Seattle – I-5 Shooting Suspects May Have Planned Sniper Attack
August 30, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
Two men arrested Friday night during a bizarre shooting spree along Interstate 5 in North Seattle may have been planning to fire at vehicles driving up and down the freeway, police said Sunday. “One theory is that maybe they were going to snipe at people as they were driving by on I-5,” Seattle Police Department spokeswoman Renee Witt told KOMO News.
Investigators also found a hidden campsite the suspects had built in a wooded area near North Seattle Community College, Witt said.
Trash and debris litters the remnants of the suspect’s campsite.
She said the positioning of the camp also lends credence to the idea that the suspects planned a sniper attack on the freeway.
But she cautioned that it is just a theory at this point. “We don’t know,” she said. “One good thing is they’re both in custody,” she added.
Both suspects are being held in the King County Jail following the Friday night shooting spree only yards from Interstate 5 near North Seattle Community College.
One of the suspects was found with an AK-47 assault rifle and multiple rounds of ammunition, police said.
The incident closed down all lanes of the freeway for hours, trapping thousands of motorists, but there were no injuries or property damage.
She said officers performed a more thorough search of the brushy, wooded area between I-5 and the college campus on Saturday and discovered more weapons and ammunition stashed there.
Searchers also found the hidden campsite, covered in a camouflage tarp, with a “significant” amount of ammunition.
Pellet-Gun Freeway Snipers Arrested In California
May 23, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
Two 21-year-old men are charged with 85 felonies for allegedly shooting pellet guns at more than 40 cars along a Bay Area freeway in Northern California.
Shawn Philip Wagner of Mariposa and Rojelio Samuel Gomez of Fremont were each charged with 42 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and 43 counts of vandalism in connection with the shootings over the past several months.
Both defendants are expected to make their first appearance at the Fremont Hall of Justice on Tuesday.
The California Highway Patrol says the men are responsible for at least 45 shootings on Interstate 680 in Fremont.
The CHP says they are also suspected in nine other shootings on Interstate 880.
Several vehicles were damaged by the shootings and one person suffered minor injuries.
