Possible copycat sniper in W. VA...

[MKSheppard]

Possible copycat Sniper

W.Va. Residents Fear Possible Sniper

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Authorities have expressed concern that three recent killings resemble last year's sniper shootings, which panicked the Washington area in October.

Police have confirmed that the three Charleston-area shootings could be the work of a single sniper. They have also acknowledged that the bullets in all three attacks were fired from the same caliber and class of weapon, all from more than 30 yards away. They have not linked the three to the same weapon.

The victims lived about 10 miles apart, but apparently did not know each other. All three killings were after dark.

When the sniper preyed on the Washington suburbs last year, Jeanie Patton feared she could be next, though she lived hundreds of miles away.

"She said, 'Mom, I'm almost afraid to go out. Something like that could happen here in West Virginia,'" her mother, Joyce Patton, recalled.

Jeanie Patton, 31, was shot in the head
Thursday while pumping gasoline at a Speedway convenience store about five miles from her home.

Less than two hours later, 26-year-old Okey Meadows Jr. was shot in the neck at a Go- Mart. And four days earlier, Gary Carrier Jr., 34, was shot in the head while using a pay phone outside another Go-Mart in Charleston.

Meadows, the divorced father of a 3-year-old, was getting ready for a college admissions test so he could take classes at West Virginia State College.

"He was trying to show his son that he could do anything if he put his mind to it," said Robert Williams, a friend.

Meadows, who lived in Campbells Creek, could bench 225 pounds and sometimes would hold his mother above his head after hugging and kissing her hello.

"He'd say that was how he showed her he loved her," said his aunt, Donna Tinsley.

Carrier also was a divorced father. He left behind three sons and one daughter, ages 10 to 25.

Carrier, a mechanic who lived in South Charleston, was a NASCAR fan and owned a selection of Dale Earnhardt T-shirts. He was a jokester, whose friends would hang out at Charleston Tire, where he worked until recently.

"One morning I came in here, they had sat my desk up on four-inch rims and dropped my chair down to the floor," said Lisa Bishop, the garage's secretary. "We never had a bad day when he was around."

Carrier's brother, Greg, said he could not come up with a motive in the death.

"No matter how much I think about it, it just doesn't make sense," he said. "I know the police are trying hard, but so far no one can figure it out."

Patton, who lived in Campbells Creek, was a substitute cook and custodian for Kanawha County schools.

"Jeanie never hurt a person in her life," Joyce Patton said.

Patton's 14-year-old son was struggling with the news of his mother's death, said her father, Larry Patton.

"He took it pretty hard," Larry Patton said. "But the hardest part is still to come."

Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Xenophobe3691]

Oh great...

[Solauren]

A law should be passed where copy cats get the same sentence as the original (if convicted) or if not, get twice the normal duration for being stupid

[EmperorMing]

Geeez, not again...

[LadyTevar]

Lastest Update: Positive Leads

The police are also still seeking links between the victims, believing that the shootings may not be as random as first thought.

Still... I'm filling up my car only during the daylight hours, thankyouverymuch. Of course, it would be nicer if gas wasn't $1.60/gallon right now

[LadyTevar]

Erm... Maybe I should post the article, since the site goes to a 'member forum' after 24 hrs...

August 19, 2003
Authorities get ‘positive leads’

Shooting victims could have been specific targets, not random, police say

By Tom Searls
STAFF WRITER

Investigators might be changing their emphasis in the probe of three fatal Kanawha County shootings last week, from random victims to people who were targeted by a killer.
Officers might have received a break Monday when they interviewed more than 100 people along Campbells Creek, leaving them with new information. “They developed quite a few leads, positive leads,” said Phil Morris, Kanawha County chief deputy.
“We haven’t ruled anything out,” Sheriff Dave Tucker told a host of news media representatives Monday afternoon outside the Kanawha County Courthouse.
The two victims who were shot on Thursday night lived along Campbells Creek, about three miles apart.
Jeanie Patton, 31, was gunned down while pumping gas at a Campbells Creek Drive convenience store about 10:20 p.m. Slightly more than an hour later, Okey Meadows Jr., 26, was shot and killed outside a Cedar Grove convenience store.
Both were shot in the head area with small-caliber bullets fired from some distance away.
Four days earlier, Gary Carrier Jr., 44, of South Charleston was shot in the head with a small-caliber weapon while using a pay phone outside a convenience store on Charleston’s West Side.
Police have not linked the three shootings to the same weapon, but have concluded that all three victims were killed by bullets with the “same characteristics,” Morris said.

