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Speaker 1: Welcome to Monster DZ Sniper, a production of iHeartRadio and

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Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast

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Speaker 1: are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating

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Speaker 1: in the podcast, and do not represent those of iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 2: October nineteenth, eight pm, Ashland, Virginia, thirty seven year old

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Speaker 2: Jeffrey Hopper was walking with his wife Stephanie. They were

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Speaker 2: in the parking lot outside of Ponderosa Steakhouse when a

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Speaker 2: shot rang out from the woods. Tim Meechim was the

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Speaker 2: first officer on the scene.

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Speaker 3: In two thousand and two, I was a patrol officer

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Speaker 3: at the Ashlan Police Department.

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Speaker 4: We're walking in the parking lot of the Ponderosa, right,

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Speaker 4: so put me back in the time in space, walk

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Speaker 4: me through it.

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Speaker 3: I had received a call for a stolen or lost

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Speaker 3: cell phone, so I was taking that report a couple

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Speaker 3: miles south of here and he was asking, you know,

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Speaker 3: what have you heard about this whole sniper thing. And

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Speaker 3: I was like, you know, I've heard as much as

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Speaker 3: you have. I get the news. And he looked at

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Speaker 3: me and says it wouldn't it be something if that

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Speaker 3: guy came here? And he had just finished saying that

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Speaker 3: when dispatch handed me the call and they said respond

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Speaker 3: to eight seventeen England Street for a possible shooting. I

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Speaker 3: looked at him, like, no way, and the look on

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Speaker 3: his face was priceless. Yet I just like, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 3: what did I just do to you?

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Speaker 2: I marked and.

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Speaker 3: Route told him I was on my way. They said,

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Speaker 3: we've had one call, got a mail down in the

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Speaker 3: parking lot at the Ponderosa. I asked him if there's

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Speaker 3: any other information, and they said, no new calls, no

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Speaker 3: new information. And that's when I'd called the sergeant on

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Speaker 3: the radio and I said, we may want to consider

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Speaker 3: starting the response plan. When I arrived, our victim was

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Speaker 3: laying in the parking lot and his wife was sitting

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Speaker 3: on the sidewalk and had her husband's head in her lap.

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Speaker 3: I pulled past them right to the end of the

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Speaker 3: sidewalk here and my car acted as a shield between

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Speaker 3: the woods and the hoppers.

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Speaker 4: So instinctively, you just pull your car into a position

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Speaker 4: that sets up a barrier between the wooded area and

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Speaker 4: potentially more victims.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Jeff was laying in the parking lot and Stephanie

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Speaker 3: was sitting on the sidewalk and she was holding pressure

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Speaker 3: on his stomach. I told her that I needed to

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Speaker 3: verify the injury. So she lifted up the towel that

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Speaker 3: she was holding on him, and I saw a pole

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Speaker 3: about the size of a nickel in the top of

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Speaker 3: the victim's stomach. I feel somebody tapped me on the shoulder.

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Speaker 3: I wasn't expecting anybody. Turn around. A guy standing there

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Speaker 3: little bit more than me. He had a chain around

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Speaker 3: his neck and he reached into his shirt. He pulled

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Speaker 3: it out and it was a New York Police Department badge.

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Speaker 3: He says, I'm retired. What do you need? If there

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Speaker 3: was somebody still here, I wanted them to think that

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Speaker 3: we were searching for them. I asked him to use

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Speaker 3: the spotlight on my car to pan back and forth

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Speaker 3: across the woods, and I showed him where the shotgun

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Speaker 3: release was in my car and told him that hey,

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Speaker 3: if shots fired, sin led that way.

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Speaker 5: There is a ruthless person on the loose.

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Speaker 6: What I nerves this community the most is the randomness

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Speaker 6: of the murders, ordinary people doing ordinary things.

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Speaker 2: They killed the five people in one day and then

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Speaker 2: went on the rampage for the next month.

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Speaker 5: It is quite a mystery.

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Speaker 7: The police say they have never had a crime quite

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Speaker 7: like this.

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Speaker 8: Be careful, these guys are using weapons that are going

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Speaker 8: to go right straight through our bulletproof vest, the.

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Speaker 2: White bag, my heart radio, and Tenderfoot TV. This is

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Speaker 2: Monster DC Sniper. Jeff and Stephanie describe the two of

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Speaker 2: them and how they were working through this very serious

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Speaker 2: situation together.

