Tags: print
Oct. 3, 2002
Sniper fears keep Code Blue in effect
The Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system central office has reinstated modified Code Blue emergency procedures for the third time as a result of the recent sniper attacks in the area.
washingtonpost.com reported that police have just taken a man into custody in Virginia and confiscated his white Plymouth Voyager minivan, though it is unclear whether or what the action has to do with the sniper attacks.
Another shooting, which police say could be related to the previous sniper attacks, happened on the evening of Saturday, Oct 19 in Ashland, VA. A man leaving a Ponderosa steakhouse after dinner was shot in the stomach and rushed to Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospital in critical condition.
The shootings have caused serious disruption to local school systems' schedules; among postponed activites are Blair sports events and Homecoming. For more information, see related article, Homecoming football game and dance postponed; pep rally canceled.
Witnesses report seeing a white Chevy Astro van with a ladder rack speeding away from the scene after the previous shooting, five days ago. A white panel truck was seen at several previous scenes.
This region has seen a string of shootings that police are attributing to a "cowardly" sniper since Thursday, October 3. Five people were shot and killed in Montgomery County on Thursday, Oct 3 in apparently random attacks and two more were shot in DC and Spotsylvania County the following weekend. Police have found one spent shell casing from a shooting at Benjamin Tasker Middle School last Monday.
Under the modified Code Blue, classes will continue on the regular schedule and eighth period classes will be held for students who have them. Students who have classes in portables should go to class via the SAC doors. Other doors to the building should be locked and guarded. All outdoor MCPS after-school activities and programs, including adult evening school, have been cancelled indefinitely. Indoor programs are currently operating as scheduled.
Students are reminded that cell phone usage is not allowed during the school day and parents are being asked to not panic or attempt to take children out of school. Parents who do wish to take children home will have to provide identification before they will be allowed to take their children. Students who walk home are encouraged to walk in groups, and all staff must remain in the building until dismissal is completed.
Officials believe that a white Isuzu or Mitsubishi delivery-style box truck, possibly with a damaged rear left door, which was seen at one shooting location, may be involved in the shootings. Police have reason to believe that the van may contain two men armed with high-powered hunting rifles, and have released composite sketches of what the truck may look like. A white Astro van with a ladder rack was seen at the latest shooting scene by several witnesses.
Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) chief Charles Moose asked anyone who believes they may know the location of the truck or have any other information to "continue to call [and] look at everything in a suspicious manner." He added that occupants of the van could be "angry or upset" and urged people to "let [the police] decide if your information is any good."
The tip hotline is 1-888-324-9800; the reward for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the sniper now tops $500,000. Anyone who wishes to add to the reward fund may call 240-777-2500.
Students worried about the sniper can call the MCPS youth crisis hotline at 1-800-422-0009 and visit the MCPS resources web page at http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/info/emergency/resources/.
The first of the Montgomery County sniper attacks happened at 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday, and the first fatality occured later that night. The next day, four people were killed in about two hours. A chronology of events follows.
More information to come as this story develops.
washingtonpost.com reported that police have just taken a man into custody in Virginia and confiscated his white Plymouth Voyager minivan, though it is unclear whether or what the action has to do with the sniper attacks.
Another shooting, which police say could be related to the previous sniper attacks, happened on the evening of Saturday, Oct 19 in Ashland, VA. A man leaving a Ponderosa steakhouse after dinner was shot in the stomach and rushed to Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospital in critical condition.
The shootings have caused serious disruption to local school systems' schedules; among postponed activites are Blair sports events and Homecoming. For more information, see related article, Homecoming football game and dance postponed; pep rally canceled.
Witnesses report seeing a white Chevy Astro van with a ladder rack speeding away from the scene after the previous shooting, five days ago. A white panel truck was seen at several previous scenes.
This region has seen a string of shootings that police are attributing to a "cowardly" sniper since Thursday, October 3. Five people were shot and killed in Montgomery County on Thursday, Oct 3 in apparently random attacks and two more were shot in DC and Spotsylvania County the following weekend. Police have found one spent shell casing from a shooting at Benjamin Tasker Middle School last Monday.
