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CNN Sunday Morning
Police Continue Search for Serial Sniper
Aired October 13, 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, we begin with the serial sniper attacks -- those sniper attacks that terrorizing the Washington area and all the residents around. No one has yet put a face on the killer, but authorities are asking people to be especially alert.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Police are circulating a composite image of a truck seen at several of the attack sites, and they've created a quick response plan aimed at catching the killer. For all the latest developments, we head now to Montgomery County, Maryland, where our Bill Hemmer standing by live. Good morning, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Renay, Carol, good morning to both of you. A couple of things to just keep straight for our viewers, because as we get deeper into the story, oftentimes becomes a bit more confusing.
There are two vehicles being talked about. One is this composite that was given out last night that only deals directly with the incidence, the shootings that have taken place here in Montgomery County. The other vehicle is this Chevrolet Astro van that at least one witness, maybe more, are spotted on Friday morning. Fredericksburg, Virginia, Spotsylvania County, around 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, the scene of the last fatality, the last incident for this serial sniper, a 53-year-old man, Kenneth Bridges, gunned down at the Exxon station while he's putting gas into his car. At least one witness has described this white Chevrolet Astro van leaving the scene.
Now, whether or not that has anything to do with that case in Fredericksburg is not clear, but the point is, officials want that word out.
Now, what you're looking at here is a different story. That's the composite. We can put it back up for our viewers once again. This is the composite that was called together through a number of interviews done with eyewitnesses here in Montgomery County, in the area of Rockville. All of these shootings go back well over a week or more.
Now, what's interesting about this truck here is the number of characteristics have been described to us. It's a white van, as you can see, and on the side and the back there, it's a roll-up door in the back. The bumper is indented back on the right side there, damage to the right rear bumper. They described it possibly as an older truck, with oxidized paint, no sheen or glean on it. And on the side, if you go back to the previous picture, you will see some large block lettering, in fact, two rows, but what those words are is not clear.
In addition to that, it's not clear what the license tag number was as well, but anyway, this word came out last night, Saturday evening here, and right now investigators trying to jog the memories of anyone who may have more information about this vehicle.
We should hear about this a bit later today. Doug Duncan, the Montgomery County executive, did indicate that a larger picture will be released to the media here, and then disseminated to the public. Apparently, a number of people calling in had a bit of confusion about the right rear bumper, how big was the dent, what did it look like, and they're going to release a larger photo a bit later today.
Give you an idea, though, just how jittery this area has become: Around midnight last night, just south of Washington D.C., this is Prince George's County, a murder took place -- a woman with severe trauma to the upper part of her body. Sent police really into a reaction mode, shutting down streets for about 30 minutes, closing off a highway, running inspections as well. That attitude maintained itself until it was determined that there was no connection to the serial sniper. Nonetheless, though, police were asked about their response, and this is what they had to say regarding that action taken last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Anytime you have a shooting in the Washington area, you are going to respond as though this is sniper attack -- is that seems to be what happened tonight?
LT. EVERETT SESKER, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY POLICE: No, no. It depends on what that shooting is. If we have reason to believe that it might be a sniper attack, then we will, or until we can clearly say that is it is not one, we will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: The chief, Chief Charles Moose says it's a rather complex investigation -- that's an understatement at this point. And we've seen a number of incidents for the past several days here now. Anytime something goes off, the immediate thought is perhaps this has something to do with the sniper, and it has caused a lot of people not only to get the jitters, but also send the law enforcement agencies into overdrive right now.
They've essentially enacted plans, Carol and Renay, not only in Virginia, but also here in Maryland as well, to get some sort of response -- a quick action response put into place, and the best example, I think, is Friday morning when that 53-year-old man was gunned down there at the Exxon station. Within seven minutes time, they had the freeways shut down, the on ramps and the exit ramps shut down, they were funneling the traffic all into one singe lane to try and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) through and find the sniper, if he or she was in any bit of that traffic there.
