WorldNetDaily News Alert
Saturday, August 11, 2001



[b]SHARPSHOOTING 'COWBOY'[/b]

Before FBI sharpshooter Lon Horiuchi put a bullet in the head of separatist Randy Weaver's wife, while she cradled her baby in her arms, he was sometimes tapped to demonstrate his killing skills for former Bush administration officials, WorldNetDaily has learned.

As an FBI veteran, who worked with Horiuchi in the bureau's Washington field office, tells it, the sniper once put on quite a show for two VIPs visiting the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team training grounds at Quantico.

Richard Rogers, the head of the rescue team and the tragic Ruby Ridge operation, assembled the guests in a room, where two dummies sat in chairs, side by side. One represented a bad guy, the other his hostage.

Without warning, Rogers turned out the lights and Horiuchi, wearing full combat gear, burst into the room and took out the bad guy in the dark, firing a live rifle round through the dummy's chest -- just about 20 feet from the stunned White House officials.

"They were impressed, but I wasn't," said the FBI agent who also attended the demonstration.

"I was just struck by how cowboyish Rogers and Horiuchi were, shooting live rounds in the dark with these guys in the room," he said. "It was over the top."

Horiuchi has testified that he was trying to kill Weaver's friend, Kevin Harris, during the armed stand-off at Weaver's Idaho cabin, and that he did not see Vicki Weaver who he says took the bullet intended for Harris.

But the FBI agent who worked with Horiuchi doesn't buy it.

"He was the best shot in the bureau," he told WorldNetDaily. "There's no way it was an accident."

A circuit court of appeals has cleared the way for Horiuchi to be tried for manslaughter, but a district attorney in Weaver's county has declined to file charges.

The Justice Department agreed to pay Weaver $3.1 million for killing his wife and son.