Under the modified Code Blue, classes will continue on the regular schedule and eighth period classes will be held for students who have them. Students who have classes in portables should go to class via the SAC doors. Other doors to the building should be locked and guarded. All outdoor MCPS after-school activities and programs, including adult evening school, have been cancelled indefinitely. Indoor programs are currently operating as scheduled.
Students are reminded that cell phone usage is not allowed during the school day and parents are being asked to not panic or attempt to take children out of school. Parents who do wish to take children home will have to provide identification before they will be allowed to take their children. Students who walk home are encouraged to walk in groups, and all staff must remain in the building until dismissal is completed.
Officials believe that a white Isuzu or Mitsubishi delivery-style box truck, possibly with a damaged rear left door, which was seen at one shooting location, may be involved in the shootings. Police have reason to believe that the van may contain two men armed with high-powered hunting rifles, and have released composite sketches of what the truck may look like. A white Astro van with a ladder rack was seen at the latest shooting scene by several witnesses.
Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) chief Charles Moose asked anyone who believes they may know the location of the truck or have any other information to "continue to call [and] look at everything in a suspicious manner." He added that occupants of the van could be "angry or upset" and urged people to "let [the police] decide if your information is any good."
The tip hotline is 1-888-324-9800; the reward for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the sniper now tops $500,000. Anyone who wishes to add to the reward fund may call 240-777-2500.
Students worried about the sniper can call the MCPS youth crisis hotline at 1-800-422-0009 and visit the MCPS resources web page at http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/info/emergency/resources/.
The first of the Montgomery County sniper attacks happened at 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday, and the first fatality occured later that night. The next day, four people were killed in about two hours. A chronology of events follows.
More information to come as this story develops.
| Chronology | ||
|---|---|---|
| Time | Location | Incident |
| 5:20 p.m. Wed. Oct. 2 | Michaels store | First shot fired; nobody injured |
| Wednesday evening | Glenmont Shopping Center, Shoppers Food Warehouse | First victim, James D. Martin, killed |
| 7:14 a.m. Thurs. Oct. 3 | Near White Flint Mall | James L. "Sonny" Buchanan Jr. shot while mowing lawn |
| 8:12 a.m. Thursday | Aspen Hill Mobil station | Cabdriver Premkumar Walekar killed while pumping gas |
| 8:37 a.m. Thursday | Leisure World Post Office | Sarah Ramos shot while sitting on a bench |
| 9:58 a.m. Thursday | Kensington Shell station Connecticut and Knowles Avenues | Lori Lewis Rivera killed while vacuuming her van |
| Sat. Oct. 5 | Washington, D.C. | Another shooting by the same gunman |
| Sun. Oct. 6 | Spotsylvania County | New shootings which police are connecting with Montgomery sniper attacks |
| Mon. Oct. 7 | Benjamin Tasker Middle School, Bowie | Student shot just before school; believed to be related to previous shootings |
| Wed. Oct. 9 | Battlefield Sunoco gas station, Manassas | Dean Harold Meyers shot while pumping gas |
| Fri. Oct. 21 | Massaponax | Kenneth H. Bridges killed while pumping gas |
| Sat. Oct 19 | Ponderosa Steakhouse, Ashland | Unidentified 37-year old man shot in the stomach, in critical condition |
Tweet
Share on Tumblr
Discuss this Article
Thies is kinda scary but also seams overblown somehow.
can we link to police or county sites?
Great work on this story guys.
Adela Jabine (Susanna's mom)
The negative effect of the code blue was the inherent uncertainity and worry. The media already has some of us scared to walk out our own front door over terrorists and where they plan to strike next. Calling a code blue for such a non-immediate emergency merely reinforces these feelings, and causes those with this mindset to become even more frantic. (*Stuned* is a good example of this.)
Heather..
"...I hate humanity."
An overused, meaningless generalization. People can be cruel, certainly. But these are the actions of one, maybe two, crazed humans. Does this mean that all humans would gladly repeat the actions of these men and wake up with a smile the next day? If it did, then this would not be the first time this has happened. (Sorry, but I'm tired of famous authors wasting breath about how evil humanity is.)
I sincerely apologize if anyone was related to or was friends with a victim; that is not my intention or the point of this argument.
This is getting widespread.