We will hear more. We do know that 9:30 a.m. Eastern time is the next scheduled briefing for Chief Charles Moose, and perhaps we'll get better direction. At this point, though, it's Sunday morning, no shootings to speak of in the past 48 hours. Back to you now at the CNN center.
SAN MIGUEL: Just as it was last weekend at this time as well. Bill Hemmer, we'll be hearing from you later on this morning. Thank you very much.
LIN: Thanks, Bill.
SAN MIGUEL: Police are getting thousands of tips about the sniper attacks, but they are pleading for even more information, hoping for the clue that cracks the case and leads them to the killer. With more on the investigation, we are joined by, once again, by former FBI investigator Don Clark. Thank you so much for sticking around with us this morning.
DON CLARK, FORMER FBI INVESTIGATOR: Thank you, Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: Let's focus on the composite image of the truck that has been released here. How effective do you think this is going to be in helping to catch the sniper, when you consider that if he is watching the media coverage as we all are, he can change the truck, or they could change up their method here?
CLARK: Well, he certainly could do that, Renay, but having the opportunity to put together a composite as this -- such as this truck tells people that that vehicle is out there some place. So what we're hoping and what the law enforcement community would be hoping is that this would jog someone's memory that says, look, I've seen a truck like this, I know someone who has a truck like this, I know someone who uses a truck of this nature. So, whether the person changes or not, there still may be an opportunity to get further leads just based on this composite.
SAN MIGUEL: And based on, you know, if we get more information about dents, and partial plates or whatever, maybe that even -- might even jog somebody's memory even more.
CLARK: Absolutely, because every bit and piece of information at this stage of the case is going to be significant, because yet again, it's filling in a blank to that puzzle, information about the license plates, as you've said, other things, and then something else may flare up in one's mind that they recall seeing, and they may call the police, and they should call the police if that happens.
SAN MIGUEL: We got an e-mail from Lori out of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada involving this particular issue on the sniper shootings. "After releasing the composite drawing of the white cube van, it appears to be a service delivery type vehicle, that would be provided by a company. Doesn't this indicate that the sniper might only have access to this van Monday through Friday, which might also explain why there have been no attacks during the weekends?"
CLARK: Well, you know, that's a great assessment. It is likely that that could be the case, that the person is using some company vehicle to involve these -- and to conduct these attacks from, but nonetheless, the law enforcement community, I'm sure, is not going to just drop its guard on the weekends and figure that this person can't get this vehicle until the weekend. Keep in mind, we've also heard, Renay, that there's another vehicle that people have seen in another area, so he may have access to several vehicles, so, we still got to hold tight and keep our eyes and ears open.
SAN MIGUEL: Excellent point there -- let's talk -- can you talk a little bit about geographic profiling? We have had 10 incidents now, and there have been talk about, you know, the more incidents that happen there, the more clues that can be gleaned from this, in terms of discovering where this sniper, where the sniper or snipers may be in the area -- they may be working. I've heard that they've don't like to hunt in their own particular neighborhood, but they do stay kind of close to home. Can you talk about that?
CLARK: Well, I'm not a profiler, Renay, but I've worked extensively with these profilers, and I understand exactly what they're saying about this concept. Clearly, this appears to be a geographical type of a situation, where you have a person that's working in a particular area.
And we must understand, and I know you know, and the people who live around the area, that when you're talking about the Washington D.C. area, even though there are two states and a district involved, and several counties involved, it's really one single area, even as far down as Fredericksburg, because people commute and everyone knows that area.
So, it's very easy to be pretty comfortable in that particular area in its totality, because someone could have access -- they may work and travel, deliver, do things, in all over that area. So, that's not difficult, for one, to be able to perceive if you know that area up there. It's not like you're driving 200 miles to a separate state or driving across Texas, for an example.
So, it is very key at this stage that here we are in an area, and I consider this one single area, even though it's across several lines.
SAN MIGUEL: We have another e-mail from Terry, calling -- writing in; "By making statements about how skilled this shooter is, aren't we just feeding this person's ego?" And know, address that, but also the media coverage and how you think that's playing into the sniper's activities.
