FBI 'Nets' Cop-Killer Suspect

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56616,00.html?tw=wn_ascii

FBI 'Nets' Cop-Killer Suspect 

By Associated Press Page 1 of 1

08:15 AM Nov. 27, 2002 PT

CONCORD, New Hampshire -- A fugitive suspected of killing a California 
police officer in a crusade against police brutality has been captured 
after confessing to the murder in postings to an alternative news media 
website.

Andrew McCrae, 23, walked out of a hotel room Tuesday after several hours 
of negotiations. He is charged with killing officer David Mobilio in Red 
Bluff, California, on Nov. 19.

Shortly before he gave up, authorities granted McCrae's request to talk to 
a Concord Monitor reporter who was in the lobby. Reporter Sarah Vos said 
the first thing McCrae told her in a phone conversation was, "I killed a 
police officer in Red Bluff, California, in an effort to draw attention to 
police brutality."

Police believe it was McCrae who confessed to the murder on a San 
Francisco website.

In one of two letters posted on the site Monday by a man identifying 
himself as McCrae, the writer claims he shot and killed the officer to 
protest "police-state tactics" and corporate irresponsibility.

The writer claimed he is immune from prosecution because he incorporated 
himself as a protest against corporations who "murder thousands of people 
each year."

Mobilio, 31, was shot once in the head as he refueled his cruiser. He was 
the first officer ever killed in the line of duty in Red Bluff, a city of 
13,500 near Sacramento. Some 2,500 people, including Gov. Gray Davis, 
attended a memorial Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutor Scott Murray called it "an ambush, an execution of a police 
officer ... to effectuate (McCrae's) political agenda."

Vos, who covers crime for the newspaper, said McCrae wanted her to read a 
copy of a "Declaration of Renewed Independence" he said he had written.

"I tell him I want to read it. He asks, 'How do I give it to you?' I say, 
'You have to come out' and basically the conversation ends there."

Authorities had told her they didn't want her to get McCrae excited 
because they feared he was suicidal. They also told her not to ask 
questions and try to lure him out.

"Someone else was listening in and someone else was passing me notes," she 
said.

Agents and police officers told Vos she had done a good job.

"It feels weird, to be honest," she said. "That's not my job. My job is to 
report the news."

McCrae was ordered held without bail after saying nothing during his 
arraignment by video hookup from the Merrimack County Jail. He had a 
bandage on his head and a blanket draped over his bare shoulders during 
the hearing.

Police said there had been a dispute over jail clothing, but did not 
explain the bandage. Defense attorney Mark Sisti said McCrae had been 
injured, but gave no details.