After the Caprice

According to this article, One official said that the suspects failed to arouse police suspicion because they did not fit the beliefs that already were forming in the case. "Everyone thought we were looking for an angry white guy in a white van," said a senior government official. "Instead, it was really two black guys in a blue Chevy. We got stuck on that white van."

Correction. You appear to have been stuck on the "angry white guy" part as well.

However, some witnesses apparently saw one or two white men in a white van or truck, and others saw Hispanics/MEs. None of the witness statements that I ever heard about ever said anything about the snipers possibly being black. Moose did say several times that the shooters might be of any race.

Possible "Sniping While White" profiling aside, what might have solved this case earlier is if a description of the Caprice had been released to the public, or if police had been made more aware of it. The sniper's "death car" was stopped at least 10 times by traffic cops; perhaps one of them would have put 2 and 2 together.

Releasing information on the Caprice might have been somewhat difficult; one report describes it as dark, another describes it as beige. This article offers one possible explanation for the confusion: Witnesses saw a Caprice with its lights out, Ramsey said, but they also saw a burgundy Toyota Camry speed away and may have confused the two and come up with the wrong color. This article says "The D.C. police were talking about that Caprice."

Sniper · Sun, 10/27/2002 - 10:30 · · Importance: 1