CLARK: Well, you know, you never know what's going to fuel the ego of these people. By making statements of any kind could cause some fuel, and I think what's important for the police to do is to make statements to the media that can help the public, number one, and number two, that can extract information from the public. That is the sole purpose of it.
And I think the media can and has been, and in my experience, especially with the rail car killer here in Texas, an extensive role in being able to get information out to the public. We, all of us citizens, we need this outlet to know what's going on out there, because the information, if we don't get this information to know what to look for, have some idea as to the type of activities the that police have been able to provide to us up to this point, then we won't be able to help the police.
So, I would say, let's go on the side of getting some information out there, and this is the best outlet to do it.
SAN MIGUEL: I know that, you know, obviously the media has plenty of cameras in the neighborhood, but also some of the city and local governments around there do too. After September 11, there were more surveillance cameras put inside Washington D.C. and around the areas. How important is -- could that be in helping to break the case here -- just -- you know -- just the advent of surveillance cameras keeping an eye on everybody.
CLARK: Right. Renay, I think it's a good thing in this particular case that we have these cameras out there, but as you well know, that certainly since 9/11 of '01, there have been a significant number of cameras and other types of surveillance devices placed out on private properties, on government properties as well.
But we've lived in a society for quite a few years where cameras have become pretty commonplace, to the point that sometimes we don't even pay any attention to them, we just walk right by them and we just totally ignore them, and then they're places where cameras are there and we don't see them.
So, I think this plays a significant role, because I think what the law enforcement community has probably already done is gone and tried to identify as many of those as they possibly can, and be able to extract that information from it.
It's a significant tool, and of course, none of us are in favor of being -- I'll use the term, spied on all the time, but in a safety situation where the camera's visible, where there's no real expectation of privacy there, it works to the advantage of the law enforcement, and out of safety at this point.
SAN MIGUEL: Some call it spied on or "big brother," but in this case it could -- it could really be a very valuable tool for law enforcement.
Former FBI investigator Don Clark -- thank you so much for your time, we appreciate your staying with us this morning.
CLARK: Thank you, Renay.
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 13, 2002 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, we begin with the serial sniper attacks -- those sniper attacks that terrorizing the Washington area and all the residents around. No one has yet put a face on the killer, but authorities are asking people to be especially alert.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Police are circulating a composite image of a truck seen at several of the attack sites, and they've created a quick response plan aimed at catching the killer. For all the latest developments, we head now to Montgomery County, Maryland, where our Bill Hemmer standing by live. Good morning, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Renay, Carol, good morning to both of you. A couple of things to just keep straight for our viewers, because as we get deeper into the story, oftentimes becomes a bit more confusing.
There are two vehicles being talked about. One is this composite that was given out last night that only deals directly with the incidence, the shootings that have taken place here in Montgomery County. The other vehicle is this Chevrolet Astro van that at least one witness, maybe more, are spotted on Friday morning. Fredericksburg, Virginia, Spotsylvania County, around 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, the scene of the last fatality, the last incident for this serial sniper, a 53-year-old man, Kenneth Bridges, gunned down at the Exxon station while he's putting gas into his car. At least one witness has described this white Chevrolet Astro van leaving the scene.
Now, whether or not that has anything to do with that case in Fredericksburg is not clear, but the point is, officials want that word out.
Now, what you're looking at here is a different story. That's the composite. We can put it back up for our viewers once again. This is the composite that was called together through a number of interviews done with eyewitnesses here in Montgomery County, in the area of Rockville. All of these shootings go back well over a week or more.
Now, what's interesting about this truck here is the number of characteristics have been described to us. It's a white van, as you can see, and on the side and the back there, it's a roll-up door in the back. The bumper is indented back on the right side there, damage to the right rear bumper. They described it possibly as an older truck, with oxidized paint, no sheen or glean on it. And on the side, if you go back to the previous picture, you will see some large block lettering, in fact, two rows, but what those words are is not clear.
In addition to that, it's not clear what the license tag number was as well, but anyway, this word came out last night, Saturday evening here, and right now investigators trying to jog the memories of anyone who may have more information about this vehicle.
