A New Terror - Part Two [2]

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A deadly rampage victims slain randomly, all within a one mile radius, all within fifteen hours. The first shooting at six oh four last night, a fifty five year old Caucasian mail killed in the parking lot of a grocery store. Then early this morning, at seven forty one, a Hispanic man mowing his lawn shot dead. Half an hour later, a forty year old cab driver gunned down while pumping gas. Then another thirty minutes later, a Hispanic woman shot fatally in the head.

It was a wrong eight in the morning.

Aparked my car and I was laid for work, so I was running.

My name is Susye Cooper.

I was very lucky because at eight o'clock in the morning, I was the only car in that area, so they could easily have gotten me. I got inside the beauty shop and I went to have a cup of coffee, and all of a sudden I heard shot. I was really shaky. I opened the back.

Door, thinking it was coming from there. No.

But then night I went back up front of the shop and I saw this woman sitting on a bench.

She was dead. It was so hard to believe what I was saying. You would think you're at a movie scene. You know, it was a mess.

The bench was in front of a restaurant, so the bullet went through the window of the restaurant.

That poor woman didn't see it coming.

There is a ruthless person on the loose. What U nerves this community the most is the randomness of the murders. Ordinary people doing ordinary things.

All that the victims appeared to have had in common, each was shot to death by a single bullet.

Be careful, these guys are using weapons that are going to go right straight through our bullet proof vests.

The massive man on continues, but police admit they don't know who are, what they're dealing with, or what their motive might be.

The White Bag.

From iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV. This is Monster DC sniper Thirty four year old Sierah Ramos was sitting on a bench in front of a Peruvian restaurant when the sniper shot and killed her. This was now the second day of attacks. Earlier that morning, Sunny Buchanan and prim Kumar Wallacher had both been shot and killed, making the third

Oh boy, this feels a little this feels a little loft putty.

We're sitting in the parking lot and this is where Sarah Ramos was killed. Sarah was thirty four years old. She had just gotten off a bus and she was sitting on a bench, you know, next to a post office, and she was reading a book and she was shot. She was just I mean, the randomness of it. And that's what really gets you about all of these killings. You know, you're essentially a sitting duck. You have no way to defend yourself.

No one did.

A woman sitting on a bench reading a book. How friggin cowardly is that. It's just the idea that she's just plucked off man And just like that's no regard for human life at all. That's just that's literally target practice and they just drive away. That just sort of brings home for me the depravity of all of it.

The victim was laying on a bench with a sheet over her. That was horrible, really. That's the first one that I went to. My name is John Desulis. I was a crime analyst for Montgovernent Keny Police. They called me to interview a witness who only spoke Spanish, Juan Carlos I think his name is.

When police first arrived at the crime scene, they found one Carlos Vieta nearby.

They don't know if he's a suspect, if he's a witness. He's probably around twenty two, I think, typical landscape looking guy where you know the landscape or uniform. So I took him aside and started asking him questions. He was pretty clear that he didn't see where the shots came from. There's a there's an access route that runs parallel to

Vita described a white box truck, a delivery truck with a cab and separate cargo. Area police immediately started pulling over white box trucks and similar vehicles, but finding that one truck in the middle of DC's rush hour traffic was almost impossible.

Well, you know how many white box trucks there are out there.

You're going to see at least two or three white vans or box trucks sitting in just about every parking lot in the country. My name is David C. Reichenbaugh, retired Lieutenant Maryland State Police.

Reichenball played a major role in the DC sniper investigation and He later wrote a book that detailed what was going on behind the scenes.

About nine thirty or so, I guess it was. I get a phone call from the Rockville Barrick Dave. I don't know what's going on here in Montgomery County, but there's been a rash of shootings. Montgomery police are running around like crazy. Looks like this might have started the night before. But we've got three bodies down and a shooter out there, and Montgomery County is asking for help. This could be the next terrorist attack. Can you get

Very very little.

We were looking for a couple of guys in a white box truck shooting people. That's about what we knew. We didn't know if we had a single shooter. We didn't know if we had maybe multiple teams. Our troopers were stopping every white van, every white box truck, and their instructions were be careful because these guys are using weapons that are going to go right straight through our bulletproof vests. And a sniper case is about the worst

There have been a number of white vans all across this county that have been stopped by police. Officer's a number of people calling in, in fact, so many people that, as Andrew mentioned, they're inundating the system. Don't call nine one one unless you feel that you have solid information about a white box truck.

Police continued hunting for the white box truck, but the terror of October third was it over, and twenty minutes after the Ramo shooting, and just eight miles south on Connecticut Avenue, the sniper struck again The fourth shooting on October third, took place at nine fifty eight am. Maria Welsh stopped by Safeway after dropping off her kids at school.

So I had come out of the grocery store. Literally, I remember just so vividly that the parking lot was completely empty.

