WEBVTT - The White Van [4] 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to Monster DC Sniper, a production of iHeart Radio 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:08.000 and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.600 podcast are solely those of the podcast author or individuals 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.360 participating in the podcast, and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:20.680 Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.720 Saying somebody got shot as fire Personnaco. 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.680 Okay, somebody got shrial, but I did playing there man. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.560 He's laying on the car and there was a white 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.600 man just went by with two guys in it. The 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.360 man just went gone, now walk forward. We did not 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.440 the two thirty two thirty four went out a whitey. Okay, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:47.720 well there go, there's. 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.839 A going down thirty color chwards your distraction. I'll go 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:56.959 with sixty four, okay. Sean taken information the asters all 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:58.680 the way. I'm the possibatoration. 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.200 A call in the evening on October ninth from a 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:08.920 source saying, you need to get out to Manassas. There's 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:09.800 been another one. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.760 This is Washington Post reporter Josh White. 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:15.520 There was nothing more than that. I was given a location. 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.800 I knew the area, so I knew that they would 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.080 have shut down the intersection right by the gas station. 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.920 So I went past the gas station, got off onto 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.520 a side road and came up the back way, and 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.000 I thought, well, if you wanted to get a really 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.280 good view of the crime scene, you would go up 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.360 onto this hill. There was a Bob Evans that overlooked 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.200 the gas station from across the road. Standing there on 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.200 that hill and looking down at that crime scene, it 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.319 was lit up at night. Somebody standing there would have 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.280 been framed fully in light. It's like a lit up 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.240 target with a million access points. They had shut down 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.680 the parking lot and they were interviewing everyone who was leaving. 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.480 I drove up and I got into an adjacent parking lot, 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:00.360 and I walked right to where I thought. 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:01.200 Would be the best view. 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.480 That, too, was something that the snipers realized that that 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.240 was the best view of that gas station view because 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.640 I'm fairly certain I stood directly next to the vehicle 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.839 that they had been using to kill tons and tons 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.840 of people facing the gas station below. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.200 There is a ruthless person on the loose. 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.799 What I nerves this community the most is the randomness 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.760 of the murders, ordinary people doing ordinary things. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.680 They killed the five people in one day and then 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.280 went on the rampage for the next month. 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:36.720 It is quite a mystery. 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.280 The police say they have never had a crime quite 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:39.720 like this. 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.840 Be careful, these guys are using weapons that are going 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.119 to go right straight through our bulletproof vests. 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:46.239 The white. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:54.000 From iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV. This is monster DC sniper. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.880 Nine sniper attacks in eight days have the Washington metropolitan 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.919 area on high alert. Since last Wednesday, seven people have 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.160 been killed and two wounded. One was a thirteen year 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.560 old boy who was critically wounded at a Maryland middle school. 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.079 The latest shooting took place just after eight o'clock last night, 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.880 about thirty miles west of Washington, d C. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.720 October ninth, two thousand and two. It has now been 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.120 a full week since the spree of sniper killings began 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.120 in the DC metro area. Most of the attacks had 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.960 taken place in Maryland, except for one shooting at a 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:41.320 Michael's Inspontsylvania, Virginia, but now the snipers were on the move. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.640 On October ninth, the week following the Montgomery County shootings, 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.920 a man who worked in an office building in Manassas 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.360 was out pumping gas not too far from where he 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:53.840 worked got named Dean Myers. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.480 This is Dave Statner, reporter for Channel nine News. 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.680 He's on Sudley Road and Saint Prince William County, Virginia, 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.480 and he's just pumping gas and shot and killed. 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.560 Bob Myers. The victim's brother, spoke about the shooting at 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:10.400 a press conference. 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.080 I would like to know the reason that would help me, 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.279 but I recognize that whatever reason it is, it won't 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:19.920 be a good one. 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.039 This attack sent a ripple through the region. It was 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.239 the third shooting to take place at a gas station. 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.680 As Channel nine reporter Dave Stander points out, now the 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.520 people of Virginia had a lot to worry about. 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.400 This is where you're really starting to notice how cautious 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.240 people are filling up with gasoline. People are being extremely 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.680 cautious and once again, like the people the first day 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.000 we knew about this, the woman vacuuming our car, the 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.799 taxi driver who's pumping gas. This happened to Dean Myers. 