Series of Continuing Real-Time EmergencyNet News Reports Concerning a Multiple Shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, CA - 10 Aug 99 to 12 Aug 99

EmergencyNet News *FLASH* Report

08/10/99 - 13:45CDT

Gunman Opens Fire in Jewish Community Center in LA Area

Granada Hills, CA -- According to emergency service sources, at least five people have been shot in a mass shooting today, at about 10:50PDT, in the North Valley Jewish Community Center. At least three of the wounded are believed to be young children. A fleeing suspect(s), armed with a 9mm weapon, is thought to still be currently at large in the area of the center. Literally dozens of Fire/EMS/Police units are on the scene at the time of this report. No motive for the shooting has been determined. Details are continually evolving and Emergencynet News will provide more for you as circumstances warrant.

ERRI **FLASH** REPORT

EmergencyNet NEWS Service

Tuesday, August 10, 1999

16:15 EDT/14:15CDT/12:15 PDT

SHOOTING AT JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER IN LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES (EmergencyNet News) - At least five people, including small children, were wounded when an unknown gunman opened fire at a Jewish community center on Tuesday morning. The scene of the shooting was the North Valley Jewish Community Center in the Granada Hills area of the San Fernando Valley. Police were called to the scene at about 1050 PDT.

EmergencyNet News has been monitoring LAPD communications and not much is known. Currently, officers are now bringing a number of witnesses to a building on the center's campus to be questioned. A Command Post and perimeter have been set up. LAPD airships are in the air.

There are many conflicting witness accounts in regards to shooter(s) and their descriptions.

At least 30 shell casings were reportedly recovered. According to LAPD communications, one witness told them that a shooter had a Uzi assault weapon.

No deaths have been reported. Three of the victims were children, ages 5, 6 and 8. Also wounded was a 55-year-old woman. There is no report on the fifth victim.

Current information now indicates that police are looking for just one gunman who fled the scene.

ERRI is continuing monitoring the situation and LAPD communications and will issue additional reports if the situation warrants.

14:45CDT-Instant Update

Multiple police units, including special SWAT and counter-terrorist units have been dispatched to assist in a search for a gunman who fled after shooting five people in a Jewish Community center this morning. The suspect is reportedly armed with a 9mm weapon, being called an "Uzi" by witnesses. Police say the suspect is being considered "armed and dangerous." Events are described as "fluid" and "dynamic" by emergency service sources on the scene. Emergencynet News continue to monitor events in Granada Hills and will provide updates as details emerge.

15:40CDT-Instant Update

Concerns have been raised of possible explosive devices being involved in the incident in Granada Hills. Police bomb dogs are searching the area near the community center and police were seen working on a suspected improvised device in the parking lot of factory that is located at some distance from the original scene. It is not known if the search in the factory parking lot is connected in any way to the original shooting incident. Police/counter-terrorist forces are constantly alert about secondary explosive devices during domestic violence incidents. Few details are available about the authenticity of the suspected devices at this time.

17:30CDT-Instant Update

Surgery continues at this hour for two victims of the shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center. As the doctors work feverishly to save their young victims, police are going door-to-door and block-to-block in an attempt to locate a heavily armed assailant. A general police "tactical alert" has been put in place and teams from the local, county, state and federal government are making an all-out effort to locate the suspect. EmergencyNet News will provide additional details as they become available.

21:00CDT-Instant Update

Chatsworth. CA -- Police have surrounded a hotel where a car has been found that was reportedly carjacked in the vicinity of the original community center shooting. A green Toyoto, with license plates 4DZR672, has been found in the parking lot of a suite hotel. Police will/can not confirm that the carjacking is directly linked to the North Valley Jewish Community Center shooting at the time of this report. It is suspected that the occupant(s) of the formerly carjacked vehicle are believed to be in this hotel in Chatsworth. Further details of the implications of the vehicle at the hotel are not being released by LAPD, as a current police operation is underway at the hotel. SWAT team members are either enroute or on-scene in Chatsworth. EmergencyNet News will provide additional details as they become available.

00:45CDT - 11 Aug 99

Suspect Identified by LAPD

In a news conference held in the past 15 minutes, LAPD Commander David Kalish has identified a suspect in both the North Valley Jewish Community Center shooting and a carjacking that took place shortly after the shooting. The suspect was identified by police as Buford O. Furrow of Olympia, Washington. A green Toyota that was located in a parking lot of a suite hotel in Chatsworth, CA is also said to contain weapons, according to police sources. Police SWAT teams reportedly remain at the hotel at this hour, though police won't discuss the on-going police operation taking place there. A massive police manhunt is currently underway throughout California as LAPD "leaves no stone unturned" in it's efforts to catch the assailant who severely wounded three children in Granada Hills. A motive for the shooting remains unknown, but federal, state, and local police are thought to be investigating the shooting as if it were a possible "hate crime." Police released a picture of the suspect and requested that citizens contact their local law enforcement agency if the fugitive is seen. EmergencyNet News will provide that picture and additional details as they become available.

EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Wednesday, August 11, 1999-Vol. 3 - 223-09:30CDT

LOS ANGELES

POLICE SEARCH FOR GUNMAN WHO AIMED FOR LITTLE KIDS

By Steve Macko, ERRI Crime Analyst

The LAPD and law enforcement agencies all along the West Coast are looking for the man who is believed to had opened fire at a Jewish community center, wounding three young boys and two women. Los Angeles Police have identified the suspected gunman as Buford O'Neal Furrow -- also known as Buford O. Furrow Jr. -- and said the balding, mustachioed 37-year-old man who had eluded a daylong manhunt should be considered "armed and dangerous."

Police refused to speculate on a motive behind Tuesday's shooting, but the Simon Weisenthal Center said that literature found in a van linked to Furrow was written by a member of the American Nazi Party. ABC News was reporting on Wednesday morning as having links to a white supremacist group known as "The New Order" in Olympia, Washington. Furrow is suspected of being the man who walked into the North Valley Jewish Community Center on Tuesday morning and sprayed the lobby with bullets, critically wounding a 5-year-old boy. Also wounded by assault gun fire were two other boys, a 16-year-old girl and a 68-year-old woman, whose injuries were not considered life- threatening.

The gunman escaped after the attack, eluding police who arrived within four minutes of an emergency call. Nearby, a woman reported that a man matching the shooter's description took her 1999 Toyota Corolla at gunpoint, abandoning his red van. Furrow bought the red van, which was packed with thousands of rounds of ammunition, flak vests, body armor and survivalist literature, several days ago in Washington, where he maintains a residence. Television reports said that federal agents searched a home in Washington that belonged to Furrow or a relative. Rabbi Marvin Hier, a spokesman for the Weisenthal Center said a book found in the van was written by Richard Kelly Hoskins, who "believes that Jews are a Satanic threat to civilization and that 'people of color' are subhuman."

The stolen Toyota was later discovered at a hotel four miles away from the crime scene and members of the LAPD D-Platoon (SWAT) spent much of Tuesday night and into the early morning hours of Wednesday conducting a room-to-room search of the premises. The search ultimately proved fruitless.

Investigators said that 70 rounds were fired from what witnesses described as an "Uzi-type weapon" at the same height as the desks for little kids. LAPD Chief Bernard Parks Said: "There was nothing said by the suspect before the shooting. It was indiscriminate."

11:55CDT-11 Aug 99

Gunman Turns Himself In

The FBI is now confirming reports that LA shooting suspect Buford O. Furrow has turned himself into authorities in Las Vegas NV. Apparently he walked into a branch office of the FBI and announced that he was the guy "that killed those kids in Los Angeles." He was immediately taken into custody and remains under intense questioning as the FBI and LAPD sort out what charges will be filed against him.

Excerpted from: ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Thursday, August 12, 1999-Vol. 3 - 224-10:00CDT

LOS ANGELES

Gunman Surrenders To Federal Authorities

Authorities said on Wednesday that the white supremacist wanted in the shooting of five people at a Los Angeles Jewish community center fled to Las Vegas in taxis, walked into an FBI office and confessed, saying he wanted his act to be "a wake-up call to America to kill Jews." The suspect, 37-year-old Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr., was charged in the murder of a postal worker -- a federal crime -- who was shot on Tuesday near the community center. California authorities expected to charge him in the community center shooting.

At his federal court appearance Wednesday, Furrow said little and waived extradition to Los Angeles.

He was put on a helicopter that arrived in Los Angeles 90 minutes later. Furrow is said to have ties to hate groups in the Northwest and had tried to commit himself to a psychiatric hospital last year.

Furrow told authorities he took two cabs for the 275-mile trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, one to the California-Nevada line, the other the rest of the way. An FBI source said Furrow walked unarmed into the office and said: "You're looking for me -- I killed the kids in Los Angeles." Furrow apparently assumed he had killed some of the children. Furrow was charged with federal murder and illegal possession of a firearm in the homicide of 39-year-old Joseph Ileto, a postal worker who was killed about an hour after the center shootings on Tuesday. Ileto had just delivered mail to a home and was returning to his truck when he was shot several times. There was no indication of a theft.

Police said Furrow left Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, spending the night at a Las Vegas hotel.

Before the surrender, the hunt for Furrow had spread across the West. According to Mark Potok, a researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which maintains a database of white supremacists, Furrow was a known member of the Aryan Nations in 1995. Video of Furrow in a Nazi outfit was shown on US television on Wednesday evening.

Furrow lived, at times, in Metaline Falls, Washington, once a haven for the supremacist group "The Order" and allegedly had a relationship with Debbie Mathews, widow of Order founder Robert J. Mathews. Mathews was killed in 1984 when his hideout caught fire during a shootout with federal agents on Whidbey Island in Washington state. Late last year, Furrow attempted to commit himself at the Fairfax Psychiatric Hospital in the Seattle suburbs, but got in trouble when he pulled a knife on a nurse. He eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, served about five months in jail and was released on 21 May.