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Speaker 3: She was the calmest person I'd ever seen on any

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Speaker 3: type of major scene like this. And when you have

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Speaker 3: somebody that's bleeding internally like that, their heart rate is up,

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Speaker 3: their blood pressures up, it can make them bleed out

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Speaker 3: a little bit faster. But Jeff was laying there just

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Speaker 3: staying really calm. I told her, I said, okay, the

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Speaker 3: best thing to do for a bleed is just a

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Speaker 3: hold pressure, and it's not rocket science. She started to chuckle.

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Speaker 3: The victims started to laugh, and at this point, I'm like, okay,

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Speaker 3: can you guys let me in on the joke. Well,

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Speaker 3: she was a rocket scientist for NASA, so me telling

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Speaker 3: her that it was in rocket science, she kind of

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Speaker 3: knew that already. They actually told me that they we

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Speaker 3: in Pennsylvania visiting family. Intentionally, they didn't stop in Maryland,

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Speaker 3: d C. Or Northern Virginia because the shootings and they

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Speaker 3: felt like if they stopped closer to Richmond that it

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Speaker 3: would be safer. So the ambulance when they come up

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Speaker 3: one scene normally wait until law enforcement can make sure

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Speaker 3: the scene is safe for them to enter. I couldn't

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Speaker 3: do that, so we came up with a different plan

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Speaker 3: for them to come in.

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Speaker 9: And pick up Jeff.

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Speaker 3: I got my shotgun. I told the driver of the

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Speaker 3: ambulance to stay in the driver's seat. I had the

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Speaker 3: crew of the ambulance come out of the back of

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Speaker 3: the ambulance. I had them park right behind my car,

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Speaker 3: bumping or bumper so that the ambulance itself was also

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Speaker 3: some type of barricade. They get Jeff on the stretcher,

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Speaker 3: they put him in the ambulance, and we get them

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Speaker 3: out onto England Street and tell them to take the

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Speaker 3: shoulder of the Interstate ninety five because we'd shut it down.

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Speaker 10: By eight point thirty, the victim was arriving at the hospital,

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Speaker 10: and police across this area had activated a coordinated tactical response,

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Speaker 10: a plan put in play just last week in the

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Speaker 10: event of a suspected sniper attack.

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Speaker 8: Very quickly, traffic was brought to a complete stop.

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Speaker 2: That's retired Maryland State Police Lieutenant David Reichenball.

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Speaker 8: Ordinarily, if you do that, you've got phone calls going

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Speaker 8: to politicians. Hey, what's going on while the road's blocked.

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Speaker 8: I can't get home, I can't go about my business.

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Speaker 8: But believe it or not, at this point, the public

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Speaker 8: was completely on board with law enforcement. They were in fear.

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Speaker 8: They wanted just stopped as badly as we did.

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Speaker 2: The roadblocks turned up nothing. The sniper had vanished once again,

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Speaker 2: but there was good news thanks to the efforts of

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Speaker 2: first responders. Jeffrey Hopper survived the attack.

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Speaker 3: Once we got jeff in the ambulance, we got the

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Speaker 3: crime scene tape out, and we just right in front

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Speaker 3: of the Ponderosa, right on England Street. We taped from

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Speaker 3: one side of the building to the other. From that point,

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Speaker 3: it seemed like every three letter agency in the federal

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Speaker 3: government was starting to show up. I had FBI show up,

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Speaker 3: I had a ATF show up.

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Speaker 2: One of those ATF agents was Ray Neely.

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Speaker 5: I'm a normal special agent. Well, I'm at a relatively

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Speaker 5: normal special agent. You know, I'm so used to hanging

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Speaker 5: around law enforcement. Special agents are kind of a dome

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Speaker 5: a dozen and I was based out of Washington, so

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Speaker 5: it's not very impressive in that particular area anyway.

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Speaker 2: Ray Neely was a canine handler for the ATF in.

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Speaker 5: Two thousand and two during the sniper investigation, I handled

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Speaker 5: a dog named Garrett. He was a yellow Lab at

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Speaker 5: that point, he was about seven years old. We use

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Speaker 5: the term explosive detection canines. That's their official title, and

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Speaker 5: the public ulder sere them called bomb dogs. It's been

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Speaker 5: estimated that there's over nineteen thousand different types of explosive formulations,

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Speaker 5: but generally they can be broken down into seven families,

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Speaker 5: so as long as you train across those seven families,

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Speaker 5: the dogs can then fine firearms as well as explosives.

