There are no solid answers to the questions everyone is asking about Buford O. Furrow Jr., the suspect in the Los Angeles Jewish community center shootings who surrendered Wednesday to the FBI in Las Vegas.
Furrow was whisked by helicopter back to Los Angeles Wednesday night after a brief appearance in federal court.
Why would a white supremacist allegedly travel the length of the West Coast to a quiet neighborhood to deliver "a wake-up call to America to kill Jews?"
Why was the North Valley Jewish Community Center in suburban Granada Hills targeted for an attack in which 70 shots were sprayed around the lobby?
Why would Furrow go to Chatsworth, Calif., and kill postal worker Joseph Santos Ileto, 39, as he is charged to have done an hour after the Jewish community center shootings? At a press conference in Los Angeles this morning, a U.S. attorney tried to answer the question: Furrow described the postal worker as a "good target of opportunity to kill, because he was nonwhite and worked for the federal government," Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Why did Furrow abandon a van full of ammunition, survival paraphernalia and a book linked to white supremacist thought?
These are the questions authorities and the public are wrestling with today and there are no clear answers.
What became clear this morning was that Ileto was in full uniform when shot, Mayorkas said. He was found dead in a driveway in Chatsworth with wounds in the chest and back of the head. Nine shell casings from a 9 mm handgun were found nearby. Police found a 9 mm Glock handgun in a Toyota Camry that Furrow is alleged to have carjacked. It was found in the parking lot of a postal facility where Ileto worked.
It is known that Furrow attended Rancho High School here for a time in the mid-1970s when his father was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, but that is the only clue to another question: Why did Furrow take taxi rides to Las Vegas and turn himself in here?
In addition to murder charges in the death of Ileto, Furrow faces five charges of attempted murder in Tuesday's attack at the Jewish community center, in which three boys, a teen-age counselor and a 68-year-old receptionist were shot. The most seriously wounded, a 5-year-old boy shot twice, was in critical but stable condition after doctors inserted four pins in his left leg.
He could face the death penalty in the murder charge.
Authorities said Furrow fled to Las Vegas by taxi -- a 275-mile trip that involved two cabs -- after Tuesday's shootings. He spent the night at a hotel, then walked into an FBI office and confessed to both the center shooting and the slaying of the mailman, authorities said.
The Sun has learned that a cab driver with Independent Taxi Owners was flagged down by Furrow. The driver said Furrow first asked to go to the airport, then asked to go to Las Vegas.
Alexander Konopov, vice president of the taxi owners association, said the driver had not heard about the shootings. "Otherwise he could have gotten the $50,000 reward," Konopov said.
Konopov said the driver was "not excited" about going to Las Vegas, but agreed to go as far as the state line when Furrow offered him an $800 fare.
Kris Krouch, owner of Desert Cab in Las Vegas, confirmed that one of his drivers dropped Furrow off at the FBI building Wednesday morning, but would not say where the fare was picked up and refused further comment. It remains unclear how Furrow got from the state line to Las Vegas.
At his federal court appearance in Las Vegas, Furrow sat expressionless as the charges were read, said his attorney, Art Allen. Asked if he understood the charges, he answered: "Yes, I do."
Shackled at the feet and cuffed at the wrists, Furrow then walked down the steps of the courthouse to the jeers of a bystander who rushed up and shouted: "You're a coward! You are a coward!"
Furrow looked at him and smiled, and was then hustled away.
After his court appearance, about 20 hours after arriving in Las Vegas, Furrow was led by FBI agents aboard a Blackhawk helicopter at North Las Vegas Airport to be whisked away to Los Angeles.
"He responded to the judge's questions very calmly and openly," Allen said. "I did not discuss his case with him and only warned him that there would be a lot of media coverage and to prepare himself for that."
That warning may not have been needed as only two reporters were able to gain entry into the hearing. Reporters from the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, CBS Radio, Las Vegas Sun and numerous other news organizations were barred from entering the building.
Security guards told reporters that no one was to be let in the building for the hearing because it was after hours.
Furrow arrived at the federal building in a green sport utility vehicle and was quickly shuttled inside by FBI and ATF agents at about 6:30 p.m.