We should hear about this a bit later today. Doug Duncan, the Montgomery County executive, did indicate that a larger picture will be released to the media here, and then disseminated to the public. Apparently, a number of people calling in had a bit of confusion about the right rear bumper, how big was the dent, what did it look like, and they're going to release a larger photo a bit later today.
Give you an idea, though, just how jittery this area has become: Around midnight last night, just south of Washington D.C., this is Prince George's County, a murder took place -- a woman with severe trauma to the upper part of her body. Sent police really into a reaction mode, shutting down streets for about 30 minutes, closing off a highway, running inspections as well. That attitude maintained itself until it was determined that there was no connection to the serial sniper. Nonetheless, though, police were asked about their response, and this is what they had to say regarding that action taken last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Anytime you have a shooting in the Washington area, you are going to respond as though this is sniper attack -- is that seems to be what happened tonight?
LT. EVERETT SESKER, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY POLICE: No, no. It depends on what that shooting is. If we have reason to believe that it might be a sniper attack, then we will, or until we can clearly say that is it is not one, we will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: The chief, Chief Charles Moose says it's a rather complex investigation -- that's an understatement at this point. And we've seen a number of incidents for the past several days here now. Anytime something goes off, the immediate thought is perhaps this has something to do with the sniper, and it has caused a lot of people not only to get the jitters, but also send the law enforcement agencies into overdrive right now.
They've essentially enacted plans, Carol and Renay, not only in Virginia, but also here in Maryland as well, to get some sort of response -- a quick action response put into place, and the best example, I think, is Friday morning when that 53-year-old man was gunned down there at the Exxon station. Within seven minutes time, they had the freeways shut down, the on ramps and the exit ramps shut down, they were funneling the traffic all into one singe lane to try and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) through and find the sniper, if he or she was in any bit of that traffic there.
We will hear more. We do know that 9:30 a.m. Eastern time is the next scheduled briefing for Chief Charles Moose, and perhaps we'll get better direction. At this point, though, it's Sunday morning, no shootings to speak of in the past 48 hours. Back to you now at the CNN center.
SAN MIGUEL: Just as it was last weekend at this time as well. Bill Hemmer, we'll be hearing from you later on this morning. Thank you very much.
LIN: Thanks, Bill.
SAN MIGUEL: Police are getting thousands of tips about the sniper attacks, but they are pleading for even more information, hoping for the clue that cracks the case and leads them to the killer. With more on the investigation, we are joined by, once again, by former FBI investigator Don Clark. Thank you so much for sticking around with us this morning.
DON CLARK, FORMER FBI INVESTIGATOR: Thank you, Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: Let's focus on the composite image of the truck that has been released here. How effective do you think this is going to be in helping to catch the sniper, when you consider that if he is watching the media coverage as we all are, he can change the truck, or they could change up their method here?
CLARK: Well, he certainly could do that, Renay, but having the opportunity to put together a composite as this -- such as this truck tells people that that vehicle is out there some place. So what we're hoping and what the law enforcement community would be hoping is that this would jog someone's memory that says, look, I've seen a truck like this, I know someone who has a truck like this, I know someone who uses a truck of this nature. So, whether the person changes or not, there still may be an opportunity to get further leads just based on this composite.
SAN MIGUEL: And based on, you know, if we get more information about dents, and partial plates or whatever, maybe that even -- might even jog somebody's memory even more.
CLARK: Absolutely, because every bit and piece of information at this stage of the case is going to be significant, because yet again, it's filling in a blank to that puzzle, information about the license plates, as you've said, other things, and then something else may flare up in one's mind that they recall seeing, and they may call the police, and they should call the police if that happens.
SAN MIGUEL: We got an e-mail from Lori out of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada involving this particular issue on the sniper shootings. "After releasing the composite drawing of the white cube van, it appears to be a service delivery type vehicle, that would be provided by a company. Doesn't this indicate that the sniper might only have access to this van Monday through Friday, which might also explain why there have been no attacks during the weekends?"