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Speaker 2: On the night of October nineteenth, after Jeffrey Hopper was shot,

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Speaker 2: the ATF sent Ray Nearly to investigate the woods outside

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Speaker 2: the Ponderosa.

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Speaker 5: When we arrived that evening, it was actually kind of

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Speaker 5: a balmy night, and not because we're working in low light.

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Speaker 5: The human search was really not going to be effective,

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Speaker 5: so they were going to wait till daybreak. I talked

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Speaker 5: to the people on scene and said, hey, it's best

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Speaker 5: that we deploy this evening. The dog doesn't need daylight

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Speaker 5: to work, and the odor cennature is stronger now than

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Speaker 5: it's going to be tomorrow morning. There was a wooded

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Speaker 5: lot behind the ponderosa. It's all pitch black dark. When

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Speaker 5: any human or animals move through wooded areas, they typically

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Speaker 5: go to the area of least resistance. It's called lines

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Speaker 5: of drift. If there's briers that people are gonna avoid,

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Speaker 5: that they're going to go a different path. And so

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Speaker 5: in this particular wooded area, I saw maybe three or

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Speaker 5: four of these little breaks in the woodline. You know,

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Speaker 5: there were animal trails or maybe kids played in those woods.

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Speaker 5: So I was going to search those first, and then

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Speaker 5: if that failed, then I would start doing more of

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Speaker 5: a gritted search. It was only on my second path

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Speaker 5: of least resistance that I saw the dog change behaviored.

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Speaker 5: The dog started tracking until he went to a particular spot,

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Speaker 5: and then he alerted me. Whatever with my flashlight and

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Speaker 5: examined the area where he looked, and that's when I

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Speaker 5: saw the rub mark. There was a small tree about

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Speaker 5: maybe two inches in diameter with a small VND and

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Speaker 5: when I looked up that tree, it looked like someone

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Speaker 5: had taken some type of hard objects and leaned it

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Speaker 5: up against that tree, and that created a rub mark.

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Speaker 5: You wouldn't have that occurring in nature. You needed something

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Speaker 5: hard pressing against it. And it was also in line

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Speaker 5: of sight too where the person was actually hit as

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Speaker 5: he exited the ponderosa, and so that rub mark was

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Speaker 5: someone probably using that tree as a rifle rest. I

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Speaker 5: knew that the type of rifle more than likely would

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Speaker 5: eject that shellcase into the right rear, so I deployed

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Speaker 5: the dog off to my right rear, you know, hoping

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Speaker 5: to find that shellcasing again. I saw it in a

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Speaker 5: change of behavior. Now he's going directly to source. It

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Speaker 5: was probably twenty feet away, and when he alerted this time,

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Speaker 5: I went over with my flashlight. Those shellcasings can disappear

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Speaker 5: in the ground pretty quick, the leaves have fallen off

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Speaker 5: the trees at that point. But I actually saw the shellcasing.

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Speaker 5: It was sitting right on top, you know, pristine. But

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Speaker 5: to the rear of where the shellcasing was found, there

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Speaker 5: was some type of message attached to a tree.

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Speaker 2: In the woods outside the Ponderosa Steakhouse atf Agent ray

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Speaker 2: Neely found a spent shell casing along with another clue,

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Speaker 2: one that would prove vital to solving the case.

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Speaker 5: There was a message that was attached to a tree.

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Speaker 2: Investigators found a ziploc bag pinned to a tree with

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Speaker 2: two thumbtacks, and inside there was a letter. Investigators wanted

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Speaker 2: to read the note, but they couldn't just open the

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Speaker 2: bag at the crime scene and risk contaminating the evidence.

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Speaker 5: An FBI helicopter was brought in that evening to take

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Speaker 5: that piece of evidence directly to the lab they would

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Speaker 5: be looking for DNA any fingerprints.

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Speaker 2: The letter arrived at the lab the next morning, Sunday,

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Speaker 2: October twentieth. When investigators finally opened it, they were shocked

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Speaker 2: by what they found. Here's Maryland State Police Lieutenant David

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Speaker 2: Reichenbach again.

