Police shoot 'serial killer' in chance encounter over unpaid taxi fare

James Dale Ritchie's weapon, recovered from the scene of the shooting in Anchorage, Alaska, has been linked to at least five murders in the city this year. The drama reportedly unfolded in the early hours on Saturday, when officers approached the 40-year-old in the street after responding to a report that a man in the area had refused to pay a taxi fare and walked away from the vehicle.

Ritchie's gun, a Colt Python .357 revolver, was used in two double murders and in a fifth killing in the city this year, Mr Tolley said. The bodies of the four victims of the double murders were reportedly all found along bike trails, while the fifth victim's bicycle was stolen by his killer.

At least four other people are said to have been killed under similar circumstances this year - bringing the number of related murders in the city to nine.

news.sky.com...

e3.365dm.com...

Makes a change to have some police shooting news thats not all bad.

Its good news this guy is off the street. This is what the people that go too far in cop hating rhetoric dont seem to understand....the sheer volume of these types of people that would be running amok without law enforcement...is unfathomable.

a reply to: BlueJacket

Unfathomable? No its not. Serial killers are rare. They don't care about the law or even law enforcement. As we see, he opened up at their approach.

Police have stressed the investigation is still in its early stages and that they have not definitively linked Ritchie to any of the deaths, NBC reported.

They got the gun, they have to link him directly as yet.

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Its good news this guy is off the street. This is what the people that go too far in cop hating rhetoric dont seem to understand....the sheer volume of these types of people that would be running amok without law enforcement...is unfathomable.

The police did a good job, and in the follow up. That's nothing to do with the police horrors that can and do happen on multiple occasions, and beyond the pale.
People have the right to criticise, and also the right to applaude a job well done. It's as simple as that.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: BlueJacket

Unfathomable? No its not. Serial killers are rare. They don't care about the law or even law enforcement. As we see, he opened up at their approach.

Police have stressed the investigation is still in its early stages and that they have not definitively linked Ritchie to any of the deaths, NBC reported.

They got the gun, they have to link him directly as yet.

Depends on what you call rare. The FBI says "conservatively" that there are around 30-50 active serial killers in the US at any given time. It is said the real number is much higher.

www.creators.com...

John Douglas, a former chief of the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and author of "Mind Hunter," says, "A very conservative estimate is that there are between 35 and 50 active serial killers in the United States" at any given time. Often, Douglas told me, they will, "kill two to three victims and then have a 'cooling-off' period between kills." That period can be days and in some cases (such as the BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader, convicted of killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991) even years."

But others who study serial killers (defined as someone who kills three or more people) think there are many more of these demented predators out there than the FBI admits to — maybe as many as a hundred of them actively operating right now.

Why don't we know the exact figure? Because serial killers are a secretive and often nomadic bunch.

Glad they got the guy.

a reply to: BlueJacket

Wrong. Without law enforcement there would be mob justice. Where people can give people what they deserve without fear of being jailed because of the "letter of the law". This animal would have been put down far before it ever came to him murdering imo. You don't go from a saint to a murderer over night. Please try to think outside the box a little more...

a reply to: hombero

That is insane. Mob justice is for mental midgets. Besides, people with more resources will always win and corruption will rear its head there too.

Absolute power corrupts in the hand of a mob or otherwise.

a reply to: smurfy

Dont conflate this with the occasions of misuse of power. What I am saying is that without law enforcement a lot of people would wind up dead far more often, vastly more than police wrongly slay.

I can defend myself, many that complain about cops cannot...they should consider how often traffic signals save their lives daily.

You dont have a sociable society without laws. The power laws create, in turn create corruption, but on a far lesser scale than the mayhem created by a lack of structure.

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Depends on what you call rare.

Less than one percent of homicides are committed by serial killers. Thats what I meant by rare. Domestic serial killers get more coverage comparatively.

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: BlueJacket

Wrong. Without law enforcement there would be mob justice. Where people can give people what they deserve without fear of being jailed because of the "letter of the law". This animal would have been put down far before it ever came to him murdering imo. You don't go from a saint to a murderer over night. Please try to think outside the box a little more...

Yeah that worked so well in Salem didn't it. M9b justice is not justice at all its anarchy. And anarchy just leads to kaos with people killing anyone over any perceived injustice real or otherwise.

a reply to: dragonridr

One good point out of zillions of examples...I concur.

Glad this guy has been caught !! You'd think a Serial killer would be smart enough to pay his cab fare, so he didn't bring attention to himself ....ironically , this serial killer was killing bicyclist on a bike trail ...and stole a bike,.....and a taxi was his down fall.....transportation issues???? ...............And now let's hope they catch the Long Island serial killer, and the Appalchian trail serial killer !

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Depends on what you call rare.

Well with the amount of people in your country its more than 1 in a millions so thats pretty rare.