the shooter picks the round up, puts it in the weapon. You also can have ejector marks. On one particular shell casing that apparently they found ejector marks and that's why they think it was a semi-automatic weapon as opposed to a hunting rifle.
Now, the projectile part of the bullet, that's what they're getting all the comparisons from. The experts at the alcohol, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms lab in Rockville, are doing an excellent job. They're able to take small pieces of fragment from some of the scenes and also from the victims and compare them in a microscope. And every time a bullet, when a bullet passes through the barrel of this rifle, it has rifling, like a spiraling effect, inside of the barrel.
So it's, it leaves its own fingerprint, if you will, on this particular thing and on the particular projectile, and they're able to match that at the ATF lab.
ZAHN: Well, you've given us an excellent idea of what investigators must be wrestling with at this hour as they're trying to take clues from the shell casings that have been retrieved at the scene.
Thanks, Mike.
BROOKS: You're welcome, Paula.
ZAHN: We'll be staying in touch with you all day long.
Appreciate your insights.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Sniper Attacks>
Aired October 16, 2002 - 08:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time, authorities have a rough description of a suspicious person in the sniper attacks. There are also some new composite photos of vehicles spotted at a shooting on Friday. A Ford Econoline van and a white Chevy Astro.
But how do law enforcement agencies pull all the clues together?
For that we are joined from Atlanta by CNN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks.
Good morning, Mike.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Mike, let's start off with these descriptions. We reported yesterday morning that the police scanners, starting Monday night, I guess, started issuing this witness description of an olive- skinned man fleeing the scene. Why haven't we heard more about that?
BROOKS: Well, Paula, from what I've -- talking to law enforcement sources, there have been also some conflicting witness accounts of what they exactly saw. There have been the olive-skinned. There have been, one person, two people, male, a female. There have been some different ones. So they're trying to get all the witnesses back together again, reinterview them and find out exactly what kind of description they can have to put together a composite.
You know, when people are under stress, that is stressful or at a scene of a stressful situation, sometimes what their mind, what they think their mind sees isn't really what they see. So sometimes investigators want to go back and reinterview these people.
ZAHN: What's your understanding of the license plate numbers and what witnesses were able to tell investigators?
BROOKS: What we're hearing from law enforcement is that they were, the witness, some witnesses were able to get a partial plate. So we don't know if it's part numbers and part letters or exactly what kind of partial plate they got. So investigators are now taking this partial plate and running it through the DMV records of D.C., Maryland and Virginia, to start off with, to see if there's any match to any Chevy Astro van or any other vehicle similar to that.
ZAHN: We aren't going to make you stand for no reason there today. The reason why we have Mike posted there, he's going to share with us some of the ballistics information he's been able to compile. And you can learn a lot about a weapon that was used for firing from the caliber of the discharge, right?
BROOKS: Right. That's exactly right. And there's been a lot of talk, Paula, about the different kind of weapon that this shooter could possibly be using. Law enforcement believes that he is most -- he or she is most likely using a weapon similar to this. This is the Colt AR-15. This is the civilian version of the m16, which we're all very familiar with. You've seen it in movies. And it is the standard issue and standard weapon that most military, U.S. military train with on a regular basis, from the time they go through boot camp till the time they go into combat.
It's very easy to fire. It doesn't take a lot of training to fire one of these, because you take a recruit in boot camp, get he or she up to the line and they're shooting 300 yards in no time at all and would be able to hit their target.
This particular rifle has, as you can see, has a scope on it, which makes it even easier to shoot. This particular scope is a 20 powered scope, which means it'll bring images about 20 times closer when you look through the optics.
But there's a lot of technology out there on the market today, Paula, that makes it even easier. There are some scopes that all you have to do is look through the scope and put the little dot right on your target and pull the trigger.
Now, this is a semi-automatic weapon, as opposed to the m16, which is a fully automatic weapon, which means every time you pull the trigger it goes off, whereas the m16 you can put it on fully automatic and have a three round burst, a four round burst or, as they say, full rock and roll where you just pull the trigger and it goes off until you stop, until you release the trigger.
Now, the round that they're talking about that is fired from this weapon, and also initially they thought possibly a hunting type rifle, is the .223 Remington. It doesn't look very ominous when you look at the round, but it's very powerful. It's, it comes out of the muzzle, out of the end of this barrel, at approximately, from between 3,000 and 3,500 feet per second. That is a fast, high powered weapon. And that's what, all they're able to compare all from the different witnesses and also from the different victims, I should say, to say that this is the same kind of round that was used in all the shootings.
Now, there have been two shell casings left at different scenes, one in Spotsylvania County and also one at the Tasker Middle School in Prince George's County. There's a lot of things that the investigators and the forensics experts can glean from this, also.
On the shell casing, you can have fingerprints from where the perpetrator, the shooter picks the round up, puts it in the weapon. You also can have ejector marks. On one particular shell casing that apparently they found ejector marks and that's why they think it was a semi-automatic weapon as opposed to a hunting rifle.
Now, the projectile part of the bullet, that's what they're getting all the comparisons from. The experts at the alcohol, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms lab in Rockville, are doing an excellent job. They're able to take small pieces of fragment from some of the scenes and also from the victims and compare them in a microscope. And every time a bullet, when a bullet passes through the barrel of this rifle, it has rifling, like a spiraling effect, inside of the barrel.
So it's, it leaves its own fingerprint, if you will, on this particular thing and on the particular projectile, and they're able to match that at the ATF lab.
ZAHN: Well, you've given us an excellent idea of what investigators must be wrestling with at this hour as they're trying to take clues from the shell casings that have been retrieved at the scene.
Thanks, Mike.
BROOKS: You're welcome, Paula.
ZAHN: We'll be staying in touch with you all day long.
Appreciate your insights.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Sniper Attacks>