CRIME.I returned many,many times to make sure I did the right thing and NOW I am convinced.Have DishNetwork up here,still watch Vance,Doreen,Sonny and .....George?,Wilbon,Bill Peterson,occasionally and Fox5 News at 10 all the time.my parents are buried in 'Gate of Heaven'cemetary tooo close to Ct.Ave.&Aspen Hill Mobile.All the other murder scenes I know all too well.Sad,sad,very very sad commentary on today's society,especially after all those brothers and sisters were taken on 9/11.Much more of this nonsense and I'll be living on Hudson Bay,Canada for my remainder.Please don't get me wrong here.I have been a true blue patriotic and loyal American Democrat since 1947,have been to 3rd world countries w/ LOTS more problems than we have here,would NEVER give up my citizenship but this is just TOTALLY unacceptable behavior on the part of this/these INSANE KILLER/S.Find that white truck,catch the bastards and bash they're friggin' brains out....SOON,PLEASE!
Kinda glad I escaped from Blair to Thornton Friends...As for this horrific act of cruelty, its just utterly appalling and disgusting. To shoot down and kill innocent victims when they're just minding their own business shows the overall lack of humanity in this world and how it is decreasing rapidly every year. I sincerely hope they catch the killer(s) quickly, and that no one else is hurt.
Hey to all my old Blair friends :) Thornton seriously is the best school in the whole world.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??? One sniper (maybe 2-3 killers now)shows "the overall lack of humanity in this world? The fact remains that 99.9% of the people in the world haven't murdered anyone, and the fact that you would draw such a misguided conclusion in the face of all contrary evidence makes me glad you let Blair too.
And as for catching the people behind these crimes, it seems highly unlikely that they will be using the same bullets, gun, or vehicle. I wish the sherriff's department luck. I doubt this crime will be solved anytime soon. Maybe i'm just being pessimistic.
(sorry for those who might think i'm blowing this outta proportion-forgive me. spare me your blah-blah-blah stories. think for a moment how the families of the victims must feel. ok, done thinking? now, does what i'm saying still sound too wild? i'm trying to speak for those people who are in pain right now, because they need to be spoken for the most.)
@#*$- Its people like you who I disliked in Blair. Wake up man! Open your d*mn eyes, or are you so blind from living in a "perfect world" all the time? Heather and I weren't just saying, "One thing happened and now the whole world is horrible"; we're saying, "Its adding up- everything people do over the years- the rapes, the murders, the kidnappings- and now this." I seriously doubt that 99.9 percent of the world hasn't committed murder- thats absolutely ridiculous. Where the h*ll are you getting your facts? And as for leaving Blair- I'm so happy I got out while I did! I didn't need ignorant fools dragging me down when I already had enough problems to deal with and I certainly don't need it now. But maybe thats why I'm at Thornton and not at Blair. They always said it was the quality not the quanity that counted.
Their is one good thing the peputual code blue means the county is getting all the kinks out of it. Kinda like at Blair, after having a fire dill every other week or something like that, we handle them pretty well.
Also I wish the school board would make up their mind I tink they change it about four times.
I said this incident is another reason to hate humanity. It isnt the only one. I'm well aware that most people would never even dream of killing people, but everyone hurts other people in someway. Its all apart of what society has become. Look at how many environmental problems we have in this world. What caused it all? Humanity and so called civilization. We have people who are homeless and starving to death, then there are people who are living alone in 5 or 6 bedroom houses with a bathroom on every floor. It's ridiculous. I'm not saying people shouldnt have luxuries, but when there are people dying because they dont have money to buy food or shelter, I think its a little sad that people would rather spend money on outrageous unnecessary things rather than help a fellow human being. It baffles me when people look at me strangely when my answer to "What would you do with a million dollars?" is "Pay for college and then give the rest to charity." Although I know there are some geniunely decent people out there, over all, humanity has become seriously defunct.
