The Maryland Sniper

[Nic Name]

From the doctor's description of the injuries to the 13 year old, doesn't it sound like the ammunition was hollow point, designed to inflict maximum damage to the target by fragmenting on contact rather than passing through the victim?

The doctor described a single entry wound, no exit wound and multiple fragments damaging several internal organs.

I don't recall this description being used by the police, who have so far only referred to the ammunition as .223.

Perhaps that information would be considered to be too terrifying.

Maggie?

[russotto]

There's a rumor that the latest shot was .22 (that is, .22 short or .22LR), not .223. .22 hollowpoint is pretty common. Most cheap .223 seems to be military surplus and thus FMJ, but .223 hollowpoint is not unknown. Any bullet can fragment, though; you can't say for sure it was a hollowpoint unless you recover the bullet.

[jaguar]

Depend on range and weapon too.

[jennofay]

its been on the news and radio all day here (i live 20 minutes or so from from DC...) and the latest ive heard was that it was a .22, of course rumors travel so fast that its hard to know for sure.

Back to class, nerdofay.

(hahaha, I made a funny)

[MaggieL]

Originally posted by Nic Name
I don't recall this description being used by the police, who have so far only referred to the ammunition as .223.

Perhaps that information would be considered to be too terrifying.

Maggie?

All I know about it so far is that the news I've read said it was .223. .223 comes in all different kinds of loads and bullets. The cops down there are playing things pretty close to the vest, which until he's caught is probably wise...why tell the perp everything you know about him?

The whole story comes on as if some stressed-out nutball has decided being a spy is romantic, and he's playing out his sniper fantasy. Probably has a scope and a suppressor on his rifle.

I notice he's shooting mostly in Maryland (only one shooting was in VA), where the people have been largely disarmed. Much safer for him there; if the people in Virginia catch him he might not make it to trial. Too bad.

[elSicomoro]

The Washington Post is now saying that this morning's shooting was linked to the others.

Originally posted by MaggieL
I notice he's shooting mostly in Maryland (only one shooting was in VA), where the people have been largely disarmed. Much safer for him there; if the people in Virginia catch him he might not make it to trial. Too bad.

But he's only shot one in DC, which banned handguns in the 70s and makes MD look like, well, Virginia.

He/she is picking "nice" areas for the shootings...even that shooting in DC was in a relatively nice area (on Georgia Ave., near the MD border). He keeps picking new jurisdictions too. Very strange.

[Cam]

It seems like there is no pattern, though CNN did have some off the wall link to Michaels Craft stores, don't know exactly what they were talking about, but it was on headline news this afternoon. Also found a few other articles online with mentions of this link.

[MaggieL]

Originally posted by sycamore
But he's only shot one in DC, which banned handguns in the 70s and makes MD look like, well, Virginia.

The shooting location in DC is less than 100 meters from the border. He could have been shooting from Maryland...there's a park right there, in fact. Why go down into town? There's plenty of targets in the suburbs where the getaways are easier and the cops fewer. Security in the District proper is probably kind of tight these days.

Two of the shootings were of people in the parking lots of Micheal's crafts stores. (one in Spotsylvania, the other on Georgia Avenue in Aspen Hill) The Octrober 3 shootings seem to all have been not far from a run of CSX railroad tracks. One of them was the barely-in-DC hit, which was also on Georgia Avenue.