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Speaker 8: The snipers did not want the press notified about this,

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Speaker 8: and for the first time, we were actually successful in

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Speaker 8: preventing that. There was a couple significant things about this note.

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Speaker 8: The first one was it was handwritten, and within a

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Speaker 8: few hours the handwriting on the tarot card that had

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Speaker 8: been found a few days before was matched, so we

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Speaker 8: knew we had the same individual, and any thought that

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Speaker 8: it was organized terrorism pretty much got shot down and

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Speaker 8: went out the window. The note had little red stars.

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Speaker 8: And when I say stars, if you've ever had a

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Speaker 8: child that went to a daycare and they bring their

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Speaker 8: papers home and they did something great, The teachers put

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Speaker 8: little silvery or gold or the red stars on top

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Speaker 8: of their papers. That's what I'm talking about. And no

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Speaker 8: self respecting terrorists is going to do that. Number one.

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Speaker 8: Number two, we finally get a demand.

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Speaker 2: Here's what the snipers wrote in the.

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Speaker 6: Letter for you, mister police, call me God, do not

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Speaker 6: release to the press. We have tried to contact you

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Speaker 6: to start negotiation, but the incompetence of your forces these

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Speaker 6: people to our call for a hoax or a joke.

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Speaker 2: The letter then lifted five people the sniper had contacted.

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Speaker 6: One Montgomery Police officer Derek two, Rockville Police Department female officer,

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Speaker 6: three Task Force FBI female for priest at Ashland, five CNN,

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Speaker 6: Washington DC. These people took our call for a hoax

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Speaker 6: or joke, So your failure to respond has cost you

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Speaker 6: five lives. If stopping the killing is more important than

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Speaker 6: catching us now, then you will accept our demands, which

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Speaker 6: are non negotiable. Option one, you will place ten million

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Speaker 6: dollars in a Bank of America account.

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Speaker 2: The letter then listed the information for a credit card

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Speaker 2: which belonged to a woman named Jill Lynn Farrell, and

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Speaker 2: then it went on.

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Speaker 6: We will have unlimited withdrawal at any atm worldwide. You

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Speaker 6: will activate the bank account, credit card and pin number

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Speaker 6: at six am Sunday morning. We will We'll contact you

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Speaker 6: at Ponderouso Buffet, Ashland, Virginia telephone number. You have until

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Speaker 6: nine am Monday morning to complete transaction. Try to catch

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Speaker 6: us withdrawing at least you will have less body bags.

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Speaker 6: But option two if trying to catch us now is

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Speaker 6: more important than prepare your body bags. If we give

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Speaker 6: you our word, that is what takes place. Word is

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Speaker 6: bond ps. Your children are not safe anywhere, at any time.

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Speaker 2: The letter was a bombshell, and it left investigators with

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Speaker 2: a slew of new questions. Was all this killing just

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Speaker 2: about money? And if the snipers themselves had called into

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Speaker 2: the tip lines and had been ignored, what other tips

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Speaker 2: might have slipped through the cracks. But the letter did

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Speaker 2: provide some major leads, like a list of people the

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Speaker 2: sniper had called law enforcement would need to interview those people,

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Speaker 2: and investigators needed to find the credit card owner, Jill

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Speaker 2: Lynn Ferrell. How is she connected to the snipers? Most importantly, though,

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Speaker 2: the snipers wanted to talk and police were eager to

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Speaker 2: get them on the line. But there was a problem.

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Speaker 2: The letter said the snipers would call the Ponderosi Steakhouse

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Speaker 2: at six am, but by the time the police read

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Speaker 2: the letter, they'd already missed the deadline. So Chief Moose

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Speaker 2: reached out to the snipers the only way he knew how,

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Speaker 2: through the media.

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Speaker 11: To the person who left us a message at the

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Speaker 11: Ponderosa last night, you gave us a telephone number. We

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Speaker 11: do want to talk to you called us at the

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Speaker 11: number you provided.

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Speaker 2: Police had the phone company redirect the Ponderosa's number to

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Speaker 2: align In their command center. There, an FBI negotiator sat

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Speaker 2: and waited, hoping the snipers would call. Meanwhile, agents were

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Speaker 2: adding up a track. They mapped out all of the

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Speaker 2: payphones in the Richmond area and stationed police officers at

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Speaker 2: locations nearby those phones, but out of sight. Police were

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Speaker 2: ready to trace the sniper's call, identify which phone it

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Speaker 2: came from, and then swarm that area with officers back

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Speaker 2: at the command center, the phone began to ring.

