Chris Andersen - The Sniper: Hunting A Serial Killer

2020 Chris Andersen. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN 978-1-09830-382-2 eBook 978-1-09830-383-9

INTRODUCTION

This is a true story of a crew of serial killers whose specialty was robbing armored trucks and how they were ultimately undone.

Unique to this particular robbery crew was its paramilitary-type operational sophistication and their use of a sniper hidden within a specially modified vehicle. After months of preparation, the sniper would shoot the targeted armored truck guard/courier from a distance once they had left the safety of their bulletproof armored vehicle to make a money delivery. Once the courier was killed, then other members of the crew would move in to empty the armored truck of its contents or grab the couriers money bags.

In an around-the-clock, high-risk surveillance operationwhich lasted over three months, with many twists and turns, utilizing covertly mounted vehicle tracking devices, hidden cameras, cell phone analysis, shadowy informants, and a wiretapa small, elite undercover police tactical unit along with its attached federal agents and prosecutors all worked together to stage a decoy operation that stopped these criminals moments before they were planning to kill yet another courier with their sniper.

This is also the story of the same undercover police tactical unit assigned to develop a new methodology to dismantle violent commercial business robbery crews (High Risk Surveillance). Intermixed with all of its surveillance operations, police shootouts, and resulting political intrigue, this same mysterious sniper-initiated robbery crew with ties to the black supremacy movement had been working in the shadows for close to four years.

Starting in 2014, the proliferation of these crews was responsible in making Houston the robbery capital of the United States. These armed suspects were almost exclusively black males with street gang affiliation, who were also sometimes responsible for the murders of innocent citizensmany of them blackduring the course of these same robberies.

At the time this new anti-robbery initiative was being implemented, the United States was experiencing a wave of civil discontent regarding the unwarranted shootings (either true or perceived) of black men by law enforcement (the Black Lives Matter era).

The robbery initiative, by using advanced technical surveillance techniques, was an unqualified success. By the end of 2016, the commercial business robbery rate crashed by 80% while the murder rate fell by 58% on the north side of Houston, where this tactical unit was assigned. It was unquantified how many innocent citizens were also saved as a result of their operations! But, because of the surveillance tactics being used, this same small police tactical unit often came into direct confrontations with these violent street gangs while in the actual commission of takedown robberies. As a result, more than a few of these armed suspects were shot and killed. The killing of black men (even armed violent criminals) was something the upper police administrators (the politicians) wanted to avoid at all costs, to not agitate black activists. To accomplish this, the police upper administration then tried to coerce the leadership of this undercover surveillance unit to incorporate tactics that would lessen the possibility of having to shoot robbery suspects, while significantly increasing the chances of an innocent person being killed or seriously injured.

This unrecognized form of police corruption, in my mind, had the sole purpose to pander to black political activists and their followers.

PROLOGUE

I was born in 1960 on Long Island, just outside of New York City. After I was born and after the birth of my brother John and sister Karen, my parents moved the family to the end of Long Island (the North Fork) to the country and as far away from New York City as possiblein Southold, NY.

In the 1970s, the area was rural, covered by potato farms attended to almost exclusively by Polish-descended farmers whose last names I could not pronounce. The area was interspersed with sections of heavily wooded areas. More significantly, the North Fork was surrounded by water. On one side was the Long Island Sound (on a clear day you could see Connecticut), on the other side the great Peconic Bay.

My mother insisted that every year I attend swimming lessons. Swimming lessons in that era was more of a swim camp held for a few weeks each year in June. As you got older and as your proficiency grew, you would progress to a higher level of swim class until, at the completion of the course(s) over the years, you would emerge as an efficient swimmer.

Of much greater interest to me was the woods and the great outdoors. My friends and I spent most of the time outside, where we acted out our favorite scenes from the popular movie Jeremiah Johnson, a fictional account of a loner mountain man in the 1800s, living in the wilderness, who fights hostile Indians and eventually earns their respect.

As I got older, playing Jeremiah Johnson gave way to hunting. My father was an enthusiastic bow hunter (archery) and a disciple of Howard Hill, Fred Bear, and Saxon Pope well-known archers/bow hunters from earlier in the twenty-first century famous for their shooting exploits. I became a bow hunting enthusiastso much so, that we kept a few hay bales in the backyard, where I would practice nearly every day in anticipation of the upcoming deer or small game season. Later in life, I would lose all interest in hunting (although I dont fault those who do) and now hold the view that there should be a more valid reason to kill animals other than the thrill of the hunt or for a trophy.

I hated school. I found high school in particular to be confining and boringand for the life of me could not understand the relevancy of algebra in relationship to my dream of being a New York State Conservation Fish and Game Officer. This job was where I could fulfill my lifes destiny of always being outside, in the wilderness, and engaged with the activities I enjoyed. To say I was a marginal student was an understatement and I did just enough to get by.

Throughout high school and into college, I worked various part-time jobs. The first was as a farm hand, at $1.83 an hour. Later, I was a carpenters helper (for slightly more an hour), which was hard physical labor, particularly when trying to navigate large sheets of inch plywood onto construction sites and then hand nailing them into position (there were no pneumatic nail guns then). I have to admit that I relished neither jobs hard physical labor, particularly in the heat of the summers or in the bone-numbing cold of those windy Long Island winters.

But there was a much better job available to meLIFEGUARD! The North Fork of Long Island was a summer mecca for tourists from New York City. The reason the life guarding gig appealed to me: GIRLS. Now, usurping my desire to be a modern reincarnation of Jeremiah Johnson and live a hermits life in the wilderness, I discovered that I found the company of attractive women much more interesting. A lifeguards job would surely provide many opportunities to meet those attractive, cosmopolitan, young, Greek, Jewish, and Italian girls from New York City. But first I had to pass the dreaded Open Water Life Guard Testa series of tests of various swimming proficiency skills. You had to pass each test to get your Life Guard certification, which would be your pathway to a better tomorrow. I passed. I received my Life Guard certification and soon after the town hired me as an open water lifeguard.