L.A. shooter surrenders in Las Vegas

POV Vegas

Tonight, Point Of View Vegas will discuss the recent shooting in Los Angeles and other hate crimes that have occurred in the United States. POV Vegas can be seen at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Cable Chanels 1 and 39.

A Metro Police lieutenant this morning confirmed that the man suspected of shooting five people in a hate crime Tuesday at a Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles turned himself in about 9 a.m. to the FBI's field office in Las Vegas at 700 East Charleston Boulevard.

Metro Police were not involved in the apprehension of Buford Oneal Furrow, 37, an alleged white supremacist from Washington state. But Lt. Jim Moses, the head of Metro's fugitive detail, went to the FBI office on unrelated business after Furrow turned himself in there this morning.

"He just walked in and gave himself up," Moses said.

Moses said Furrow "looked just like he did in the pictures" printed of him in newspapers and shown on television this morning. Moses did not speak with Furrow, but did see him at a desk being interviewed by FBI officers. Moses said he looked calm and not haggard or distraught.

Furrow reportedly took an $800 cab ride from Los Angeles to the FBI headquarters in Las Vegas.

In addition to state charges, Furrow will face a murder charge in the death of a postal worker in Chatsworth, Calif., according to national reports. The worker was killed Tuesday before the community center rampage.

Also according to national reports, Furrow told FBI agents in Las Vegas today, "I'm the one that killed the kids, I'm the one you're looking for. This should be a wakeup call to America to kill Jews."

MSNBC domestic terrorism and hate group expert Dave Neiwert reported that Furrow apparently was trying to join an elite knighthood within the Aryan Nations.

The Los Angeles shooting was the third act of violence against Jews within the last six weeks, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said on MSNBC.

"Hatred is blinding, it's not rational," Foxman said. He fears that further copycat crimes will occur.

Anti-Semitic incidents in the 1960s and 80s occurred around the world and they were copycats, he said.

Today the Internet provides a way for hate groups to communicate, recruit and show off to each other in a new way, Foxman said. "They used to meet in somebody's basement," he said. "It's a superhighway for the bigots."

The Anti-Defamation League website at www.adl.org provides summaries of the nation's leading hate groups to educate people of their dangers.

Federal Public Defender Franny Forsman said today her office likely would be called to represent Furrow if he is assigned legal counsel. Forsman said that as of 10:30 a.m., her office hasn't been asked to take the case.

Media outlets began arriving this morning at the Las Vegas FBI field office shortly after word broke of Furrow's surrender. The FBI announced it would not release any details until an 11 a.m. press conference.

The gunman gave the slip to police who arrived at the North Valley Jewish Community in suburban Granada Hills within four minutes of the shootings Tuesday. He allegedly carjacked a Toyota at gunpoint about 20 minutes later -- leaving behind a van full of ammunition, survival paraphernalia, and a book some link to white supremacists -- then dumped the car at a motel and disappeared.

"There is no doubt about it that this is now a hate crime," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which maintains a database of white supremacists, has information that Furrow belonged to Aryan Nations in 1995, including a photo, said Mark Potok of the Montgomery, Ala.-based center.

"I have a picture of him, Furrow, in a Nazi outfit," Potok said today.

Furrow lived at times in Metaline Falls, Wash., once a haven for the supremacist group the Order, The Spokesman-Review reported in Spokane.

He served as a security guard at a white supremacist meeting in the 1990s and had a relationship with Debbie Mathews, widow of Order founder Robert J. Mathews, the paper said. Mathews was killed in 1984 when his hideout caught fire during a shootout with federal agents on Whidbey Island in Washington state.

The attacker strode into the community center's lobby and opened fire with a semiautomatic gun resembling an Uzi, peppering the building with some 70 shots. A center maintenance worker threw his body over an injured teen, while teachers and other workers led children to safety.

"There was nothing said by the suspect before the shooting," Police Chief Bernard Parks said. "It was indiscriminate."

The wounded include a 5-year-old boy who was hit in the abdomen and leg. He was in critical condition today after undergoing six hours of surgery and was given a fair chance of recovery.

Also hurt were receptionist, 68-year-old Isabelle Shalometh, two 6-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl who was a counselor at the center's summer camp that began Monday. The boys and the counselor were in stable condition today and Shalometh, grazed on the arm and back as she dove for cover, was released from the hospital Tuesday night.

The violence was the latest shooting at workplaces and schools across the country, and brought immediate calls for stricter gun control and measures to protect children.

The organization that runs the community center posted armed guards at its several other operations in the region, and security was stepped up at children's programs in other states, said Nina Lieberman Giladi, an associate vice president.

She said children, including her son who saw two bleeding victims, wanted to get together with the other children to reassure themselves they were safe. She said her son "just wanted to talk. He wanted to talk about his friends, talk about what happened, talk about why this man did this."

The report of the carjacking and discovery of the abandoned van came within 20 minutes and 4 miles of the shooting.

In the red-and-white van, officers found large amounts of ammunition in metal boxes, magazines for an assault rifle, a booklet titled Ranger Handbook and freeze-dried food. Various news reports have said there was a copy of the book "War Cycles, Peace Cycles" by Richard Kelly Hoskins, which the Southern Poverty Law Center says is a staple of hate group literature.

A few hours later, the carjacked Toyota was found parked outside a motel in Chatsworth, another suburb in the San Fernando Valley, but hours of cautious searching by SWAT teams failed to turn up the gunman.

The abandoned van was purchased Saturday from the Tacoma (Wash.) Kar Korner, said the manager of the lot, who refused to be identified. Cmdr. Dave Kalish, a Los Angeles police spokesman, identified Furrow as the buyer of the van, which had Washington plates.

FBI agents visited an Olympia, Wash., home believed to be that of Furrow's father Tuesday night. The FBI refused to comment on the visit and nobody in the house would speak to reporters.

Furrow was sentenced this spring to eight months in jail for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, KOMO-TV in Seattle reported Tuesday night.

The Seattle Times reported that late last year Furrow tried to commit himself at the Fairfax Psychiatric Hospital in Kirkland, a Seattle suburb, but got in trouble when he pulled a knife on staffers and eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree assault.

Moses said "lots" of fugitives come to Las Vegas every year looking for a place to hide.

"Let's put it this way, I can't say they're all fugitives, but the CAT (Criminal Apprehension Team) team alone made over 800 arrests last year. Las Vegas is a transition point and a lot of fugitives come here to get lost in the crowd. But because of some of the programs that are set up here, they're not as safe as they think."

The multi-jursidictional CAT team, which includes officers from local law enforcment agencies and the FBI, tries to apprehend violent criminals that are federal fugitives.

The freeway access from Los Angeles provides fugitives with a quick route to Las Vegas, Moses said.

"They think they can maintain their anonymity here."

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