U.S.

Ethnic Motive In Shootings?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 28, 2000 / 4:53 PM EDT / CBS

The man accused of killing five people and critically wounding another and suspected of targeting them because they were ethnic minorities or Jews was the son of immigrants and an immigration lawyer, police outside Pittsburgh said Saturday.
Richard Baumhammers, 34, the son of soviet immigrants and a law school graduate who specialized in immigration law, was arrested Friday for shootings in suburban Pittsburgh communities.

Authorities said Saturday the found writings in Baumhammers' home and office shedding light on his feelings about minorities and possible affilation with hate groups, but would not disclose details.

Baumhammers was arraigned on a charge of homicide and reckless endangerment and remained jailed Saturday. The FBI has joined the investigation to determine if federal hate crimes were committed.

Over the course of an hour Friday afternoon, police say Baumhammers targeted minorities as he calmly drove around suburban Pittsburgh and methodically picked out his victims.

They included the Jewish woman, a black man, two men of Asian descent and another man of Indian descent.

The only survivor, also of Indian descent, is hospitalized in critical condition.

The violence began at a suburban home, where a Jewish woman had been shot dead, and quickly spread to an Indian grocery store, a Chinese restaurant and, finally, to a karate school.

Baumhammers is suspected of killing his neighbor, 63-year-old Anita Gordon. Her apartment was also reportedly set on fire, though it did not spread to the outside of the building.

Police said Gordon was the first to die. Twelve minutes later they received reports of two men shot at an Indian grocery store. Two Asian men were next on the list.

Vinh Truong, a cook at the Ya Fei Chinese Cuisine restaurant, said he was in the kitchen when the shooting began and a co-worker ran in from the front and told everyone to flee. "I work in the kitchen and I hear someone say 'Somebody outside shoot! Somebody outside shoot!'"

Thao Pham, 30, of Castle Shannon and Ji-Ye Sun, 34, of Wilkinsburg, the manager and the deliveryman at the restaurant died at the scene after being shot.

An Indian grocery store in Scott Township was another Baumhammers' targets. Anil Thakur, 31, died at Allegheny General Hospital Friday night about four hours after he was shot.

22-year-old Garry Lee was killed at the karate studio. Police believe that was Baumhammers' last stop on his rampage.

The lone survivor of the shooting spree, 25-year-old Sandip Patel, is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the neck. Doctors say if he survives, Patel will likely spend the rest of his life paralyzed.

FBI Special Agent Jeff Killeen said the federal investigation could be broadened to the killings if evidence pointed to a racial motivation.

Local authorities say during his rampage Baumhammers shot at the windows and doors of two synagogues, but no one was hurt at either location. Police also reprtedly found swastikas and the word "JEW" scrawled on one of the buildings.

Attorney William Difenderfer, who is representing Baumhammers, said the gunman's parents were distraught. "They're devastated as to what happened and they are extremely sympathetic to the victims and their families,'' he said. "Right now we're trying to piece things together.''