CLARK: Well, you know, that's a great assessment. It is likely that that could be the case, that the person is using some company vehicle to involve these -- and to conduct these attacks from, but nonetheless, the law enforcement community, I'm sure, is not going to just drop its guard on the weekends and figure that this person can't get this vehicle until the weekend. Keep in mind, we've also heard, Renay, that there's another vehicle that people have seen in another area, so he may have access to several vehicles, so, we still got to hold tight and keep our eyes and ears open.
SAN MIGUEL: Excellent point there -- let's talk -- can you talk a little bit about geographic profiling? We have had 10 incidents now, and there have been talk about, you know, the more incidents that happen there, the more clues that can be gleaned from this, in terms of discovering where this sniper, where the sniper or snipers may be in the area -- they may be working. I've heard that they've don't like to hunt in their own particular neighborhood, but they do stay kind of close to home. Can you talk about that?
CLARK: Well, I'm not a profiler, Renay, but I've worked extensively with these profilers, and I understand exactly what they're saying about this concept. Clearly, this appears to be a geographical type of a situation, where you have a person that's working in a particular area.
And we must understand, and I know you know, and the people who live around the area, that when you're talking about the Washington D.C. area, even though there are two states and a district involved, and several counties involved, it's really one single area, even as far down as Fredericksburg, because people commute and everyone knows that area.
So, it's very easy to be pretty comfortable in that particular area in its totality, because someone could have access -- they may work and travel, deliver, do things, in all over that area. So, that's not difficult, for one, to be able to perceive if you know that area up there. It's not like you're driving 200 miles to a separate state or driving across Texas, for an example.
So, it is very key at this stage that here we are in an area, and I consider this one single area, even though it's across several lines.
SAN MIGUEL: We have another e-mail from Terry, calling -- writing in; "By making statements about how skilled this shooter is, aren't we just feeding this person's ego?" And know, address that, but also the media coverage and how you think that's playing into the sniper's activities.
CLARK: Well, you know, you never know what's going to fuel the ego of these people. By making statements of any kind could cause some fuel, and I think what's important for the police to do is to make statements to the media that can help the public, number one, and number two, that can extract information from the public. That is the sole purpose of it.
And I think the media can and has been, and in my experience, especially with the rail car killer here in Texas, an extensive role in being able to get information out to the public. We, all of us citizens, we need this outlet to know what's going on out there, because the information, if we don't get this information to know what to look for, have some idea as to the type of activities the that police have been able to provide to us up to this point, then we won't be able to help the police.
So, I would say, let's go on the side of getting some information out there, and this is the best outlet to do it.
SAN MIGUEL: I know that, you know, obviously the media has plenty of cameras in the neighborhood, but also some of the city and local governments around there do too. After September 11, there were more surveillance cameras put inside Washington D.C. and around the areas. How important is -- could that be in helping to break the case here -- just -- you know -- just the advent of surveillance cameras keeping an eye on everybody.
CLARK: Right. Renay, I think it's a good thing in this particular case that we have these cameras out there, but as you well know, that certainly since 9/11 of '01, there have been a significant number of cameras and other types of surveillance devices placed out on private properties, on government properties as well.
But we've lived in a society for quite a few years where cameras have become pretty commonplace, to the point that sometimes we don't even pay any attention to them, we just walk right by them and we just totally ignore them, and then they're places where cameras are there and we don't see them.
So, I think this plays a significant role, because I think what the law enforcement community has probably already done is gone and tried to identify as many of those as they possibly can, and be able to extract that information from it.
It's a significant tool, and of course, none of us are in favor of being -- I'll use the term, spied on all the time, but in a safety situation where the camera's visible, where there's no real expectation of privacy there, it works to the advantage of the law enforcement, and out of safety at this point.
SAN MIGUEL: Some call it spied on or "big brother," but in this case it could -- it could really be a very valuable tool for law enforcement.
Former FBI investigator Don Clark -- thank you so much for your time, we appreciate your staying with us this morning.
CLARK: Thank you, Renay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
