THE BAUMHAMMERS CASE Attorneys Review Video Depisition Survey: Can Baumhammers Be Tried Fairly In Allegheny County? Plea Bargains Offered Did He Research Alleged Victims? Suspect Ruled Competent Mourners Gather At Synagogue Suspect Arraigned Victim's Kin Woman Has Close Call Hear Baumhammers' Personal Ad Rabbis Call For End To Violence D.A. Says Note Could Reveal Hate Motive Who Is Richard Baumhammers?

Those would be the last words between the two colleagues.

A few minutes later, Thakur, an electrical engineer from India working in America on a visa, was fleeing for his life from a man prosecutors say targeted his victims because of their ethnic backgrounds.

Thakur, 31, was shot four times, three times from the rear, as Richard Baumhammers allegedly continued a 90-minute shooting rampage in Beaver and Allegheny counties on April 28, 2000.

Baumhammers, 35, of suburban Mt. Lebanon, is being tried for the deaths of Thakur and four other people and critical wounds to a sixth -- Sandip Patel, who worked at the Indian grocery in Scott Township, a few miles south of Pittsburgh.

Patel, 26, who remains paralyzed, is expected to testify sometime after the trial resumes Monday.

Lanuka testified Saturday, the second day of a trial in which Baumhammers's attorneys don't dispute he killed the victims, but said that he is innocent by reason of insanity. Saturday was also the anniversary of the shootings, the second such rampage in less than two months in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Ronald Taylor, 40, of Wilkinsburg, is a black man accused of selecting his four white victims because of their race on March 1, 2000. He is scheduled to stand trial later this year and, like Baumhammers, faces a possible death penalty.

Lanuka, who worked with Thakur at a company which makes copiers and scanners, said that he would often take the Indian man to the grocery nearby. Lanuka told Thakur that he'd be back after a short trip to the bank, and when he returned, he followed police into the store and found Thakur stretched out on the floor.

"He had three or four holes in his chest, his eyes were still open and he was looking at me," Lanuka said.

A gunshot had pierced his throat. Thakur couldn't speak. But Scott Township police officer James Picalo testified that Thakur was able to raise his finger to tell him that one person shot him.

"This brings up a lot of bad memories because I did walk in and see my friend laying there," Lanuka told WTAE-TV. "So it's a tough experience to forget."

Prosecutors say that Baumhammers, a nonpracticing immigration lawyer, harbored a hatred of nonwhite immigrants and carefully selected his victims, beginning with his neighbor, a Jewish woman, who was shot six times.

They say that he drove to the Indian grocery, shooting Patel and Thakur, who died a couple of hours later at a hospital. Police say that he then shot and killed two men at a Chinese restaurant and a black man outside a karate school in nearby Beaver County.

A witness, Gary Evans, said that he and a friend were sitting inside a restaurant next to the Indian grocery and heard a shot. Evans said that he looked out the window and saw a man pointing a handgun in the direction of man, believed to be Thakur, hiding behind a post.

"He (Baumhammers) was bouncing back and forth, trying to get a good view of the person he was trying to shoot at," Evans said. The witness said that the man with the gun fired at the other man.

Dr. Abdulrezak Shakir of the Allegheny County coroner's office performed an autopsy on Thakur and said that he was shot once in the neck, once in the back of the head and twice in the back. Two of the shots were fatal, he said.

Previous Stories:

• April 27, 2001: Almost 1 Year Later, Baumhammers Trial Begins
• April 9, 2001: Judge Orders Taylor Back To Jail
• April 8, 2001: Plea Bargains Offered For Baumhammers, Taylor
• March 20, 2001: Did Baumhammers Research Alleged Victims?
• January 2, 2001: Allegheny County Seeking 3 Death Sentences
• November 18, 2000: Attorney: Baumhammers Can Get Fair Trial
• September 16, 2000: Baumhammers Ruled Competent To Stand Trial
• August 29, 2000: Lone Shooting Spree Survivor Goes Home
• May 17, 2000: Heroes Honored In Beaver County
• May 3, 2000: Baumhammers Arraigned In Allegheny County
• May 3, 2000: Company Reposts Baumhammers' Site
• April 30, 2000: D.A. Says Note Could Reveal Hate Motive
• April 29, 2000: Who Is Richard Baumhammers?
• April 29, 2000: Suspect Arraigned In Shooting Spree