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Speaker 10: Hello.

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Speaker 6: All okay, let me give you a new number.

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Speaker 5: Can okay, what are you calling for? Can alone?

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Speaker 12: This is the only way to remind it called them

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Speaker 12: Pepty Direct. Your Pepty Direct Sales will be contacting you shortly,

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Speaker 12: but today murder.

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Speaker 2: After dozens of false alarms, the next morning, on Monday,

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Speaker 2: October twenty first, at seven fifty seven am, the sniper's

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Speaker 2: call finally came.

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Speaker 13: Hello Hello.

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Speaker 2: The sniper then held the tape recorder up to the

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Speaker 2: payphone and hit play through the phone. The audio was

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Speaker 2: distorted and unintelligible. The call lasted just thirty eight seconds,

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Speaker 2: but for some reason, the negotiator didn't alert others about

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Speaker 2: the call for another six minutes.

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Speaker 9: I'm pay, I'm lipay.

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Speaker 2: US marshals traced the call to a payphone just outside

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Speaker 2: an Exon station in West Richmond at eight oh seven,

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Speaker 2: now a full ten minutes after the sniper's call. The

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00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:51,760
Speaker 2: marshals notified local FBI of the address, and the traps

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Speaker 2: sprung into motion. Don Nielsen worked just down the street

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Speaker 2: from the Exxon where the snipers made the call. He

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00:17:58,800 --> 00:17:59,960
Speaker 2: saw the takedown happen.

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Speaker 13: Part of my job in the morning. I got there

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Speaker 13: early and you know, turned down the lights, made coffee

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00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:09,200
Speaker 13: for the customers, and that's when I saw everything going

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Speaker 13: on right out in front of the dealership. I just

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00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,480
Speaker 13: opened the front door and this guy going like halt

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Speaker 13: with a serious look on his face, and his hand

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Speaker 13: went up like don't come out here. So I thought, ooh, okay.

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Speaker 13: There were three or four cars out there and all

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Speaker 13: this commotion, you know, undercovered type guys swat guys loading

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Speaker 13: shotguns and ars. They were putting on vests, and I

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Speaker 13: imagine they weren't putting on to go hunting, so I'd

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Speaker 13: imagine they were armored vests. Everybody's eyes were right up

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Speaker 13: the hill at the van and that drive buck phone.

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Speaker 13: When they started moving themselves up the hill, we moved

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Speaker 13: to the very cornermost office to see what was going on.

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Speaker 13: I just remember seeing these guys rushing up there. They

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Speaker 13: ran up the hill and they grew open the doors,

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Speaker 13: and they grabbed some people out of the van and

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Speaker 13: threw them on the park lit They handcuffed these guys

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Speaker 13: and moved them over to the grassy area. Later that day,

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Speaker 13: there was news media everywhere.

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Speaker 14: This morning, at approximately eight thirty five am, two male

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Speaker 14: subjects were taken into custody by the members of the

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Speaker 14: Richmond Area Task Force at param Road in Broad Street,

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Speaker 14: which is basically right behind us. Those two individuals are

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Speaker 14: being questioned at this time.

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Speaker 2: Police began interrogating the two suspects. The first, Edgar Rivera Garcia,

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Speaker 2: had been sitting in a white mini van and talking

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Speaker 2: on a drive through payphone. He claimed he was a

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Speaker 2: carpenter from Mexico. The other men, Jose Morales, had been

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Speaker 2: walking through the gas station's parking lot when police showed up.

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Speaker 2: Neither could provide valid identification. As police interrogated Garcia and Morales,

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Speaker 2: agents from the Task Force were listening to the recorded

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Speaker 2: call over and over. They painstakingly decipher the sniper's call

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00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:08,040
Speaker 2: word by word. It referred to the demand from the

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Speaker 2: Ponderosa letter option one to put ten million dollars on

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Speaker 2: an ATM card or option two the killings would continue.

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Speaker 2: Here's what they transcribed.

