Sniper on the I-10?

So, what's going on here? 10 incidents in 11 days on a stretch of I-10 in Arizona (PHX).

The shootings began Aug. 29 when two vehicles were struck in a half-hour span on Interstate 10 between 19th and 59th avenues. A third vehicle was hit on the same freeway near 16th Street later that day.A fourth vehicle was shot Aug. 31 in the same area.


On Tuesday, a passenger window on a Phoenix police sergeant's personal car shattered while he was driving to work before dawn on I-10 between 35th and 43rd avenues, according to DPS officials. The officer was not injured. Another shooting happened nearby a minute later.

www.chicagotribune.com... -phoenix-freeway-shootings-20150910-story.html

There have been at least nine confirmed shootings in the last two weeks, and officials were investigating if a 10th on Wednesday was also related. Most have been along Interstate 10 in the heart of the city. No one has been seriously hurt, although one bullet shattered a windshield and broken glass cut a 13-year-old girl.

www.ctvnews.ca... of-freeway-shootings-1.2556491

So far nobody has been killed or seriously injured and the targets are seemingly random. I'm not sure I'm ready to call this the work of a sniper just yet ..

a reply to: Ashirah

Yeah...I was reading about this yesterday I think. Only the little girl that was hit by a piece of shattered glass has been injured so far, but WTF?

I would say it is the work of a poor shot. To call this shooter a sniper would be a big stretch, but it would seem there is someone out there trying to be a sniper.

a reply to: Ashirah

That's scary! sounds like someone's took GTA mini games a bit too seriously.

If it was a Sniper, I suspect there would be bodies by now. Probably just an idiot with a gun, serious though, needs to be caught before someone does get badly hurt or worse.

a reply to: Ashirah

It's not just I-10. There's one along the I-69/94 corridor in Michigan too.

I do find this tidbit from your second article strange...

DPS says seven of the 10 shooting incidents involved bullets and the other three were unspecified projectiles.

So I am wondering if the 3 that were not bullets are related, or if they have only linked them due to being in the same area.

I would guess they have already gathered enough ballistic evidence of the 7 shootings to match them and know that those are related since they have put this story out there.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
a reply to: Ashirah

...

I would say it is the work of a poor shot. To call this shooter a sniper would be a big stretch, but it would seem there is someone out there trying to be a sniper.

Depends how far away he/she is. If the sniper is practicing on moving targets from 1200yds + then he/she may be a great shot about to get even greater.

originally posted by: and14263

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
a reply to: Ashirah

...

I would say it is the work of a poor shot. To call this shooter a sniper would be a big stretch, but it would seem there is someone out there trying to be a sniper.

Depends how far away he/she is. If the sniper is practicing on moving targets from 1200yds + then he/she may be a great shot about to get even greater.

Could be, but to call the shooter a sniper at this point is a big overstatement. If the shooter truly was a sniper, 7 shots would have been enough to hit at least one target assuming the shooter knows about drop, wind speed/direction, lead, etc....

Sounds like the one we had here in KC. Just shooting at random cars. They caught the one here and Im sure the idiot in Phoenix will get caught.

just a thought but could be 'another attempt' to get the public to demand that firearms be deemed 'too dangerous' thus making handguns and other firearms illegal and perhaps punishable by law, you know a win/win situation

This is scary. There is a sniper wannabe along I-25 as well. Somebody has been shooting at drivers just north of Monument hill (about an hour south of Denver). Last week 3 seperate UPS drivers had their window shot out but were unharmed.

However those 3 are not all it has been happening for to 2 months at least.

Perhaps a thread should be made compiling and tracking all of these incidents currently occuring across the US.

a reply to: Zaphod58
I was just going to say that. People are going nuts. I hope it's just random.

This is definitely a serious situation. My mother drives on the I-10 every morning to teach the 4th grade. If she was killed by this shooter I would go to jail just so I could murder him before the state did.

There are already reports of citizens taking to the streets at night armed along the 10.
www.abc15.com...

I'm considering joining them. It is only a matter of time before somebody is killed.