Flooding Campbells Creek with police officers Monday helped to get residents to speak freely with investigators, Morris said. And the information officers gleaned could lead to a motive for at least the two Campbells Creek victims.
“The public has to feel safe and, when they feel safe, here comes the information about what’s going on up Campbells Creek,” he said.
Morris said investigators will return to interview more people there today and said the key may be “what is going on on Campbells Creek and why this shooting occurred.”
He would not elaborate on the new information.
Officers plan to offer polygraph examinations to some who spoke with them Monday and are turning all information over to a joint federal-state-local task force investigating the three slayings.
“Apparently there was a large amount of pedestrian traffic going in and out of one of the Meadows residences [Monday],” Morris said.
Deputies interviewed a number of those people and focused on the two Thursday slayings.
Tucker said the idea of random victims is still being investigated, as well as all others. “We don’t want to create tunnel vision [for investigators],” he said.

Investigators also slightly changed the description of a pickup truck they have been looking for in relation to the Thursday killings. The full-size pickup with an extended cab might not be black with gold trim, Tucker said.
In fact, police narrowed the search by saying it appears similar to a Ford F-150 pickup and it is “dark colored,” and could be maroon.
The truck was observed for about 20 minutes by a witness at the Cedar Grove shooting, while at least one other person told police a similar truck was seen on Campbells Creek Drive prior to Patton’s shooting.
“At that time of night it could’ve been a dark blue truck; it could’ve been maroon,” Tucker said.
The driver is still said to be a heavy-set white man. Tucker noted that that person was seen only while sitting in the truck.
Reports of sightings of black or dark-colored trucks have poured in to police agencies. Police began intense patrols Friday and have pulled over numerous trucks that match the description handed out by Tucker last week.
Morris said every time a truck is pulled over, the driver is questioned and the license plate is recorded to avoid future inquiries.
“We’ve got over 100 leads to check throughout the Kanawha Valley on the vehicle, possible shooter and how those might relate. We’re checking those out,” Morris said.

Task force members have formed teams of investigators to follow the more than 100 leads that have come from the case. Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies, Charleston police and FBI investigators make up the teams, which have been following up scores of tips.
The sheriff said the small teams of investigators have been used to do the “foot work” in the investigation and could be the crucial part of the case. He called the more than 100 leads so far in the case “very solid,” but did not name any suspects.
FBI agents who worked on the sniper killings case in the Washington, D.C., suburbs are working with the team, Tucker said.
He continued to try to open communication with the suspect during the news conference, saying, “Call our numbers. Let’s talk. If there is a problem, let’s talk. We’ve got to reach out.”
Tucker also urged county residents to continue to be careful by going to convenience stores during daylight hours, or with others, and by “looking around at your surroundings.”
He also urged residents to be patient with the investigation.
“I’d say we’re close [to making an arrest]. As an investigator, you’ve got to be patient.”

Staff writer Charles Shumaker contributed to this story. To contact staff writer Tom Searls, use e-mail or call 348-5192.

[Tribun]

I really wondered, when this would happen. We call guys like that here in Germany "Trittbrettfahrer". People who jump on the train and think, they could do it better (or bloodier).

[Sir Sirius]

Of course, it would be nicer if gas wasn't $1.60/gallon right now

Bah, you haver nothing to whine about. Gas is about a Euro a litre here.

[Oberleutnant]

Indeed. I'm so tired of listening how "gas prices are insane" in the US of A.