Sheriff's deputies snuck Richard Baumhammers out the back door of the Beaver County jail at about 5:30 Monday.
The suspect was taken to Allegheny County, where he faces charges in the deaths of four people killed in a two-hour shooting spree Friday. Baumhammers has already been charged in the death of Garry Lee, 22, the last victim, whom Baumhammers allegedly shot at a Beaver County karate studio.
Officials told WTAE Action News reporter Shannon Perrine that Baumhammers had to be spirited away from the prison because of a crowd of onlookers who had gathered to catch a glimpse of the shooting suspect.
As the crowd grew in size, security became a concern, officials said.
Some members of the crowd said they came to see if Baumhammers would speak, others came to give the man a piece of their mind, and others came just to see if the nightmare was real, Perrine reports.
"My husband and I came down to go to the post office, and we stopped. I think it's because no one thinks it can happen in our community," resident Karen Morrow said.
Baumhammers' transfer was so secret and so quick that many of the prison guards did not even know about it until it was over.
A sheriff's deputy told Perrine that Baumhammers left in a Beaver County vehicle, possibly to rendezvous with an Allegheny County vehicle that would take him to his arraignment at the Allegheny County Courthouse.
Once in Allegheny County, Baumhammers will face charges for the deaths of the four others who were shot within Allegheny County.
The other four victims were Anita Gordon, 63, shot in her Mt. Lebanon home; Thao Pham, 30, of Castle Shannon and Ji-Ye Sun, 34, of Wilkinsburg, both shot at a Chinese restaurant; and Anil Thakur, 31, an Indian grocer who died at Allegheny General Hospital Friday night about four hours after he was shot.
Sandip Patel, 25, remained in critical condition Monday at Mercy Hospital. Reports say that he was shot in the neck and was facing the possibility of permanent paralysis. The gun has been identified as a .357-caliber handgun.
Baumhammers will face four counts of criminal homicide, 7 counts of ethnic intimidation, two counts of arson and two counts of institutional vandalism, Action News reporter Sheldon Ingram reports.
It has not been determined, however, whether the case will be handled in Beaver County or Allegheny County.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. has been consulting with Dale Fouse, the district attorney of Beaver County, since the weekend. The attorneys said that they will speak after Baumhammers' arraignment Monday evening.
Baumhammers' attorney, William Difenderfer, is expected to bring up the suspect's mental history, and the suspect will likely undergo a psychological evaluation at Mayview Hospital, which, Ingram reports, is fairly standard procedure for suspects caught for multiple crimes.
However, Difenderfer told Action News reporter Nina Pineda that rumors of an insanity defense are premature.
Difenderfer said that he and his partners, both former prosecutors with the Allegheny County District Attorney's office, have not yet heard from the psychiatrist that they hired to evaluate their new client.
The attorney said he did not have the expertise to speculate on Baumhammers' mental condition.
"In the one video clip, (Baumhammers) had a smile. What people don't understand is that the guy is extremely limited with his eyesight, and the police officers had his glasses and he couldn't see," Difenderfer told Action News.
"You know, at this time, it is so sensitive as to 'what did that smile mean?' Was that a thing of 'he's cold and callous?' Is it a thing of 'he was sick?' What does it really mean?"
The attorney did concede, however, that mental infirmity will be part of their case.
It's difficult not to draw parallels between the case of Baumhammers and the
case of Ronald Taylor, who is accused of killing three people and wounding two others in a Wilkinsburg shooting spree two months ago Monday.
Both men are believed to have had racial motivations, and both men reportedly have a history of mental illness.
In Taylor's case, the smiling suspect was found incompetent to stand trial.
But Taylor reportedly shot five people in a matter of minutes, whereas police believe Baumhammers' moves were calculated over a period of two hours. This point could possibly hamper an insanity plea because the defense would have to prove that mental illness kept the suspect from distinguishing right from wrong at each place he allegedly went -- from his neighbors home to both synagogues then on to the restaurant, grocery and karate school.
"The insanity defense is basically going to argue that that person didn't have an intent to do right or wrong, that person was overwhelmed or compelled to do these acts by their set of illogical beliefs," said Dr. Edward Mulvey, a law and psychiatry professor at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Certain details about the shooting could make an insanity plea an even tougher case for the defense:
The probably cause affadavit indicates that Baumhammers carried only a six-shot revolver, so he reloaded his weapon once or twice.
It also says he carried two more molotov cocktails in his car, in addition to the one he used to firebomb Anita Gordon's house after he shot her multiple times.
The affadavit says he picked specific targets, for instance: shooting a black man, while not shooting a white man at the same location.
The question is, are those the acts of someone who didn't know what they were doing?
According to the professor, it is possible that Baumhammers may have been equally disjointed throughout the killing spree.
Meanwhile, evidence taken off Baumhammers' computer showed he espoused the philosophy of a group called "The Third Position," which advocates the rights of white, European Christians on its Web site.
"That the European Americans are endangered and Europeans all of the world are endangered is part of this ideology," Joel Ratner of the Anti-Defamation League said of The Third Position.
Sources say Baumhammers sought help at the Western Psychiatric unit of UPMC in 1993, and was committed to St. Clair Hospital two years ago, but that doesn't guarantee that an insanity plea will wash with the jury.
"It's not just simply the presence of mental illness, it's the fact that mental illness drove the person to do that act," Mulvey said.
But first, authorities must determine whether Baumhammers is fit to stand trial.Copyright 2001 by ThePittsburghChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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