This is very quiet.

It was probably about ten o'clock in the morning, and I just was loading the back of my car up and got in the car.

And as I started the car and went to back out.

Of my parking spot, I heard this loud like fop, this loud like kind of sound. Then at that moment, there was a gentleman walking behind my car. I remember like slamming on the brakes and saying, oh my goodness, did I just hit something? And he says to me, no, it came from in front of your car. So, as I was pulling up towards the main road, which is Connecticut Avenue, I hear someone calling for help and I kind of look over and I see this woman next to the vacuum cleaner laying on the ground.

That woman, Lorii and Louis Rivera, had been cleaning her mini van using the gas station's vacuum. Now she was lying on the pavement tangled in the vacuum cleaner's hose. Maria Welsh, a nurse, jumped out of her car and raced over to help.

And as I was running towards her, then I realized that I probably should have my cell phone in case I needed an ambulance. I turned to grab my cell phone, and when I turned background towards her, it looked like she was having a seizure. I at the time knew nothing about any snighbors shooting, and I thought that something had happened with the vacuum, like an electrical current of some sort. So as I was approaching her, I couldn't really do anything because the vacuum cleaner was still running.

So I called nine one one.

Yeah to the corner of Rolls Can.

A woman was waking in her car.

Something go ast you, I'm glacous.

She's got me out of her nose in her mouth.

What's coming out of her news in her mouth?

Station? Yeah.

The person that answered the phone said, Okay, well, do you know what happened? I said, no, I don't know what happened. I just heard this loud noise, like a loud bang. And she said, what kind of noise do you think it is? And I said, I don't know, like a bomb of some.

Sort, like a bomb. Yeah, but it wasn't a bomb.

I was like that kind of noise like a gunshot.

Baby kind of.

I said, I've never heard a gunshot.

And she said, okay, just sit tight, we'll send an ambulance to you.

And then the vacuum stopped.

I do remember standing there being like, oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do for her?

What can I do for her?

And at this point a small crowd had sort of gathered around me, feeling like we have to do something, you know, what's the matter with her?

Do something?

And of course I make this big announcement like okay, I'm a nurse, I'm gonna do CPR. When I went to go pull the vacuum cleaner hose out from around her, she started bleeding from her mouth, which then prevented me from doing any kind of mouth to mouth, so I just started doing chest compressions. No ambulance arrives, there is a fire station that's less than a quarter of a mile from the gas station that I can see, and I'm thinking, why are they not sending me anything.

I'm like, I need help.

There's like a crowd now and we're all screaming, where's the ambulance, where's the ambulance. I later did find out that they had told first responders not to respond yet until the area was secure. And as a nurse, I can understand that. And you're trying to minimize the amount of casualties you have. You don't send everybody in, but when you're in it, I felt like I was being hung out to dry there for a second.

Within a few minutes, this man shows up in this little.

Pickup truck with like a tackle box of equipment and he says, I'm an EMT and I can help you.

And I said great. I don't know what's happened.

So at that point I start to notice that there's like swat team on top of the buildings across the street from us.

There's agents everywhere.

They have wrapped the entire area with like yellow tape, and they're now gathering people and telling them to go inside the gas station. And this agent comes up to me and tells me, I need to get inside the gas station quickly.

I was like, I don't understand. I'm doing CPR. I'm a nurse.

And he says the EMTs here, he can do it. You go inside, and I'm like, we really should be doing two persons CPR, and he's like, I'll do it and tells me to get inside the gas station. I said, I don't know why everyone's making such a big deal. This woman was vacuum your car, Like what is going on? So now we're all standing in the gas station and I called my husband at the time and I said, gosh,

There was nothing. You couldn't see anything.

At this point, I think it was an FBI agent comes in to take our statements, and I remember asking, I said, you know, can you just tell me what happened with the woman?

Was she shot? And he said she was.

I got a phone call and that was one of the detectives. He asked me, are you Nelson Rivera. I said yes, and he said, Glorie is your wife? Said yes, she just got shot. And you know, from that point now my life changed completely. My name is Nelson Rivera and I was married to Laurie and Louis Rivera. I am from the country of Honduras, Central America. When I came to the United States, I started going to the churchurch Jesus Cribe litter Recent and that's when I met Laurie.

While victims' families grieved the senseless loss of their loved ones, the police and the media were stepping into high gear. Here's former police Lieutenant David Reichenbaugh again.

As word was getting out through the media and everywhere, the panic was starting to set in.

Many of the merchants, out of fear, have locked their doors and they're letting customers in and out as necessary.

There's a great deal of fear going on.

If you remember, this is back in the early days of cable news, so this was new for law enforcement to have to deal with a media that was twenty four to seven. Causes some problems down the road because it was a learning curve, not only I think for the media, but also for us.

