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New sniper killings panic in US
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
New sniper killings panic in US
JACQUI GODDARD IN MIAMI
JEANIE Patton, a school cook, never had much money to spare, but when she did she would spend it on presents for her family.
Typically, she had just dropped off a new toy for her eight-month-old nephew when she stopped for petrol five miles from her home in Campbells Creek, West Virginia. As she stood at the pump refuelling her red Pontiac Firebird, a single bullet tore through the back of her skull, killing her.
It was an extraordinary end to an otherwise ordinary life and an event that has caused fear and panic among the town's 850-strong population as police confirm they are hunting a serial sniper who has now claimed three - possibly four - lives in a string of attacks that are almost carbon copies of last year's Washington sniper attacks.
Four days earlier, Gary Carrier, 44, a father-of-four, was fatally shot through the head while using a payphone outside a GoMart convenience store in the state capital, Charleston. And less than two hours after Ms Patton's death, an electrician Okey Meadows, 26, died after being felled by a bullet in the neck while paying for a carton of milk at a GoMart in the suburb of Cedar Grove.
"This guy is just on a rampage," wept Mr Meadows's uncle, William Schwab. "He's going to take anybody's life that he wants to. It's a game to him, it's a God complex ... he's going to keep doing this until he gets caught."
The series of shootings has resurrected still-raw memories of last October's sniper spree in the Washington area, when ten people were killed and three injured by an unseen gunman. John Muhammed, 42, and Lee Boyd Malvo,18, are now awaiting trial for the murders - they have allegedly been linked to a total of 20 killings in five states - and could face the death penalty if convicted.
At the time, Jeannie Patton, 31, followed news of the sniper attacks with dread, her mother Joyce recalled.
Last Thursday night, that fear was realised. Sandy Clay, a former emergency nurse who lives in a second-floor flat overlooking the Speedway petrol station, heard a single shot ring out at 10:10pm.
"I looked out the window and saw her lying there beside the pumps," she said. She raced downstairs, where a bystander tore off his shirt to cover the victim's bleeding mouth as Mrs Clay attempted to breathe life back into her.
As Ms Patton lay dying, a dark-coloured pick-up truck was seen driving away from the scene at high speed. A similar vehicle, sporting gold trim and tinted windows, was also spotted at the scene of Mr Meadows' shooting a short while later.
"The truck had been parked outside the GoMart for about 20 minutes, and moved from one end of the lot to the other, where it drew attention," said Kanawha County police chief, Deputy Phil Morris. "Something just didn't seem to be right about that pick-up. As soon as the shot was made, (Meadows) dropped to the ground and the vehicle sped away, spinning its tyres."
Investigators who worked on the Washington area sniper inquiry last year have been drafted in, along with the FBI and other federal agencies, to assist in the hunt for the latest sharpshooter, who is believed to be a stocky white man. So far, he has struck only at night, apparently singling out his victims at random and picking them off with a small-calibre weapon.
Officers have not yet ruled out that he might have claimed his first victim as far back as March, when 29-year-old Randy Burgess was inexplicably shot dead with a high-powered rifle while leaving a convenience store in Kanawha City, only a few miles from the latest shootings.
Police patrols have been stepped up around the Kanawha County area and residents warned to be on their guard. Motorists are being urged to take a companion with them if out driving at night and to try to avoid filling stations after dark. The news has caused jitters in the local community.
"I haven't been able to rest at all, I'm so nervous," Heather Hammack, 28, told the Washington Post as she fuelled her car at the Charleston GoMart where Mr Carrier was shot. "I'm scared just walking to the car."
One of the most heavily armed states, West Virginia has relatively slack gun-control laws and Kanawha County Commission president, Kent Carper, believes the sniper might ultimately run into return fire. "People here are of tough stock," he warned.
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=910742003
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
JACQUI GODDARD IN MIAMI
JEANIE Patton, a school cook, never had much money to spare, but when she did she would spend it on presents for her family.
Typically, she had just dropped off a new toy for her eight-month-old nephew when she stopped for petrol five miles from her home in Campbells Creek, West Virginia. As she stood at the pump refuelling her red Pontiac Firebird, a single bullet tore through the back of her skull, killing her.
It was an extraordinary end to an otherwise ordinary life and an event that has caused fear and panic among the town's 850-strong population as police confirm they are hunting a serial sniper who has now claimed three - possibly four - lives in a string of attacks that are almost carbon copies of last year's Washington sniper attacks.
Four days earlier, Gary Carrier, 44, a father-of-four, was fatally shot through the head while using a payphone outside a GoMart convenience store in the state capital, Charleston. And less than two hours after Ms Patton's death, an electrician Okey Meadows, 26, died after being felled by a bullet in the neck while paying for a carton of milk at a GoMart in the suburb of Cedar Grove.
"This guy is just on a rampage," wept Mr Meadows's uncle, William Schwab. "He's going to take anybody's life that he wants to. It's a game to him, it's a God complex ... he's going to keep doing this until he gets caught."
The series of shootings has resurrected still-raw memories of last October's sniper spree in the Washington area, when ten people were killed and three injured by an unseen gunman. John Muhammed, 42, and Lee Boyd Malvo,18, are now awaiting trial for the murders - they have allegedly been linked to a total of 20 killings in five states - and could face the death penalty if convicted.
At the time, Jeannie Patton, 31, followed news of the sniper attacks with dread, her mother Joyce recalled.
Last Thursday night, that fear was realised. Sandy Clay, a former emergency nurse who lives in a second-floor flat overlooking the Speedway petrol station, heard a single shot ring out at 10:10pm.
"I looked out the window and saw her lying there beside the pumps," she said. She raced downstairs, where a bystander tore off his shirt to cover the victim's bleeding mouth as Mrs Clay attempted to breathe life back into her.
As Ms Patton lay dying, a dark-coloured pick-up truck was seen driving away from the scene at high speed. A similar vehicle, sporting gold trim and tinted windows, was also spotted at the scene of Mr Meadows' shooting a short while later.
"The truck had been parked outside the GoMart for about 20 minutes, and moved from one end of the lot to the other, where it drew attention," said Kanawha County police chief, Deputy Phil Morris. "Something just didn't seem to be right about that pick-up. As soon as the shot was made, (Meadows) dropped to the ground and the vehicle sped away, spinning its tyres."
Investigators who worked on the Washington area sniper inquiry last year have been drafted in, along with the FBI and other federal agencies, to assist in the hunt for the latest sharpshooter, who is believed to be a stocky white man. So far, he has struck only at night, apparently singling out his victims at random and picking them off with a small-calibre weapon.
Officers have not yet ruled out that he might have claimed his first victim as far back as March, when 29-year-old Randy Burgess was inexplicably shot dead with a high-powered rifle while leaving a convenience store in Kanawha City, only a few miles from the latest shootings.
Police patrols have been stepped up around the Kanawha County area and residents warned to be on their guard. Motorists are being urged to take a companion with them if out driving at night and to try to avoid filling stations after dark. The news has caused jitters in the local community.
"I haven't been able to rest at all, I'm so nervous," Heather Hammack, 28, told the Washington Post as she fuelled her car at the Charleston GoMart where Mr Carrier was shot. "I'm scared just walking to the car."
One of the most heavily armed states, West Virginia has relatively slack gun-control laws and Kanawha County Commission president, Kent Carper, believes the sniper might ultimately run into return fire. "People here are of tough stock," he warned.
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=910742003
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>