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http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990811/V000373-081199-idx.htm
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Alleged L.A. Gunman Surrenders
By Robert Macy
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, August 11, 1999; 2:28 p.m. EDT

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The white supremacist who allegedly wounded five people at
a Jewish community center in Los Angeles surrendered today, telling
authorities he wanted his act to be ``a wake-up call to America to kill
Jews.''

Authorities said Buford O'Neal Furrow, 37, also would be charged in the
slaying of a postal worker who was shot Tuesday near the community center.

The man who identified himself as Furrow told authorities he took two cabs
for the 275-mile trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, one to the
California-Nevada line, the other the rest of the way.

He told investigators ``he wanted this to be a wake-up call to America to
kill Jews,'' an FBI source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He walked into the office and said, ``You're looking for me, I killed the
kids in Los Angeles.'' The source said Furrow assumed he had killed some
children there.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, said
federal prosecutors would file charges against Furrow today in the slaying
of Joseph Ileto, 39, a postal worker who was killed about an hour after the
center shootings Tuesday.

``It now appears that is related,'' Mrozek said. Ileto had just delivered
mail to a home and was returning to his truck when he was shot several
times. He was found dead in a driveway. There was no indication of a theft,
according to Postal Service officials.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum said he had already
filed a warrant charging Furrow with five state counts of attempted murder,
a procedure that allows authorities in Las Vegas to hold him for extradition
to Los Angeles.

Authorities planned to begin extradition proceedings after an arraignment.

Mrozek said federal civil rights charges also might be brought in the center
shootings.

Early indications are the gunman acted alone, Los Angeles police Chief
Bernard Parks said, adding that investigators are looking into possible
links to any groups or other individuals.

Investigators from Los Angeles were traveling to Las Vegas to find out if
the man would return to California voluntarily, Parks said. If not,
extradition proceedings would begin.

Before the surrender, the hunt for Furrow had spread across the West.

The gunman gave the slip to police who arrived at the center within four
minutes of the shootings Tuesday. He allegedly hijacked a Toyota at gunpoint
about 20 minutes later -- leaving behind a van full of ammunition, survival
paraphernalia, and a book linked to white supremacist thought -- 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. He spoke
before Furrow's arrest was announced.

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 shoot-out with federal agents on Whidbey Island in Washington
state.

Police did not immediately describe the shootings at the North Valley Jewish
Community in suburban Granada Hills a hate crime, but have said the choice
of targets makes that a possibility.

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 center 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 Mrs. Shalometh, grazed on the arm and back as she dove
for cover, was released from the hospital Tuesday night.

At the center today, staff, parents and children slowly trickled back to
summer programs under the gaze of armed security guards.

``I feel good because my father's here,'' said Abby Dreyfuss, 10, who
arrived hand-in-hand with her father, Jonathan.

``Nobody's going to scare us away,'' said J. Eliad, a parent who was
bringing his 4-year-old daughter back.

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.

``Once again, our nation has been shaken and our hearts torn by gun
violence,'' President Clinton said in Washington. ``It calls on all of us
not only to give our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families,
but intensify our resolve to make America a safer place.''

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.

Police refused to say how the search was being conducted today, but said it
involved the FBI and spread to Washington state and elsewhere.

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.

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.

Furrow satisfied his sentence for the assault, said Arthur Wallenstein,
director of the King County Adult Detention in Seattle. Burrow was booked
into jail Dec. 11, served all his time, received credit for 165 days and was
released by a judge May 21 this year.

------

EDITOR'S NOTE -- Associated Press reporters Jeff Wong, Paul Chavez and
Louinn Lota in Los Angeles, Michael J. Sniffen in Washington and Allen G.
Breed in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990811/V000373-081199-idx.htm
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