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Speaker 6: Dearest police, call me God. Do not release to the

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Speaker 6: press five red stars. You have our terms. They are

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Speaker 6: non negotiable. If you choose option one, you will hold

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00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,439
Speaker 6: a press conference stating to the media that you believe

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Speaker 6: you have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.

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Speaker 6: Repeat every word exactly as you heard it. If you

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Speaker 6: choose option two, be sure to remember we will not

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Speaker 6: deviate ps. Your children are not safe.

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Speaker 2: The call had to be from the killer. Nothing from

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Speaker 2: the Ponderosa letter had leaked, but the caller knew about

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Speaker 2: the red stars, the two options, and there to children.

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Speaker 2: That was definitely one of the snipers.

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Speaker 4: On the line.

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Speaker 2: Later that day, Richmond Police held another press.

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Speaker 9: Conference based on information we received this morning. Two men

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00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:18,400
Speaker 9: were detained and questioned by local and federal authorities. These

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Speaker 9: men had been turned over to representatives of the Immigration

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00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:25,240
Speaker 9: and Naturalization Services for further action.

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Speaker 2: Garcia and Morales weren't the snipers. The police had arrested

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00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:33,840
Speaker 2: the wrong guys. The task force had learned that there

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00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 2: was a second payphone on the other side of the

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00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:39,560
Speaker 2: gas station, and the sniper's call had come in from

364
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:42,920
Speaker 2: that other phone. By the time police had showed up,

365
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,720
Speaker 2: the snipers were already gone. They had come so close

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00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:51,040
Speaker 2: to catching them, but the trap had failed. That afternoon,

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00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:54,960
Speaker 2: Chief Moves again communicated to the snipers through a press conference.

368
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Speaker 11: I would like to start with another message. The person

369
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:05,719
Speaker 11: you called, could not hear everything that you said. The

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00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 11: audio was unclear, and we want to get it right.

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00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,200
Speaker 11: Call us back so that we can clearly understand.

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00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:18,360
Speaker 2: The police were trying to re establish communication with the snipers,

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Speaker 2: but they were also trying to buy time. That's because

374
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Speaker 2: they've been following up on other leads from the letter.

375
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Speaker 2: Here's David Reichenball right now.

376
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Speaker 8: We've got a whole bunch of leads that we can

377
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 8: work on, and they were running those leads down. Those

378
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,120
Speaker 8: were our red hot leads. They want ten million dollars

379
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:40,480
Speaker 8: on this ATM card, and the ATM card belonged to

380
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Speaker 8: a lady, a bus driver.

381
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Speaker 12: This is Jill Lynn Farroh, retired Greyhound bus driver. In

382
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:55,520
Speaker 12: October two thousand and two, my supervisor said, I must

383
00:22:55,680 --> 00:23:00,879
Speaker 12: call this telephone number immediately. The FBI needs to speak

384
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:05,399
Speaker 12: to me. And I got completely shocked and surprised, but

385
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 12: I called and FBI agent mac Rominger said, yes, I

386
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,680
Speaker 12: need to speak to you upon arrival and flagstaff tonight.

387
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,720
Speaker 12: And then I had the next three hours to wonder

388
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 12: what in the world was going on with FBI agents.

389
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,680
Speaker 12: It was just, you know, very concerned.

390
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:28,360
Speaker 5: What did I do.

391
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 12: Well? It could be anything. What did I do? The

392
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:39,440
Speaker 12: agents met me at the Greyhound bus Termalin Flagstaff at

393
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Speaker 12: the bottom of the steps of my bus and they said,

394
00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:46,920
Speaker 12: please follow us into the driver lounge and they said

395
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 12: please sit down. I said, gentlemen, I've been sitting all day.

396
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:54,160
Speaker 12: To mind if I stand up? And what is this about?

397
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:59,840
Speaker 12: They asked, do you remember the day your credentials went me?

398
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 12: And my mind instantly flashed back to that day, and

399
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 12: I told them everything. It seemed like a typical day.

400
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:13,720
Speaker 12: I go no Gallus to Tucson, and then I loaded

401
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:18,119
Speaker 12: the local local bus to Phoenix, Arizona, and then I

402
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:23,200
Speaker 12: continue on from Phoenix to flag Staff. I then took

403
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 12: my luggage off the bus and went into the Flagstaff

404
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:30,639
Speaker 12: bus driver lounge and I'm going through my items in

405
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 12: my little suitcase and discovered my entire Union Pacific little

406
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 12: black pouch was missing, my driver's license, credit cards, whatever

407
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 12: that was missing. And I started calling everybody, shutting everything

408
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 12: down regarding credit cards.