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.280 He's filling up with gasoline. So now the real focus 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.200 is what do I do when I'm pumping gas. I 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.800 have to get gasoline from my car. There are gas 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.840 stations that are starting to put up barricade or harps 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.680 to block your people are ducking around the other side 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.159 of their vehicle, or putting the nozzle into their vehicle 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:09.560 and walking away from the vehicle, trying to get some 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.960 sort of cover. So people are clearly scared filling up 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.680 with gasoline, and this shooting of Dean Myers just added 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:17.320 to that fear. 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.599 Who could have imagined that somewhere as mundane as a 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.239 gas station could become the impetus for such crippling fear. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.560 I visited the Sonoco station in Manassas, Virginia, where Dean 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.800 Myers was killed, and the scene brought back some vivid 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:38.560 memories from that October in two thousand and two. Maybe 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:40.359 one of the indelible images that I have in my 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.120 mind from those days. I mean, it really is of 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.920 seeing the blue tarp that was serving as a bit 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.239 of a barrier protecting people. So people are pumping gas 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:56.080 and they're essentially under around behind this blue tarp. And 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.680 the other thing I recall is hearing stories of cops 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.360 being asked by folks who needed a fill. Hey, I'll 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.440 give you some extra money to fill up my gas 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.560 tank because I'm so afraid. I'm afraid to do it myself, 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:11.240 Would you take this extra twenty to fill up my 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.960 gas tank? That sort of speaks to how much fear 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.760 there was at the time. I think the other thing 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:22.800 that we can't imagine today someone getting away with all 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.719 of these episodes, all of these attacks and not clearly 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.120 being established on some kind of surveillance cameras, some kind 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.760 of CCTV. In two thousand nineteen, come on, you couldn't 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.520 even attempt something like what we're talking about now shooting 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:42.960 someone dead in a Sunoco gas station. But we're talking 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.440 about two thousand and two. We're also talking post nine 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.440 to eleven, so you're talking about putting more of those 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:50.200 systems in place. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:56.360 At that point, we still have officers at the scene 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:01.080 searching for evidence, going over it iculously. 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.080 Police believed they were on the sniper's trail. At a 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.560 press conference following the Dean Meyer shooting, officials revealed what 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.000 type of vehicle they thought the snipers were using. 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:16.240 The only information we have on a possible vehicle was 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.400 a white mini van described as a panel vehicle, meaning 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.680 it had only front passenger windows. 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:24.240 The rest was solid. 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.600 Officials thought the snipers might still be in the area, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.200 so police set up roadblocks on the streets near the 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.680 crime scene. Nearby parking lots were shut down. No one 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.600 was allowed to leave. Hundreds of people were stopped and questioned, 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:42.520 but no suspects were detained. Officer Stephen Bailey's job was 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.560 to scout the Bob Evans parking lot for potential witnesses. 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.440 He remembers approaching one specific vehicle. The driver inside said 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.880 he was on vacation. This man also said he'd been 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.720 directed into the parking lot by another officer. Bailey said 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:04.040 the man was quote very polite and very courteous, and 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.000 so with no reason to detain him, Bailey let the 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.920 man leave. It would be months later that Officer Bailey 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.800 had a terrible realization the man he met that day 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:17.400 was the killer they were looking for. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:20.560 I think that, in a lot of ways is a 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.800 microcosm of the challenge that was facing everybody. 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.960 This is Washington Post reporter Josh White. He told the 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.680 story of standing near the killer's vehicle at the beginning 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:34.360 of the episode, but like Officer Stephen Bailey, he didn't 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:35.080 think anything of it. 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:35.600 At the time. 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.640 Nobody knew who they were looking for, nobody knew what 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.959 vehicle to look for. Nobody knew the mechanism of the shooting. 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.640 Was it coming from a car, was it coming from outside. Ultimately, 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.000 when they found the vehicle, it was obvious to everyone 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:53.160 why the vehicle was so difficult to detect. It was 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.320 an engineered killing machine. It was built in a way 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.680 to avoid detection. It was altered in a way that 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:01.640 if you you were to walk right up to it, 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.360 you wouldn't think twice. It wouldn't strike you externally as 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.520 anything to worry about. I thought, I don't know how 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.280 they're ever going to catch this person. It really showed 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.040 the vulnerability. It showed that if somebody wants to go 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.640 after someone who they have no connection to, randomly in 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.360 a metropolitan area, that's millions of people, what's stopping them? 