By Kari Lydersen
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, October 13, 2002; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002Oct12.html


CHICAGO, Oct. 12 -- A rash of "serial press conferences" by Washington area authorities could be contributing to the series of shootings that have killed eight people in 10 days, according to forensic scientists speaking on a panel near Chicago today.

"When they're name-calling the guy, making fun of the guy, politically jockeying for sound bites on TV, they're taunting the guy with the rifle," Brent Turvey, an Alaska forensic scientist, said at the annual convention of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling. "They have to realize they're communicating with him; and when he responds, he responds with a gun."

Turvey and forensic psychiatrist Michael McGrath of Rochester, N.Y., described the sniper as motivated by anger and a desire for power, feeding off media attention.

"At first, we have the offender attacking the majority of locations in one day, then the weekend comes and nothing," Turvey said, referring to last weekend. "Over the weekend, he's sitting there listening to the media, and then he responds. We have an M.O. that is evolving depending on what's being said about him on TV."

The analysts described the Oct. 7 shooting of a 13-year-old boy outside a Bowie middle school as a direct response to authorities' comments.

"They were saying that everyone should go back to life as normal, that children would be safe at school, so the offender apparently responded to that by shooting a child," McGrath said.

Likewise, a tarot card found by authorities near the middle school should be viewed as part of a direct dialogue the sniper is having with the public, the analysts said.

"They're saying he's a wannabe, he wants to be God," McGrath said. "He's responding and toying with the authorities. He's saying: 'I don't think I'm God. I am God.' "

They downplayed the typical profile of "a young white male, loner, pathetic, coward -- just like the profile of the anthrax mailer," as Turvey described it. "If you want that type of profiling, you don't need to be doing any real investigation. What we need to be doing is examining crime scenes, bringing in homicide detectives. But I've been watching the evidence destroyed on TV live, people walking all over things, power-spraying blood off the sidewalk. That needs to stop."

While the victims apparently were chosen at random, the crime scenes could be significant. Turvey said the employment logs of the gas stations, post office and other killing locations should be examined, as well as the surveillance video from those and surrounding businesses.

"This could be a former employee, a disgruntled employee who was fired or quit under bad circumstances," said Turvey, author of "Criminal Profiling." "It is someone who is angry, who feels that he has been wronged in some way."

The academy is a professional association of more than 100 lawyers, criminologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and others interested in criminal profile techniques.

McGrath and Turvey said the killer shows no signs of mental illness, and they downplayed the likelihood that the sniper is a foreign terrorist or U.S. military or law enforcement officer.

"At first, I was thinking maybe it could be a terrorist who was cut off from their network," McGrath said. "But if that was the case, by this point they would have wanted people to know why they're doing what they're doing."

Stan Crowder, a military officer and professor in Marietta, Ga., said the ammunition used in the killings holds few clues.

"The caliber used is consistent with an M-16 military weapon or an AR-15, which is a law enforcement weapon," Crowder said. "He obviously has the weapon, knows how to use the weapon and probably has transportation. But that could apply to any Georgia hunter."

The scientists urged media restraint in describing the killer.

"From a public safety perspective, I think the media is doing a good job," Turvey said. But he warned against statements that characterize him as evil.

McGrath and Turvey agreed that the killer is bound to be caught as he becomes bolder and bolder.

"Is this the kind of guy who would go to a bar and start talking himself up?" Turvey said. "Definitely."


*i just read this...and since everything i've read, this is the first thing that i agree with