409
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 2: She canceled all of her cards except for one, her

410
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:55,440
Speaker 2: Bank of America visa card.

411
00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 12: That was the only one I didn't call in about

412
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,920
Speaker 12: because I did not know I had it. A few

413
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,879
Speaker 12: weeks later, a call from Bank of America told me

414
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:10,679
Speaker 12: they had shut down and canceled that card due to

415
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:16,439
Speaker 12: fraudulent use. The card was used one time only for

416
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:23,920
Speaker 12: twelve dollars and one cent at a gas station in Tacomo, Washington.

417
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,919
Speaker 2: Investigators now knew the credit card mentioned in the letter

418
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 2: had been stolen in Arizona and used in Washington State.

419
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:54,360
Speaker 2: Those were now places of interest. Agents were also following

420
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 2: up on the five phone calls that the sniper had

421
00:25:56,840 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 2: mentioned in the letter. The letter mentioned a call to

422
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 2: a priest in Ashland. It turned out there was only

423
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 2: one Catholic church in the city. Police went there and

424
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 2: spoke to the pastor, William Sullivan. Sullivan said he had

425
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,879
Speaker 2: received a strange call from a man with an accident

426
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 2: he couldn't place. The man on the phone claimed he

427
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 2: knew who the sniper was and rambled to Sullivan about

428
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 2: a liquor store robbery in Montgomery. The man went on

429
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 2: and on, but Sullivan didn't take it seriously. He thought

430
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 2: it was just someone with a big imagination who'd watched

431
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 2: too much about the Snipers on TV. The task force

432
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 2: tracked down two of the other calls that were mentioned

433
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 2: in the letter. One had come into the Rockville Police Department,

434
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:40,919
Speaker 2: and another to the man the snipers had described as

435
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:45,880
Speaker 2: Officer Derek. As it turned out, Montgomery County Public Information

436
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:50,040
Speaker 2: Officer Derrick Beliles had received a strange call a few

437
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 2: days earlier.

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Speaker 15: During the sniper crisis, we received a tremendous amount of

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00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,439
Speaker 15: phone calls. All the phone calls from people who wanted

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00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 15: to talk to Chief Moose were forwarded to the media office,

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00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:05,200
Speaker 15: where I answered the phone. My name is Derek Lliles,

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00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:06,919
Speaker 15: and back in two thousand and two, I was a

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00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 15: public information officer for the Montgomery County Police when the

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00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 15: FBI came to question me. I didn't know if I'd

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00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 15: done something right or something wrong, but I went over

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00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 15: to talk to him. On my way out of the building,

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00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:20,359
Speaker 15: I ran into Chief Moose, who said, thank you for

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00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,360
Speaker 15: what you've done. I really appreciate everything you're doing. And

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00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 15: I didn't know if that was my goodbye speech or

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00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,400
Speaker 15: whether it was something else. I had no idea. All

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00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,280
Speaker 15: I know is that the FBI wanted to talk to

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00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:35,400
Speaker 15: me over at the task Force. When I got over

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00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 15: to the Sniper task Force, I met with a number

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00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,119
Speaker 15: of people. The ATF wanted me to come out to

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00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 15: their van that was parked outside. Once I got in there,

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00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:46,159
Speaker 15: they put headphones on me and said, just listen and

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00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 15: tell us what you think. And I listened to the

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00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 15: phone call that was recorded by the Rockfield City Police.

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00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 2: Good boy, what are the people that are causing the

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00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 2: killing of your ears?

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00:27:57,359 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 1: Terrified it?

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00:27:59,040 --> 00:27:59,159
Speaker 15: Sir?

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00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,640
Speaker 2: Call me God, do not released the press.

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00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 5: He called you three.

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00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 2: Times before trying.

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00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 3: You've got no response.

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00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 12: People have died, sir, an Montgomery County. Please hotline or not.

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00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 12: That's the game of corner if you like the number.