Blair is being extremely unreasonable about this. I have no problem with the restrictions put in place by the county; quite the opposite. There aren't enough restrictions. I cannot believe they still allow students to walk out to the portables, but we are not allowed to eat lunch outside. I have a class out there every single day, and I walk through the very area where most people would eat lunch outside, if they were allowed to. I am sure a few empty classrooms could be found to accomodate these classes and the fact that Blair has done nothing to enhance the safety of the students and teachers out there is pathetic. Even class in the auditorium would be fine, it worked well on Monday. Yesterday, Tuesday, my spanish teacher felt unsafe in the portables and demanded to be allowed to hold class inside. We were allowed to use one of the confrence rooms in the media center, but the administration has threatened my teacher with her job if she refuses to return to the portables tomorrow. They say the school is quite secure, that there is no need to fear an attack with all the protection we have. But then, why can't we eat outside? If Mr. Gainous believes it to be so incredibly safe, he can come out there and sit in on my spanish class. I sincerely hope by my spanish class tomorrow, the administration has realized how stupid this is and allow my spanish teacher to teach in a safe environment. A substitute could not do nearly as well is she is doing or prepare us for the AP exam.
Your comment is completly selfish. Your schedual may have been ruined, but think of all the lives that have been changed, even ruined in some cases.
If you wanted to compare schools, go and try your hardest, do your best, study hard, at each school, then come back and tell me that Thornton somehow gave you more educational opportunities.
I would imagine you would say that Blair gave you more opportunities. If you really pushed yourself, you could really get a lot out of Blair. There are simply more things to do, more connections. Bigger can mean better. I suppose most people just want a normal education handed to them on a silver plate that they pay for (rather than a cheap ceramic plate). The label 'private' MUST mean it's better, right?...
Also I so agree with everyone here that it is insane how the code blue is working. You can't go to the bathroom with out a teacher. Man we are high schools. At my sister's middle school the teacher has to escort the student *into* the bathroom to ensure they are safe. Get some sense people.
After reading your praises of Thornton Friends School and your derisive remarks concerning Blair, I have a few things to say about your statements.
1) "Thornton seriously is the best school in the whole world." Surely, Thornton must better than all the other schools in our region, even if Blair has had the most National Merit Semifinalists in the region for the past seven years.
2) "But maybe thats why I'm at Thornton and not at Blair. They always said it was the quality not the quanity that counted" Truer words were never spoken. Surely, Thornton's record number of students accepted into our nation's top colleges assures me of the caliber of its students--hark, I misspeak. It was Blair who had six students accepted into Harvard; it was Blair who had three students accepted into Cal Tech; and it was Blair who had three students accepted into Stanford.
3) "And as for leaving Blair- I'm so happy I got out while I did! I didn't need ignorant fools dragging me down" Please excuse me for being an "ignorant fool."; I am wasting my time reading Blair's Silver Chips, which is only the "most popular student newspaper in the country" according to Yahoo. I could better spend my time on the website of the sagely Thornton Friends newspaper, if only there was one.
And so I conclude my petty ramblings, and I apologize for wasting your time. I am only an "ignorant fool" who sees the prestige of Blair's great "quanity" of wonderful students. Surely, Thornton is the "best school in the whole world," even if you, a Thornton student, must get your news from the newspaper of Montgomery Blair.
and as usual, chips is up to speed on all.
i wish i had written for ya when i went there.
In addition I think that when the media talks negatively about the sniper it could put even more lives at risk. If he is called crazy he could get even more angry. If he is called a coward, he might want to show everyone how uncowardly he really is, a very bad idea.
Members of Blair's It's Ac team said something very similar before they got WHIPPED by two private schools.
"I am wasting my time reading Blair's Silver Chips, which is only the "most popular student newspaper in the country" according to Yahoo. I could better spend my time on the website of the sagely Thornton Friends newspaper, if only there was one."
It's really not that hard to create something like SCO - all you need is a server handed to you and a guy who can code php.
Anyway, I'm writing at 10:34 PM Monday, and the guy just struck again, in Virginia at a Home Depot.
Does anybody in the Washington DC region have something similar to Silver Chips? Maybe Black and White (Walt Whitman), but they don't have half of the features that SCO does (apparently their newspaper is decent though, so I have to give them props for that). How about BEN? Does anyone have BEN? TJ probably does (Thomas Jefferson, in VA). But that's still not private - that's public. (That's arguable though, with the funding that TJ receives you'd think it was private.) Besides, you're gonna need a lot more than one person with PHP experience in order to run Silver Chips Online. Likewise with the print edition. Likewise with BEN. And it takes skill to create the kind of popularity and respect that SCO has.