Furrow, who wore glasses, had graying hair and wore a short, military style haircut, was asked to confirm who he was and was told the charges against him by Leavitt.
"This hearing was basically the federal equivalent of an extradition hearing," Allen said.
When asked why it took so long to set up the hearing, Allen said there, "had been a delay in getting needed documents from Los Angeles."
The decision to charge Furrow federally was made jointly by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Postal Service, the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, said FBI Special Agent Grant Ashley, who is in charge of the Las Vegas office.
By 7:30 p.m. Furrow was back in the green SUV and heading west on Charleston Boulevard. A convoy of three unmarked law enforcement vehicles followed the SUV as it turned north onto Rancho Drive ferrying Furrow toward the North Las Vegas Airport.
A jet black Blackhawk helicopter belonging to the U.S. Customs Service, similar to the HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters used for search and rescue by Nellis Air Force Base, was taxied at the airport waiting to carry Furrow back to Los Angeles.
ATF and FBI agents with automatic weapons stood near the helicopter as Furrow was loaded on board for an estimated 90-minute flight, airport spokeswoman Debbie Millet said.
The helicopter took off for Los Angeles at 8 p.m.
Ashley would not comment on what Furrow had been doing in Las Vegas for nearly 8 1/2 hours Wednesday morning before he stepped off the elevator on the third floor of the FBI's field office at 700 E. Charleston Blvd. shortly before 9 a.m. and introduced himself to wide-eyed employees as the man who shot the children at a Los Angeles area community center.
Furrow was not armed when he turned himself in, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said. The spokesman said Furrow was "very cooperative" while speaking with authorities.
Furrow's father, Buford O. Furrow Sr., was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in the mid-70s. The younger Furrow was a student in the ninth and 10th grades at Rancho High School in North Las Vegas between 1975 and 1977. A yearbook shows a smiling, teenage Furrow with bushy hair. He was not listed as a member of any organizations or clubs.
Mario Monaco, who was Rancho's principal at the time, doesn't remember Furrow.
"He couldn't have been here very long," Monaco said. "After four years, you usually get to know a student."
But Monaco said Furrow's actions don't reflect the kind of students Rancho produced.
"The kids we had at Rancho were good kids and I hope people don't judge the school by one student," he said.
Furrow grew up in Nisqually, Wash., a rural area outside of Olympia. People in the area say he was a bespectacled, overweight kid who was teased about his allergies.
Court papers show Furrow's parents and others were worried last year about his mental condition and pushed for treatment, futilely as it turned out.
Authorities in Washington say the overweight kid grew up to become an overwrought adult who once predicted a deadly outburst.
"Sometimes I feel like I could just lose it and kill people," Furrow was quoted in charging papers last year from the King County prosecutor's office.
At the time, he had tried to commit himself to a private psychiatric hospital east of Seattle where he told staff "he was thinking about suicide and shooting people."
He was charged Nov. 2 with assault, accused of attacking a nurse at the hospital with a knife. Deputies found a 9 mm handgun and ammunition and four knives in his vehicle. He pleaded guilty and served about five months before his release May 21.
Days after that incident, a King County deputy prosecutor pushed for incarceration and treatment, saying Furrow posed a "grave risk of danger to himself and society should he be released," court records show. And a jail psychologist urged deputies to quickly file charges so he would have "time to prepare civil commitment papers" for Furrow.
Furrow posted a $15,000 bond before prosecutors filed charges and was released from jail on Oct. 30, before any civil commitment proceeding could take place.
But his parents told a bail bondsman, Troy Hanson, they "didn't feel fit to have him released to the street," Hanson said.
The episode followed the breakup of a long relationship Furrow had with Debbie Mathews. She was the widow of Robert Mathews, who founded the neo-Nazi group the Order, a violent offshoot of the Idaho-based Aryan Nations.
The balding suspect belonged to the Aryan Nations group in 1995, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which maintains a database of white supremacists.
"I have a picture of him, Furrow, in a Nazi outfit," Potok said. SUN REPORTERS
Cheryl Miller, Kim Smith and Jean Reid Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
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