Unqualified Offerings hypothesizes that Matthew Dowdy, who is accused of giving false witness in the MD shooting case, might be the shooter or his accomplice.

In a word, no.

While I might be wrong, he seems to me to be a bit of a bumbler. How else would you describe someone who claims to have been outside the Home Depot where the shooting occurred, but then is found to have been inside? I would tend to think that it would be physically impossible for the shooter to be inside the Home Depot at the same time or even shortly after the shooting occurred. The shot was supposedly fired from at least 30 yards, and more likely 100 or more. Was he able to sprint that distance to the inside of the store? I don't think so.

So, could he be the shooter's accomplice? The shooter certainly appears to be cold and calculating. Why would the shooter choose someone as his accomplice who appears to be a bumbler? Why would the shooter need this red herring of the cream-colored van and the AK-74 anyway? He's already evaded the police so far, and he already has the perfect opportunity to throw red herrings their way, such as by leaving another tarot card with something weird written on it. Nonetheless, if the false witness suspect is his accomplice, wouldn't he have chosen a place to stand where his red herring story wouldn't have been easily proven to be false? Did the shooter really need a red herring story to get away? If he was the shooter's accomplice, weren't he and the shooter taking an extremely large risk? Taking risks doesn't seem to fit all of the shooter's past actions.

Another scenario is this: the shooter met the suspect in a bar, and offered him $1000 to act as a false witness. To avoid the possibility that the suspect would tip off the police, he picks him up in the white van and takes him to (the suspect's local) Home Depot just before the shooting.

That makes as little sense as the first idea. The shooter is, once again, cold and calculating. He wouldn't risk letting someone else know who he is by driving him around, or revealing his identity beforehand. And, faced with the thought of getting $1000 or getting $500,000, I think we know what would have happened.

So, I think the idea that the false witness suspect is somehow otherwise involved is really wacky. I think the more likely explanation is that he wanted to grab his 15 minutes and he saw a good chance and took it. The reward might have played a part. Speculation that this is somehow an al Queda plot might have resulted in him IDing Osama's very own gun.

BTW: The cops probably figured out that he might not be telling the truth by interviewing the other people in the store. If several of them said they saw the suspect inside the store, that would tend to indicate he was inside the store. Maybe HomeDepot even has a surveillance camera over their entrances and exits. The tape would be timecoded, and even if not it would be possible to tell when the shooting occurred by looking for a bunch of people running out (or, more likely, running in).

UPDATE: Here's another wacky scenario. You are marginally acquainted with the suspect either personally or through his work. You start discussing the shooter situation with him, just as no doubt thousands of conversations have taken place between residents of the area. You fill his head with al Queda this, al Queda that. You get him, for instance, to picture an AK-74 in his mind. You make him think that he's come up with these ideas all by himself. You never, of course, tell him you're the shooter. You just find someone suggestible, and fill his mind with your suggestions.

Then, you, posing as someone he's never met who got his name from the phone book, call him at 9pm and say you have a rush job for him the next morning. He immediately rushes out to Home Depot to get supplies for this "job." He's completely unaware that the "job" is just a hoax. You're lying in wait at the Home Depot for him to arrive. When he does, you shoot and leave. He immediately starts playing back the mental pictures that you're planted in his mind: an AK-74 carrying terrorist. In this case he's not an accomplice, he's just someone who got played.

While I'm sure things slightly similar to that have happened before, I think the probability of it happening in this case is extremely remote.