I guess some of you have heard by now of the 'sniper' shootings on the freeway in California. I suppose the new one is a copycat of the Ohio case? This one is in my own backyard, on I-580, going through Castro Valley and into Hayward. The area is about 30 minutes from where we live, and my wife and I take this stretch of freeway all the time for our jobs. I work for a towing and recovery service, and I tow cars through that area a lot. My wife drives it just about every day to get to some properties she manages in that area. Seven cars shot so far, some with windshields blown out. No one hurt (yet). One car was even shot on the same exit I take when I go that way. All the shootings so far have happened in the same small area, the area we always drive through. I can give you guys more details about it than you'll hear in the news, because I know the area so well. I also used to live in Hayward, just a couple of miles from where it's been happening.
That stretch of 580 has hills on both sides, making it easy for a person to find a place to hide and take shots at cars. I think the north side of the freeway might be more likely. The hills on that side are bigger and closer to the freeway, and beyond them is a large hilly region where a person could hike in to approach the freeway. The hills on the other side are more developed and lead to town. (I'm just 'thinking out loud' and analyzing it in my head as I type this.) If that's his tactic, then I would guess he would start moving east. There are lots more areas further east, towards Dublin, where he could do some damage. Lots of hilly places along 580 to choose from the farther east you go. He can't really go any farther west, because then it gets much more developed in just a couple of miles, then you're in Hayward, a busy city, no more hills. But this is assuming he's doing it from the hills, and that could be wrong. It's hard to say where he might be shooting from or where he would go next. I'm a tow truck driver, not an FBI profiler.
Anyway, we now have to take back-roads and city streets instead of going on 580. It's not worth the risk just to save some time. I was driving on another highway today, and I found myself looking at the surrounding hills and looking for places a shooter might hide to get a good shot at the highway. Now I know how the people in the D.C.-area and Ohio feel. We're having to alter our routine, just like they did, and keep aware of our surroundings. As I was driving today (not on 580), I was thinking about it and I suddenly realized I was wishing I had some free time every day to get my camo and spotting scope and go up into the hills and hunt the sonofab!t@#. Not with a rifle, of course, just a scope to find him and get the cops on him before he realizes it. That's the only way to catch someone like that. The cops can only respond after it's happened and he's long gone, and they don't have the manpower to spend days on end hunting a nutcase in the hills. But I'd do it if I had the time.
I'm guessing he'll start widening the area of shootings soon, like in Ohio. It's been in one small area so far, but he can't keep that up if he doesn't want to get pinpointed. We'll see how it develops. I'll post here if I learn any new details. The hard part about being careful is the unpredictability. You don't know where he'll shoot next.
These 'wannabe snipers' piss me off. Not only are they hurting and killing people, they're also giving the anti's more ammo to use against us.
And to think I was concerned about snipers in Saudi. The only snipers I've ever had to deal with are right here at home!