There's a lot of concern since these shootings are so random and it's so public that parents have wanted to go to the schools and pull their kids out.

A little while ago, we heard from the local police Captain Charles Moose.

Here's what he had to say.

We have no information that this is anything to do with the schools. None of the victims have been of anything close to school age. None of the locations are close to the schools. I think the school kids are safe. They will be released under normal schedule. We won't create a situation of panic of traffic that at this point the police department is not capable of hounding. Now, certainly I can't arrest a parent that insists on going to the school to get their kid, but please don't do it.

Derek Balliles was a public information officer for Montgomery County, Maryland. It was his jump to manage relations between the media and the police.

Dealing with the media on a case that's attracted the attention of the country was a little bit overwhelming. Showed up in our parking lot and just set up tents in In fact, we called it Camp Moose. Those of us who are public information officers refer to how big an event is based upon how many chemical toilets are delivered, and I believe this was a five seater, so it

Police have had little to go on, only one witnesses description of a white truck speeding away from one murder's a. School Children were kept indoors through the they and police were on hand when schools let out. Police admit they don't know who are, what they're dealing with, or what their motive might be.

The first big day is like, why Montgomery County, who has a grudge? What are they trying to prove?

That's Patrick McNerney, the homicide detective who'd been assigned to the first murder outside the Shopper's food warehouse. Now after four more shootings in Montgomery County, the case and potential motives looked very different.

Who are people who work for the police department might be a little unhinged, either current or retired. Let's find out where these people are and actually put your hand on them and know where they were during this timeframe. And that was our first thing we did, kind of like you know, Wizard of Oz, start at the very beginning of the yellow brick road and you know, work your way out.

But that theory would be quickly thrown out. That night, at nine to twenty pm, investigators got their first indication that the snipers weren't just focused on Montgomery County. The snipers had now moved into the nation's capital. It was now nine to twenty pm the night of October third. After laying low for almost twelve hours, the snipers had just shot their fifth victim of the day, and they crossed over the border into Washington, d C.

Yeah, we got get a shot out here on the I'm on the corner at Georgia and drinking Collomnia.

Street Intection, California.

Okay, k A l M I A word north just by the topogra on a KFT.

He was bleeding like a lor fucker.

He's greaten that.

The victim, Pascal Charlot, was a seventy two year old Haitian immigrant and a retired carpenter. He was standing on a street corner when he was shot.

I need to try and drink it over.

Come on right, Okay there, what's get here?

It just got shot.

He's freaking.

He's like.

He's still breeding.

But Pascal Charlotte died less than an hour later. There were a few witnesses nearby when the shot rang out. One reported seeing a sedan driving with its headlights off. Another saw a bright flash of light, but that was about it. No one had spotted the white box truck let alone its license played. The next morning, Friday, October fourth, Maryland's chief medical examiner autopsied the victims and extracted bullet

It's not unusual for state and local to ask ATF to assist them with firearms related crimes.

ATF, in fact, is the firearms police. Essentially. My name is Walter Dandridge, Junior.

I work for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Firearms have rifling.

Cut into the barrel and they're in a helical twist within the barrel, and so when the bullet is fired, that rifling imparts a spin on the bullet. You see a quarterback throw a football in slow motion and has this tight spiral and is flying straight and true. You want this tight spiral spin in order to maintain the stability of the projectile.

A gun's rifling does more than add a spin to the bullet. It carves grooves into the sides of the bullet as well, creating marks that a forensic firearm examiner like Dandridge can analyze. Dandridge compared the bullets from different shootings against one another to see if they had been fired from the same gun.

So I stick one projectile on the left stage of the comparison microscope, and I'll stick the second projectile on the right stage of the microscope, and I'm looking through the eyepiece, and I can manipulate the bullets on each of those stages, rotating them and looking at the microscopic marks, I could raise the magnification to twenty twenty five thirty

Dandridge confirmed what everyone feared. All of the recovered bullets had been fired from the same high powered rifle. There was a sniper on the loose killed one person on Wednesday, October second, and then five more on Thursday, October third, And now it was Friday, October fourth, and everyone was on edge about what would happen next. Here's retired homicide Detective McNerney again.

It was Friday. I had just gotten in into the office and my supervisor, Nick de Carlo, came to me. He says, listen, you need to get your papers together. You're going to Fredericksburg, Virginia for a shooting outside of a Michael's down there.

Is emercy.

Yes, I am in front of Michaels and somebody's out here, who need some help?

Okay, let's go on.

I'm not sure.

There was a loud crack and she said she needs help and she's lying down home.

So she got injured or uh yeah, I.

Definitely injured shared herself.

I'm not sure it was allowed.

You know, it looks like she's been shot or shot.

Yeah, she saw that.

Okay, I could come back and get my son out of her car.

Yeah, I know, let's get Okay, we're getting somebody on the way. I pulled up and there was a loud you know, gunshot.