Personally I have never heard TJ's newspaper competing with other area newspapers on any serious level. That goes to show you the breadth of Blair's accomplishments.
Stay vigilant - Peter
The point is WE did, YOU didn't, and belittling the efforts of the SCO staff just makes you look like a jerk. So back off.
i look here for the updates and what the police know but arent releasing to the public over cnn, washpost, ny times, usatoday..you guys and silver chips should be proud. are you gonna update this with the shooting that occured last nite? i hope say.
keep up the great work!
The fact is, public school is public school.
Now, at a private school, you may not learn quantum physics to the extent that you would at Blair, but what you do gain is a REAL EDUCATION - something that will aid you greatly in real life. Private schools don't have to conform to the political correctness of the MCPS curriculum.
Also, I agree with @lexandra - "They always said it was the quality not the quanity that counted..." It's true. Blair is all about quantity. For instance, SCO may make a lot of articles, including those exclusively online, but none of them are actually very in-depth. This one could have been copied-and-pasted from a Jerry Weast letter and Washington Post online. Nevertheless, you guys think you are the next MSNBC.com. (There is a huge difference between site hits and page views.)
Also, let's consider BNC. Sure, they make a lot of shows, but they are all of extremely poor quality. Aside from the fact that MCPS-TV is rarely watched, it becomes worse when you're expected to watch a kid interviewing people for a half-hour.
Why doesn't Thornton have their own online newspaper? Well, @lexandra probably didn't come to this site in search of news. She was probably checking up on her former school. Many other high schools have online newspapers, but this is one of the few with forums. Why is this? No, not because they don't know how to. It's because they are unable to. Blair was lucky enough to get a server handed to them a few years ago, and got themselves an .edu address before it became impossible for high schools to obtain such an address. In addition, the MCPS server does not allow the use of PHP - the very code that drives this site. Imagine how much more effective school websites would be if they had their own server - I guarantee you, there would be schools outdoing Blair.
For my last comment...You mention several good things about Blair - students getting accepted into prestigious colleges, National Merit semifinalists, etc. What is the similarity between all of these? They were all won my MAGNET students. Blair in itself is a poor school. Their magnet program, on the other hand, is quite exceptional. They are the ones who made SCO, they are the ones winning the awards, and they are the ones who make Blair seem like the spectacular school it isn't. I believe that the truly intelligent people can realize that it isn't worth being a part of the magnet program if it involves going to Blair. Let's keep in mind that the reason that the magnet and CAP are held at Blair is because it had been such a horrible school. In fact, imagine Blair without those programs - they'd probably still be in the nearly-dilapidated Sligo Creek facility, it would be one of the worst schools in the county, and NO ONE would want to go there.
Not only that, but you have MCPS on your side. They are willing to neglect other schools so that the Blair magnet program can excel. If they would only give other schools the opportunities that Blair has, then Blair wouldn't seem as spectacular as it is.
Are you going to post my comment, or has it been censored?
As our comment policy indicates, comments are never censored for unpopular views. There is often a delay of up to a day before comments are posted. We are but poor public school students, after all.
the anti-blair sentiment is rampant on this page. if there is a reason you dont like blair, then dont go here. most of the kids that go here like it fine. if you dont like it, then you go somewhere else. i personally know three students who have transfered from other schools to blair because of its reputation and who like it so much more than their previous school. these students were not CAP or MAGNET students, they were regular kids. they didnt come here for the magnet program. they came here because blair is an accepting and tolerable school. for its size, there is actually a decent sense of community here at blair. i think this is notable and worth pointing out. blair is actually a really good school. every school has its bad points, but i think that blair is not really as bad so you make it out to seem. at all.
Anyways "Guy From Another School", you were saying that we can do all this cool stuff like chips online becasue we have our own server, which is true. So if private schools are so much better than Blair why don't they go out and get a server and show how much better they are?
Well I've made my point Blair is really cool.
One other thing Blair dose not respent how most public schools are. In many casees a private school will work out better the a publice school Blair is so cool becase it is an execption to the rule.