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:23.040 For me? 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.679 That was one of the scariest moments. That shooting highlighted 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.960 how difficult this all was and how frightening it all was. 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.959 This shooting also marked another major shift in the case, 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.800 one that greatly raised the stakes for the snipers. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.880 They I think unbeknownst to them, obviously, they had committed 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.680 a crime in a county that had one of the 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:56.440 more aggressive prosecutors from a capital punishment perspective, Paul Ebert, do. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.160 You a distinction, but not unusual occasions happened. 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:05.839 This is Paul Ebert, Virginia's longest serving prosecutor. I spoke 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.640 with him at his office in Prince William County. He 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.080 remembers when Dean Meyers was shot in his district. 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.560 My daughter had strange enough about a half a block 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.360 where it has happened. When it happened, you out a bank. 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:20.200 I went to the scene. I got normally do on 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.080 a murder case. We don't have that many murders. It 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.520 helps me to be able to visualize what's going on. 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.200 A lot of press, a lot of people. The body 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.920 was gone, chucked around. Of course, it was pretty ivous 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.959 that the snipers had done this before, the history leading 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.360 up to it, and he I had no idea if 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.240 and when would ever get the case try. I talked 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.760 with a couple of reporters that I knew, and I 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:46.920 did say that if this is a sniper, it looks 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:51.440 like it is just a death case. Absolute some kind 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:55.199 of a great mitigating factor. It was a capitol case. 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.400 Paul Elbert was issuing a direct threat to the snipers. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.480 We went on television that day to say that quote 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.760 this case, if I have anything to do with it, 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.439 will be prosecuted in this jurisdiction to the full extent 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.360 of the law. Ebert has sentenced more inmates to death 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.880 row than any other Virginia prosecutor. So if the sniper 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.240 was following the news, they would have known that if caught, 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:39.760 they would eventually face the death penalty. The snipers weren't 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.120 done in Virginia, as the area was still reeling from 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.520 the death of Dean Harold Myers. Tragedy struck once more. 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.400 Channel nine reporter Dave's Statter was there on. 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.640 The morning of October eleventh, two days after Dean Myers 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.920 has shot pumping guests in the Monastass area of Virginia. 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.760 Further south, in the Vicksburg area, there's another man shot, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.560 fifty three year old Kenneth Bridges. He's shot dead pumping 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.560 gasoline at Nexxon station. This is just off Interstate ninety five, 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.959 of heavily traveled roadway between Richmond and Washington, this portion 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.880 of I ninety five. We worked our way down there 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.200 to just off the highway, and it was difficult getting 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.360 to that scene. The traffic was just horrendous because the 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.319 roadway was shut down just off I ninety five. Police 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.120 were probably stopping vehicles coming and going. As we're traveling 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.439 down to the scene, we're being passed by convoys of 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.959 federal agents heading down there and police from other jurisdictions 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:39.480 trying to get through the same traffic, but they at 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.840 least have lights in siren. We finally went onto some 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.320 alternate routes and work away up to the scene and 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.120 we see police. There's tons of police there. We get 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.360 there and here we are watching now, which to us 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.839 is almost eerie and bizarre. Yet another person pumping gasoline, 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.319 shot dead, doing what we all do every day, and 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:03.800 the tension is continuing to grow. 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.640 Shortly after the crime scene was secured, Virginia Police held 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.480 a press conference. They described how they responded and what 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:13.360 they were searching for. 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.640 We are looking for a white van that may had 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:20.480 a ladder rack on top of it. We do not, 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:22.200 in our stress, we do not know if it was 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.960 involved in the shooting or not. It was seen in 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.320 the area by several people, and we do want to 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:31.640 talk to those people. We had a Virginia State Trooper uniform. 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.080 Trooper was across the street from the shooting work in 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:37.760 the traffic accident. He heard the shots. He ran directly 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.840 across the street and rendered aid through the victim until 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.960 the rescue squad arrived. Once at the hospital, the victim 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:45.800 was pronounced dead. 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:51.080 The victim, Kenneth Bridges, was a family man. He had 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.959 six children and the wife of twenty five years. 