The sparsely populated northeastern corner of Washington and the panhandle of northern Idaho are hotbeds of the Christian Identity religion. A book found in a van believed abandoned by Furrow, titled "War Cycles, Peace Cycles," was written by Richard Kelly Hoskins, considered one of the principal ideologues of Christian Identity. Potok said: "Hard-line Identity adherents believe that in order for Christ to return to Earth, the globe must be swept clean of satanic forces -- meaning Jews, homosexuals and a whole laundry list of other enemies. So it's a belligerent religion. It's a religion that demands that its followers take up the gun." Also believed to be an Identity member is Eric Rudolph, the man accused of the Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic and Atlanta Olympic bombings.

Members of Christian Identity groups also are tied to the recent arsons at three synagogues in Sacramento, the murder of a gay couple near Redding, California, and other violent crimes across the country.

Furrow's actions also suggest he is a believer in the Phineas Priesthood, a shadowy sect of Christian Identity named for a figure in the Old Testament who killed a mixed-faith couple.

Michael Reynolds of the Southern Poverty Law Center said that the group is violently opposed to marriages between Jews and gentiles and the charging of interest by banks, and seeks the extermination of Jews.

The following is a brief backgrounder on The Order and Phineas Priesthood:

The Order

-- The Order committed a number of violent crimes during its reign of terror, including the 1984 murder of Denver talk show host Alan Berg, various bank robberies that netted the group millions of dollars, and the bombing of a synagogue.

-- The Order modeled itself after a group depicted in The Turner Diaries, a novel written by William Pierce, head of the National Alliance. Many of the crimes for which Order members were arrested resembled terrorist acts described in the book.

-- The Order reportedly gave large sums of the money it stole to various white supremacist groups, including the National Alliance, one of the most dangerous hate groups in the US today.

-- A year after Mathews' death, in 1985, members of The Order-nine men and one woman-were convicted following a four-month Federal court case in Seattle. They were sentenced to terms of 40-100 years in prison, as well as stiff fines. This is thought to had crippled the organization.

-- Although The Order is now defunct, several incarcerated members, most notably David Lane, continue to propagandize from their prison cells and continue to wield influence in the hate movement. Lane coined one of the most popular rallying cries of the white supremacist movement, known as "14 Words." They are: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

-- As recently as January 1999, James Arthur Wallington, who had been a member of The Order, was arrested after being a federal fugitive for 14 years. In 1985, Wallington was indicted for possession of an unregistered submachine gun and a firearm with an obliterated serial number, but he never showed up for his hearing.

-- White supremacists gather every year on Whidbey Island in Washington State for a memorial ceremony honoring Robert Mathews.

-- Members of another white supremacist group, "The New Order," which modeled itself after The Order, were arrested in 1998, when it was discovered that the group planned on carrying out a series of bombings against a number of targets.

Phineas Priesthood

-- The "Phineas Priesthood" is a violent credo of vengeance that has gained some popularity among white supremacists and other extremists in recent years. Unlike other extremists groups, the Phineas Priesthood is not a membership organization in the traditional sense: there are no meetings, rallies or newsletters. Rather, extremists become "members" when they commit "Phineas acts:" any violent activity against "non-whites." In this way, achieving Phineas Priesthood status has become the goal of extremists committed to perpetrating violent crimes.

-- The aforementioned Hoskins is an investment advisor who has become a leading ideologue in the "Identity" movement. " Identity" is a pseudo-religion that preaches that white Europeans are the true chosen people and that Jews are descendants of Satan. Identity also regards blacks and other non-whites as sub-human or, in their words, "mud people."

-- In 1990, Hoskins published his bizarre magnum opus, "Vigilantes of Christendom: The Story of the Phineas Priesthood" where he claimed that the "Phineas Priesthood" are Christian guerillas who avenge Judeo-Christian traitors. While assuming a posture of impartiality, he speaks with clear sympathy of The Order, of Adolf Hitler, and of murderers of homosexuals and interracial couples.

-- Letters left at the scene of an April 1996 bank robbery in Spokane, Washington, contained Identity propaganda, diatribes against the banking system and were signed with the symbol of the "Phineas Priesthood." The three men arrested, Charles Barbee, Robert Berry and Jay Merrell, were linked to white supremacist and "Identity" groups and were also charged with setting off bombs at a newspaper office and a Planned Parenthood clinic. All three were convicted.

-- In 1994 and 1995, the Aryan Republican Army (ARA) robbed 22 banks in seven Midwestern states in order to finance white supremacist causes and overthrow the U.S. government. Following their arrest, the FBI found a video in which ARA's leader, Peter Langan, rants at length about the gang's plans to "take over the U.S.A." and encourages like-minded extremists to kill law-enforcement agents. The video also promotes Hoskins' Vigilantes of Christendom.

-- Paul Hill, the anti-abortion activist, was convicted of murdering Dr. John Bayard Britton and his escort outside a Pensacola, Florida, abortion clinic in 1994. Hill had written an essay advocating the commission of "Phineas actions" a year before.

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