I believe people shouldn't be persecuted, especially for their opinions. But I do believe, however, that before you state your opinion, you should be somewhat educated on the topic. I don't know how many people who have said something negative about Alexandra actually knew her, but she knows what Blair is like. And seeing as we know each other pretty well, you and I shall talk more on this topic in school on monday. ;)
Yes, believe it or not, I have worked with video, having taken part in a high school newsannouncement show. And I believe that so much unnecessary effort goes into Info Flow, just to achieve poor delivery of the morning announcements. It is because of this that I believe InfoFlow to be by far the worst of all BNC shows. Other shows may be somewhat informative, but they are not on the middle school level.
"Does anybody in the Washington DC region have something similar to Silver Chips? ... How about BNC?"
Like I said, the reason other schools don't do this is not because they don't know how, it's because they are unable to. For their own reasons, MCPS does not allow anything except for HTML and client-side JavaScript on their server. For this reason, schools are unable to create anything like SCO or BEN. Aside from that, MCPS now offers features that are equal to or better than those of BEN.
"I notice you haven't said anything about the semifinalist awards, the National Merit Scholars...No private school can compete with us on that kind of level - as in awards, competitions, and the like. "
It isn't fair to compare the number of awards and accomplishments of public and private schools, because of the difference in size - another advantage of a private school. Also, as I stated before, private schools do not put a huge emphasis on advanced sciences, making them ineligible for a number of the competitions Blair has won awards in.
if silver chips online is so bad, as you say it is, then why are you on this site? do you really have nothing better to do than to go to other schools' websites and write long opinions about how bad blair is? is your life that boring or meaningless that this is how you have to spend your time? and what you said about bnc, that just shows your immense ignorance. some of us who produce the shows don't necessarily do it because we want to be famous (i would like to think we have a little more reality than that). we do it because we like to produce shows. maybe something isn't worth doing for you unless you get all the recognition in the world for it, but the rest of us are a little more grounded than that. we aren't so insecure that we need a huge round of applause for everything we do, but obviously you do. why don't you go do something better with your time, cause man, your pretty pitiful.
[IP addresses removed]
In layman's terms, the two comments came from the same IP address, posted at almost the same time. They're the same person.
Guy From Another School, if you're going to have a debate, try to defend your points on their merits and not by using alternate identities to form some imaginary consensus.
Have a nice day.
Nice one, Jeremy!
I have a firewall. It scrambles my IP address and sends information to your server in a frame relay fashion. Meaning that it is impossible to find who I am or where I am from. A guy from another school and another guy from another school are two different people who sent messages from two different computers put on the same router at the same time. The service is called VPN. It allows multiple people to share an independent high-speed line. We both attend different schools around your local area. And we both share similar opinions on the TV industry.
So, essentially, what you are doing is revealing my identity - something I thought your comment policy forbade you from doing. I will stop posting on SCO, before I begin seeing strange-looking people outside my house.
If you must know, this was not me - it was a friend of mine.
Do you spy on all people like this?
And u both are the same person. Wonderful, moving on. It's not spying.
Silver Chips has every right to see who has visited their website. No need to take it personally.
Yea, enigma, there was a shooting on saturday night. :o( the victim lived, but I don't know how serious his condition is. sad stuff, this is.
Katie, of course they have the right to see who has visited their website. But they do NOT have the right to go blabbing it all over their website - well, they don't, according to their comment policy.
Jeremy Hoffman, if you're going to have a debate, try to defend your points on their merits and not by using inside information such as IP addresses. I wouldn't have thought that SCO would sink to the level they did. I would like to know what the staff sponsor of SCO thought of your actions.
Have a nice day.
i understand how it would seem as tho the two comments were from the same person, BUT... now that your initial intuitions have been disproven... i see no apologies as to the actions you took.
speaking of code blue... i hate how code blue has really lost its meaning. not supposed to be walking around halls? haha kids were walkina round... even skipping halfway through the day... doors not supposed to be open? I dont think any teachers were followign that one.
And that whole VPN thing is just bull. If you're going to blatantly lie about how you are accessing the internet, at least get your acronyms straight so you don't sound like total idiots.
Also, next time, if you are really concerned about security and privacy, don't go posting from MCPS computers.
-Have a nice day-