Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Atlanta Courthouse Murders - Pennington Admits Mistakes
Link
11 Alive Reports --
Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington admitted costly mistakes were made in the manhunt for accused murderer Brian Nichols during an interview with 11Alive News Wednesday.
Nichols is suspected in the murders of a state judge, a court reporter, a deputy, and a federal agent. He is also suspected in at least three series(? - mine) and five carjackings.
One of the first missed opportunities in capturing Nichols Pennington addressed was in regards to the green Honda Accord that authorities believed the suspect was traveling in for much of Friday.
The Accord was found late Friday night in the same parking garage where it was reportedly carjacked. Authorities believe Nichols abandoned the vehicle soon after he allegedly carjacked it Friday morning and left the downtown area by MARTA.
Law enforcement officials have been criticized for not searching the garage thoroughly after receiving reports of the carjacking.
“We had all indications to believe he had exited the garage in the vehicle, and so the police department should have -- and we can say that now -- we should have gone throughout that entire garage from the bottom to the top even though we didn't have indication that the car was still there,” Pennington said.
Pennington believes Nichols was trying to fool authorities into thinking he would exit the city in a car and he says Nichols’ plan worked.
"A lot of people say if you found the car, [we] could have caught him sooner. We don't know that. He eluded us. I think a lot of this was contrived by him,” Pennington said.
Pennington says he plans to investigate what went wrong within the Atlanta Police Department and says he hopes to help address security measures at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington admitted costly mistakes were made in the manhunt for accused murderer Brian Nichols during an interview with 11Alive News Wednesday.
Nichols is suspected in the murders of a state judge, a court reporter, a deputy, and a federal agent. He is also suspected in at least three series(? - mine) and five carjackings.
One of the first missed opportunities in capturing Nichols Pennington addressed was in regards to the green Honda Accord that authorities believed the suspect was traveling in for much of Friday.
The Accord was found late Friday night in the same parking garage where it was reportedly carjacked. Authorities believe Nichols abandoned the vehicle soon after he allegedly carjacked it Friday morning and left the downtown area by MARTA.
Law enforcement officials have been criticized for not searching the garage thoroughly after receiving reports of the carjacking.
“We had all indications to believe he had exited the garage in the vehicle, and so the police department should have -- and we can say that now -- we should have gone throughout that entire garage from the bottom to the top even though we didn't have indication that the car was still there,” Pennington said.
Pennington believes Nichols was trying to fool authorities into thinking he would exit the city in a car and he says Nichols’ plan worked.
"A lot of people say if you found the car, [we] could have caught him sooner. We don't know that. He eluded us. I think a lot of this was contrived by him,” Pennington said.
Pennington says he plans to investigate what went wrong within the Atlanta Police Department and says he hopes to help address security measures at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Comments:
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Wow - this tells me:
1. The cops witnessed his M.O.: he jacks cars in a garage (or does so outside & drives them in), demands clothes from the driver at some point, then crashes the gate (or walks out on foot).
2. The green Honda is the 2nd, 3rd or 4th car in this pattern, depending on how you're counting.
3. Yet the gate at the Centennial deck is still intact. It's not smashed.
What does that tell them? Nothing apparently. (Nor does the tape 'cause they didn't look at it either :-)
Again, Pennington's excuse is "we didn't go fishing" for the green Honda. But it looks like the new evidence coming to light makes his point irrelevant. Besides the other mistakes his dept. had made by that point in time, he also had plenty of circumstantial evidence that the green Honda couldn't have left the garage.
That is why they should have searched it, not because he needed to go "fishing" or "chasing down all leads". I'm still convinced Pennington doesn't want the focus shifted to this line of inference. Right now the media is playing into his hands but I'm hopeful that (with your help :) they will figure it out.
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1. The cops witnessed his M.O.: he jacks cars in a garage (or does so outside & drives them in), demands clothes from the driver at some point, then crashes the gate (or walks out on foot).
2. The green Honda is the 2nd, 3rd or 4th car in this pattern, depending on how you're counting.
3. Yet the gate at the Centennial deck is still intact. It's not smashed.
What does that tell them? Nothing apparently. (Nor does the tape 'cause they didn't look at it either :-)
Again, Pennington's excuse is "we didn't go fishing" for the green Honda. But it looks like the new evidence coming to light makes his point irrelevant. Besides the other mistakes his dept. had made by that point in time, he also had plenty of circumstantial evidence that the green Honda couldn't have left the garage.
That is why they should have searched it, not because he needed to go "fishing" or "chasing down all leads". I'm still convinced Pennington doesn't want the focus shifted to this line of inference. Right now the media is playing into his hands but I'm hopeful that (with your help :) they will figure it out.
# posted by 
: 9:41 AM
: 9:41 AM << Home