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.240 Obviously, everyone was devastated at this horrendous act. In this 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.760 horrendous event, losing a loving, hunt husband and a strong, giving, 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.840 caring father. Since that time, however, I have seen the 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.920 family become stronger and stronger as the hours go by. 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.880 Bridges was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had just been passing 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.240 through the DC area when his life was tragically cut short. 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.760 Friends say Bridges was a pillar of his community. He 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:26.480 co founded Mata, a nonprofit company which fosters black owned businesses. 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.480 I'm telling you this was a near perfect man who 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:34.840 loved his family, who loved his people. Kenny was a visionary, 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:39.160 a man with great purpose, single minded purpose that he 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:44.080 had built his entire world around. Ken Bridges has infected 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.680 thousands and thousands of people all across the country with 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:48.680 this vision. 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:52.080 Of his The impacts of the d C sniper attacks 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:56.520 were spreading further and further. Families and communities all across 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.680 the country had now been affected in various perable ways. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:06.760 We're realizing that this thing is not getting smaller, it's 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.280 not getting narrower, it's getting larger. 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.400 This is Channel nine reporter Dave's statter again. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.200 All along this ninety five Carter people are being attacked. 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.760 We see it in Montgomery County, Maryland, Prince George's County, Maryland. 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.400 We're still trying to figure out what's going on, Why 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.680 is this happening. We're talking to police every day, and 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:27.440 it was clear they were having a bit of a 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.400 time making sense of why these attacks were occurring at 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.800 these locations, and that just really added to the fear 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.800 of everybody because nobody could make clear sense of it. 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.640 By this point, ten people had been shot for what 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.000 seemed like no reason, and the public had very little 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.200 information to go on. All anyone knew was to be 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.280 on the lookout for a white van or white box truck. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.480 The public was losing confidence in law enforcement's abilities. Police 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.440 were under tremendous pressure to catch these killers. Things seemed 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.840 to be working, So what was their plan? 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.240 We had strategies, I mean, I started out and I 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:08.880 had a mission. 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:14.040 This is Drew Tracy, retired Assistant Chief of Police from 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:14.960 Montgomery County. 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.920 We had to protect our first responders, we had to 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.000 protect the citizens, but we also had to have that 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:26.280 investigative role and that ability to stop what was going on, 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:27.840 and that was our mission. 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.800 But how would they find the shooters? Tracy says they 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.080 employed a tactic known as a drag net. It starts 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.160 with police creating a large perimeter around a crime scene 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.440 to ensnare any potential suspects. 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.200 We actually had circles that we put on a map, 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.280 so if a shooting went out, we knew that vehicle 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.360 could only go in fifteen or twenty minutes so far, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.200 so we tried to slow things down, slow it by 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:58.040 slowing traffic almost type of roadblocks. And what we did 0:16:58.120 --> 0:16:59.840 is we had immediate action teams. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:01.400 We need to be on. 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.520 Scene in two to three minutes of any critical incident 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:09.679 or possible incident. Then we worked on predetermined roles. I 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.360 went over a game plan and showed if the shooting 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.880 is within this district, here's everybody's predetermined location they had 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:17.399 to go to. 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:19.640 And then what we would do. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.680 Is bring in their support we'd get plane closed units 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.719 who look like normal people try to get closer in 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.040 to try to pick out a suspect or a vehicle. 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.239 So then we could bring in the tactical officers and 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.320 utilize the takedown in a safe way, so we wouldn't 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.520 put people in danger. The thing that I think was well, 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:42.480 I know for a fact, was really holding us back 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.720 is we didn't get good suspect information. They would put 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.760 out multiple lookouts because people would just scatter from a 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.360 certain area and you had vehicles going in every direction 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.639 and no one knew exactly if one was involved or not. 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:58.600 So we had a pretty good game plan, but the 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:04.320 problem was we aren't being provided good intelligence and suspect 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.400 information from lookout that hurt us. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.920 One incident directly after the shooting of Kenneth Bridges highlights 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.720 this issue. Police searched nearby motels looking for a suspect. 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.920 They had a somewhat fuzzy picture of the suspect from 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.760 a security camera and with a description from that, police 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.119 detained and questioned a man at one of the motels, 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.160 but it was quickly the termed he wasn't the sniper, 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.640 and so by the end of the day, no viable 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:50.640 suspects have been arrested. As the shooting spread further from DC, 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.160 nearby jurisdictions were biding their time, fearful that at any 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.080 moment an attack what happen in their area. 