Most of the people I know are now taking alternate routes if they can.

originally posted by: blacktie
just a thought but could be 'another attempt' to get the public to demand that firearms be deemed 'too dangerous' thus making handguns and other firearms illegal and perhaps punishable by law, you know a win/win situation

If anything it's only helping gun sales here in AZ. Nobody wants to be defenceless anymore.

originally posted by: PraetorianAZ
This is definitely a serious situation. My mother drives on the I-10 every morning to teach the 4th grade. If she was killed by this shooter I would go to jail just so I could murder him before the state did.

There are already reports of citizens taking to the streets at night armed along the 10.
www.abc15.com...

I'm considering joining them. It is only a matter of time before somebody is killed.

Most of the people I know are now taking alternate routes if they can.

Sad part is, if everyone around the shooter is armed, then how are they going to determine who the shooter is? I would think that based on the entry angle of the projectile/bullet and location of the vehicles when hit, the investigators could easily tell where the round came from. This would seem to me to be fairly easy to identify a smaller area in which to search for the shooter if they used a mathematical modeling method.

Most criminals travel a bit of distance away from where they live to commit a crime. If they are looking to do it multiple times they will travel a distance away in different areas which allows the police to trace the spots and give a radius with which they have the best chance of finding the suspect.

Either way, I see this coming to an end fairly quickly if it is indeed a single individual and not multiple randoms.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: PraetorianAZ
This is definitely a serious situation. My mother drives on the I-10 every morning to teach the 4th grade. If she was killed by this shooter I would go to jail just so I could murder him before the state did.

There are already reports of citizens taking to the streets at night armed along the 10.
www.abc15.com...

I'm considering joining them. It is only a matter of time before somebody is killed.

Most of the people I know are now taking alternate routes if they can.

Sad part is, if everyone around the shooter is armed, then how are they going to determine who the shooter is? I would think that based on the entry angle of the projectile/bullet and location of the vehicles when hit, the investigators could easily tell where the round came from. This would seem to me to be fairly easy to identify a smaller area in which to search for the shooter if they used a mathematical modeling method.

Most criminals travel a bit of distance away from where they live to commit a crime. If they are looking to do it multiple times they will travel a distance away in different areas which allows the police to trace the spots and give a radius with which they have the best chance of finding the suspect.

Either way, I see this coming to an end fairly quickly if it is indeed a single individual and not multiple randoms.

The hard part is people usually only know a rough estimate of exactly where the car was at the time at the shooting.

Think about it this way most people go 70+ on the 10 in either direction if traffic permits. Then suddenly your window gets shot out. From the time you realized what happened and the adrenaline kicks in you have probably already traveled hundreds of feet from where this happened. At 70 MPH that's roughly 100 FPS.

Because of this it is really hard to determine exactly where the shot was taken from. Then add to that the completely random times, cars, places (along the I10), and projectiles. You got yourself a real psychopath.

What scares me most is this person is not looking for money or drugs or anything. They just want to hurt people. This is a horrible situation.

A far as people being armed out and about near the I10. Its completely within their constitutional right to do so. Maybe it will even deter the shooter knowing there are armed witnesses all over the I10 now.

Drones! We need these areas patrolled by drones, silent, circling and hidden high up taking surveillance video until these people are identified and caught. I don't see how else to vigilantly patrol this big of an area covertly.

a reply to: Ashirah

I've of heard of something like this going on in Germany I think a few years ago. Not sure the end result.

The incidents Thursday are the 11th, 12th and 13th cases in which motorists reported their vehicles sustaining damage in possible shootings. In three of the incidents, a BB gun was involved, authorities say.

www.azcen... tral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/breaking/2015/09/10/dps-investigating-another-shooting-interstate-10/71996858/

Hmm, so it's up to 13 reported cases now. And they're thinking a few are from a BB gun. Still, I'd be pretty pissed off if someone was shooting even a BB gun at me or family/friends while commuting.

a reply to: lightedhype

there was a few I-25 shootings near loveland as well

Reminded me of the DC sniper John Allen Muhammad a few years back, except he unfortunately hit his targets. Whoever it is, is one sick individual and more than likely will get caught, especially if they keep doing it.