Did you see anything or anyone?

You just heard a loud pop.

I heard the call for help, and.

I saw the car.

You saw, Well, I didn't.

I didn't see the car. You didn't see the car I saw.

I noticed that a car was screwing away, but I did not see it.

Okay, anyone else, No, the same thing.

We were aware that the car sped away, but we did not actually cast us what it was.

Okay, someone says there was a man in it.

What about the lady at the sender?

Did she see it?

Lot?

Are people around here right now?

Did you actually see the car?

No, she didn't see it.

Okay, are you in the parking lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Forty three year old Caroline Seawell was the seventh victim in just three days. She just finished a simple errand at Michael's and she was loading bags into her mini van when a bullet pierced her back. It tore through her liver and punctured her lung. But when detective McNerney heard that this shooting, like the first, took place at a Michael's craft store, he perked up.

Now we at least have some connection, you know, what are the connection between these two places? And so this thing happens in Spotsylvania County in Virginia. My surprise, Nick said, listen, you got two helicopters waiting for you over at the police Academy and they'll take you down there. That was my big adventure to fly in the helicopter with the FBI.

As Detective McNerney flew south to Fredericksburg, Virginia, Caroline Seawell was metavacked north to a hospital in Fairfax.

As a matter of fact, our helicopters crossed one another's path on the way down there.

Seawell was rushed into emergency surgery and miraculously she survived. Meanwhile, mcnerney's helicopter arrived in Fredericksburg.

We landed right in the parking lot where the Michaels was down there. And when I went in talking to the manager of the place, you know, what is your connection with Montgomery County? Oddly enough, the same guy who set up the store Montgomery County set up the store in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Okay, well, now we have a connection. Then you know, why would somebody want to shoot you or somebody at the store and we're coming up with blanks on that.

McNerney was convinced that the crimes were connected, but he'd need a bullet to prove it.

The round was recovered, or what was left of it. As Sewell was putting stuff in the back of her van, her arm was up pulling down the tailgate when she was shot. The round went through her and stayed inside the rear of the van. I met with the sheriff, explaining, this is what we have Montgomery County. What you're telling me here fits the things that we're looking for. And then there was discussion about what are you going to

He had his lights and sirens on and the brakes were smoking when he reached the lab.

That's forensic Firearm Examine Walter Dandridge Again.

There was a lot of urgency during this time, but the urgency wasn't at the sacrifice of quality. We didn't do anything different with the sniper investigation other than once we received the evidence, we worked it right through. If that meant working all night. We did that as opposed to quitting after eight hours.

The next morning decision was, yes, it's included in our case. Let's get the sheriff up here and do the press announcement.

The weekend brought a break from the shootings, and some wondered if the spree had ended as quickly as it began, but police were working over time. They interviewed employees from Michaels, questioned white box truck owners, and checked up on people who'd recently bought or sold rifles in the area, but they didn't come up with many promising leads. On Saturday, October fifth, police said they had the tained demand Robert Baker, who had been reported missing around the time of the shootings.

It was very It was very emotional, obviously very devastating to his family. They asked me what his final words were and I told them, you know, unfortunately he didn't have time to say any messages to his family. And I did relate what had happened, and then they asked me to speak, which I was quite shocked that they wanted me to speak.

It was a very big.

Funeral, was in a church. During the time that people were speaking, I had a few minutes to sit down and collect my thoughts, and I did get up and speak. I remember saying that it was such a terrible waste of a life. This is devastating, and I remember thinking that I should try and say something religious, because it wasn't a church. So the only thing I could think of was a blessing to the family, that God would turn his face to them, shine his light on them,

Everyone shared that anxiety, even police officers working the case. Here's retired Maryland State Police Lieutenant David Reichenbaugh.

Again, I was a parent of a teenage girl at that point. Hey, your kids are everything. There's concern, there's panic, and of course there's that. I want to call it the unrealistic thought process, because I went through it too. I was concerned about my kid. Is my kid going to be a target in all this. Now, the police side of me says, that's just unrealistic and the odds are astronomical. But dad part of me says, hey, my

Next time? On Monster DC Sniper.

This was a copy of.

Prince George's County Now on one call.

Well, Hello, this is in middle school.

Uh you got a child out the station. All right, I'm the Prince school to school here, I don't know where, I have no idea.

That's the deathshead terror card. The message here is that quite obvious.

Call me God.

They decide who lives, they decide who dies.

There was a very quick realization that this could be the next stage of a terror campaign.

And there it is all over network news, which meant we had an internal leak.

Monster d C Sniper is a fifteen episode podcast hosted by Tony Harris and produced by iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive producers on behalf of iHeartRadio, alongside producers Trevor Young, ben keebrig and Josh Thain, Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV, alongside producers Meredith Stedman and Christina Dana.