Sniper had 3,000 bullets; DA backs off media search warrants

RENO, Nev. -- The part-time hog farmer charged with six counts of attempted murder in a sniper attack on Interstate 80 had 3,000 rounds of ammunition in his truck when he was arrested, police said Friday.

Prosecutors haven't decided whether they believe Christopher Lee Merrit's story of a planned cross-country killing spree.

But they are confident he is the gunman who opened fire on the outskirts of Reno on Monday, hitting one man in the chest and shutting down a 10-mile stretch of the interstate for five hours.

Merritt, 20, Mankato, Minn., told police the night he was arrested he also had planned a robbery and murder at a reservation smoke shop north of Las Vegas.

Since then, he has said in a series of interviews with news reporters he was headed on a murder-spree across the country that he thought would make some kind of "satirical" statement about America's growing appetite for violence in media.

Those interviews touched off a controversy of their own between news outlets and Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick, who served search warrants for videotapes and notes on three television stations and a newspaper.

Gammick seized unedited tapes from KOLO-TV in Reno on Wednesday, but returned the tapes late Thursday after the station's lawyer threatened a lawsuit.

Merritt was arraigned in Reno Justice Court Friday on six counts of attempted murder, six counts of firing into an occupied vehicle and one count of battery with a deadly weapon.

Judge Edward Dannan ordered him held without bail and set a preliminary hearing for Jan. 20.

Merritt had a rifle, a shot gun, three knives and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in his pickup when he was stopped on Interstate 15 near Las Vegas Monday night. He was stopped because a light was out on the license plate on the truck he stole from his grandfather in Fairfax, Mo., on New Year's Eve.

Merritt confessed to the sniper shooting, saying he fired between 17 and 22 rounds at motorists on the interstate Monday, the criminal complaint said.

He originally told detectives he shot at the cars with the idea of making them crash so he could rob the motorists.

"He then intended to approach the crashed cars like a Good Samaritan and steal anything of value," the complaint said.

"He stated that he decided to shoot to kill the drivers because if he shot the tires and caused an accident, the drivers would later be able to identify him."

Merritt has been telling a much more complex story to reporters in jailhouse interviews, picking out cities across the country he said he was planning shootings based on the way they have been "glamorized and romanticized" for their violence.

Gammick said Friday he was willing to return the videotapes to KOLO-TV as long as they agreed to lock them up and "preserve them should we need them."

Kevin Doty, a Las Vegas attorney for KOLO-TV, confirmed Gammick "asked us to keep the tape in a safe place so he can subpoena it.

"I said that was find with me because we would file a motion to quash," Doty said.

"I just find this case to be unbelievable. You have material that is protected from disclosure before state law," he said.

"You have a search that is illegal pursuant to federal law. And this is all happening in a case where the accused has already confessed."

Sheriff's deputies hit three other media outlets on Wednesday. The Gazette-Journal refused to turn over its notes, agreeing to lock them away until a subpoena could be served. KRNV-TV sent a copy of its interview to a justice of the peace and KTVN-TV gave a copy to its attorney.

Doty said in a letter to Gammick Thursday KOLO-TV would seek a minimum of $1,000 in damages "if all of the illegally seized materials are not returned.

"Your office and the deputies were advised, prior to executing this search warrant that the search was in violation of ... the First Amendment Privacy Protection Act."

Ward Bushee, editor of the Reno Gazette-Journal, said he was shocked by Gammick's decision to send deputies to his newspaper lobby Wednesday "and threaten our newsroom.

"It created a senseless showdown between sheriff deputies and newspaper people that almost escalated into physical confrontation and arrests of news people trying to protect the work that the Constitution clearly protects," he said.

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