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.400 I was absolutely sure that we were going to get 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:05.440 a shooting. My name is Bruce Gooth. I'm a retired 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.879 lieutenant from Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia. Fairfax is 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.440 four hundred square miles by one point two million people, 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.680 and I was sure we were going to get hit 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:22.159 sooner or later. Sure enough, on October fourteenth, one of 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.040 my guys who was working called me on my cellphone 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:26.800 and said, Hey, I think we just had a sniper 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.920 shooting down at the Home Depot, which is the False 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.000 Church area of Fairfax County, which is right at the 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.760 border of Arlington County in Fairfax County. He said that 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:39.400 a woman had been shot in the head underneath the 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:40.480 parking garage. 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.720 The victim was forty seven year old FBI analyst Linda Franklin. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:47.520 She was loading shopping bags into the trunk of her 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.040 car right before she was shot. Linda was with her husband, 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.800 Ted Franklin, who then called nine to one to one 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:58.080 in distress. A warning The following audio could be upsetting 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:07.240 to some listeners. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.040 Where are you at and with the home people. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:18.399 Un roughed. 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:31.040 You had shot? Was shot? Two shot of the hood. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.840 So I got in my car and I drove down 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.360 to Falls Church. I was one of the first detectives there. 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:48.479 My first memory was the smell of diesel diesel fuel 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.639 from the ambulance. There was an ambulance parked underneath the 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:56.479 parking garage. Inside the ambulance was mister Franklin. They had 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.199 put him in there. Obviously he was quite distraught. It 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.320 was adistrophic head injury that he witnessed, and he had 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:04.600 been spattered with blood. 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:12.600 General nine reporter Dave Statter also rushed to the scene. 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:14.960 After a long day of working on the sniper case 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:19.360 on October fourteenth, my Patrick goes off. It's my colleague 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:22.119 Greg geis telling me there's a shooting right up the 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.240 street at the home depot at the top of our street. 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:26.840 I race up to the top of the street in 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.480 my car, come into the shopping center and apparently I 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.240 came in from the opposite side of police and fire, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.280 and I go into this covered parking area outside the 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.639 home depot and I'm pull up and I see a 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.360 grocery cart and it's full of stuff. And I look 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.600 down from that grocery cart and there's a woman's body 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.760 lying on the pavement. Her head is covered with some 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.200 kind of yellow sheet, and I realized, well, I'm way 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:53.600 too close, and I immediately pull out to just outside 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.760 the covered area and there are police running with police 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.280 tape to secure the scene. I pulled out my home 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.480 video camera and you see in my first video the 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.920 ambulance pull up and go up to look at Miss 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:17.200 Franklin's body, and the next thing I see are police 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:21.040 officers running with their guns drawn across Route fifty, a 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.800 six lane highway, to an apartment complex across the street 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.240 where there's a white vehicle that looks sort of like 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.040 a box truck. They have their guns drawn on what 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:34.399 turned out to be painters who were coming out of 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.000 the apartment building, and they put their hands up immediately. 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:40.359 The painters were just in the wrong place at the 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:42.560 wrong time, so police let them go. 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:45.600 We were reporting. I went live on the air with 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:47.800 a phone report because I didn't have a live TV 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.080 truck with me and no other crews were there. We 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:53.719 broke into coverage with what appeared to be another shooting. 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.160 Police obviously had a plan for the next shooting. They 0:22:57.200 --> 0:22:59.439 shut down a good portion of the Capitol Beltway that 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:02.040 brings Washingrington, DC. They wanted to make sure that they 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:04.240 could get the vehicle, and the lookout that they knew 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:06.399 they were looking for that evening was a white box truck. 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:08.880 They shut down Route fifty, they shut down four ninety 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:13.280 ninety five, and it created an enormous traffic gym that evening. 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:18.160 According to Virginia Detective Bruce Gooth, it was quickly clear 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:20.879 to them that this was a sniper shooting, and they 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.280 had limited time to catch the vehicle before it was 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:23.760 too late. 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.360 I don't think there was a soul in law enforcement 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:29.840 that didn't think for a second that it wasn't them. 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:34.440 It was clear that it was a somewhat long range shot. 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.160 We had our SWAT team put a perimeter up around 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.119