Suspect In Racial Shooting Spree Kills Self

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A white supremacist shot and killed himself Sunday while being chased by police for allegedly slaying two men and wounding several others in a string of drive-by shootings that targeted blacks, Asians and Orthodox Jews, authorities said.

Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, 21, carjacked a van late Sunday, and pursuing police officers heard a gunshot just before the vehicle crashed near Salem, Illinois, 250 miles south of Chicago, FBI spokesman Doug Garrison said.

Smith, identified by a tattoo on his chest, was fatally wounded by a gunshot fired underneath his chin. He died shortly after at a local hospital.

Smith's suicide brought to a close a three-day shooting rampage that began Friday night in Chicago when he allegedly fired from his car and wounded six Orthodox Jews returning from services, then gunned down a former Northwestern University basketball coach, who was black, in front of his children.

Smith had been charged with Sunday's murder of a 26-year-old Korean student, shot to death while standing amid a group of parishioners outside a church in Bloomington, Indiana.

Smith was suspected of wounding a 22-year-old Asian student in Urbana, Illinois, late Saturday, and of shooting at blacks and Asians in other Illinois cities and suburbs.

Some of his victims said the white gunman seemed to be enjoying himself and that he had a ``predatory'' look. Police said Smith had the words ``Sabbath Breaker'' tattooed on his chest.

Smith was recently a member of a group called the World Church of the Creator, which espouses anti-minority and anti-Semitic views, police said.

The dead victims were former Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, 43, of Skokie, Illinois, and Won-joon Yoon, 26, a doctoral student in Bloomington, Indiana.

Police linked the attacks and tied them to Smith through his light blue Ford Taurus sedan, which he finally abandoned before carjacking the van. No one was seriously hurt in the carjacking, Garrison said.

In Sunday's fatal attack, Smith allegedly fired into a group of worshipers outside the Korean United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Indiana.

Smith was formerly a student at Indiana University in Bloomington and until recently passed out hate-filled literature on or near the campus for the East Peoria, Illinois-based World Church of the Creator. The church's leader, the Rev. Matt Hale, told CNN that Smith left the church in May after a year with the group.

``We had talked to (Smith) about the hate literature he was passing out on campus, but of course that's not illegal,'' Bloomington Police Captain Bill Parker said. Parker said Smith solicited by himself, but stopped in May.

The shooting spree began Friday evening when a gunman appeared to target Orthodox Jews attired in traditional coats and hats in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood where there is a concentration of synagogues.

Five men and a 15-year-old boy were wounded by bullets from .22 caliber and .380-caliber handguns, which the gunman apparently used alternately as he reloaded.

A few minutes later Byrdsong was shot and killed in front of two of his children as they walked near his home in the Chicago suburb of Skokie. After shooting Byrdsong the gunman fired at an Asian couple in their car in the more distant Chicago suburb of Northbrook.

About 12 hours later, a gunman fired from his car at blacks in the central Illinois cities of Springfield and Decatur. Then around midnight Saturday, a person fired into a group of Asian students walking down a street near the University of Illinois campus in Urbana, wounding a 22-year-old man in the leg.

``A group of four to five Asian students were walking down the street when this car drove up and the driver pulled a gun out and began firing,'' Urbana police spokesman Cary Keleher said Sunday. Urbana lies between Chicago and Springfield, so the gunman may have doubled back.

``Obviously, this is an individual with a lot of hate in his heart,'' Chicago Police Commander David Boggs said. ``This person has decided, whatever his problems are, he is taking them out on the community.''

One of the victims, Gidon Sapir, 34, is an Israeli citizen and a lawyer who has taught courses at Northwestern. He said it was ironic that he had spent time in the Israeli army in combat zones, yet was only wounded while in the United States.

``We are all grieving. We are all mourning. We are all in shock,'' said Rabbi Zev Cohen of the Congregation Adas Yeshurun.

The funeral for Byrdsong, survived by his wife and three children, was to be held Wednesday evening at First Presbyterian Church near Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Top of Page