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00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,200
Speaker 15: The dispatcher, though, was not the person to give that information,

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00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 15: so she did the right thing and told him to

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00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,360
Speaker 15: call the Sniper Task Force, and that caller got angry

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00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 15: and got frustrated and hung up. I listened to that

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00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 15: phone call and they asked me did I recognize anything?

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00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,239
Speaker 15: And I said, that's exactly the same voice that I

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00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,080
Speaker 15: had heard on my phone call, the same tone, the

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00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 15: same inflection, the same emphasis on certain words. The task

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00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 15: force sat me down in a room surrounded by everybody,

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00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,360
Speaker 15: and they wanted to know what I had heard and

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00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 15: who I thought the sniper might be. And I told

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00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 15: him the information, and I also told them that it

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00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 15: sounded like the voice of a young black male. That

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00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 15: really startled him because all of the profilers had said

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00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 15: he's probably an adult male with military history and all

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00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 15: those types of things. So they were intrigued by why

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00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,280
Speaker 15: I thought it sounded like a young black male, and

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00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 15: they just threw a lot of questions at me as

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00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 15: I told my story over and over again.

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00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 2: The phone call to Officer Derek Beliles wasn't recorded, but

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00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:22,720
Speaker 2: this is his recollection of the call.

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00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 15: He said, shut up and listen. I've got some information

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00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 15: about some of your snipers, but first I need you

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00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 15: to verify some information. So he wanted me to look

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00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 15: at an incident that had occurred in Montgomery, Alabama and

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00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,440
Speaker 15: tell him what I knew about it. As he spoke

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00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 15: to me, he was very insistent and told me to

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00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 15: get the information for him. I told him my name

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00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 15: was Officer Derek because I didn't want to use my

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00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 15: last name. I asked him to call me back in

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00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 15: About an hour or so after I got the phone call,

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00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 15: the detectives there told me that there had been a

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00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 15: shooting in Montgomery, Alabama by a liquor store, where two

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00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,400
Speaker 15: women coming out of the store were shot and a

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00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 15: black male was seen running from the scene of the accident.

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00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 15: When he did call back about an hour and a

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00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 15: half later, I told him what I had learned, and

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00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 15: then said, what can you tell me about our snipers?

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00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:11,239
Speaker 15: How can you help me after I've helped you? And

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00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 15: he said that it wasn't easy for him to talk

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00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 15: right there because he had to find a telephone, that

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00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 15: there was no cameras watching or anything like that. And

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00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 15: that phone call came to an abrupt end when the

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00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 15: operator came on saying to continue this call, please deposit

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00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 15: more coins, and then the call abruptly stopped. At that point,

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00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,320
Speaker 15: the Sniper Task Force took this information and followed it up,

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00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:35,080
Speaker 15: and the pieces began to fall into place.

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00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 2: Next time on Monster DC Sniper.

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00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 5: The Alabama incident is interesting.

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00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 6: Ten days before shots were fired in Maryland, two clerks

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00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 6: shot outside the ABC Beverage store in Montgomery, Alabama.

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00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 7: He was behind one of the pillars of the business,

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00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 7: rummaging going through a purse. The first victims of the

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00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 7: serial sniper may have been eight hundred miles south of

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00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:05,600
Speaker 7: the Washington belt Way.

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00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 5: You know, we gotta push with everything we got because

525
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 5: we don't know how long these resources are going to last.

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00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 5: I mean, we had close to four hundred FBI agents

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00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 5: atf and I know there's a limitation to that.

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00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:18,719
Speaker 7: All this is happening, if not in days, it's happening

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00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 7: in hours, and now we had a very very clear

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00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 7: suspect to pursue.

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00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 1: By name, Monster d C Sniper is a fifteen episode

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00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: podcast hosted by Tony Harris and produced by iHeartRadio and

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00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive producers

534
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 1: on behalf of iHeartRadio, alongside producers Trevor Young, ben Keebrick,

535
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 1: and Josh Thine. Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright are executive

536
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 1: producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV alongside producers Meredith Stedman

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00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:57,600
Speaker 1: and Christina Dana. Original music is by Makeup and Vanity Set.

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00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: If you haven't already, be sure to check bick out

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00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: the first two seasons, Atlanta Monster and Monster the Zodiac Killer.

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00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 1: If you have questions or comments, email us at Monster

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00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,760
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com, or you can call us at

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00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: one eight three, three, two, eight five six six sixty seven.

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00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:17,760
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening,