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Baumhammers bought gun last year
Tuesday, May 02, 2000 By Marylynne Pitz and Jack Torry, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
Richard Baumhammers bought his .357-caliber Magnum revolver at a Washington County store two days short of a year before he allegedly killed five people and critically wounded a sixth, law enforcement authorities said.
For complete Post-Gazette coverage, click here.
The owner of the store, George Romanoff, said he was barred by state law from talking about a specific customer. State police said he was correct and that the same law applies to them.
Baumhammers' purchase of the weapon appeared to be legal under both federal and Pennsylvania laws.
However, he lacked a permit to carry a concealed gun in public and was charged yesterday with violating the state's gun law.
Authorities said the revolver used during Friday's rampage was a .357-caliber Magnum with a four-inch barrel. Its six-shot cylinder had been loaded with a mixture of .357-caliber and .38-caliber ammunition, both of which can be fired from that weapon.
Investigators said they haven't determined how many shots were fired at two synagogues in Scott and Carnegie. But they said the six victims suffered a total of 15 or 16 wounds.
Based on the number of shots that were fired at the victims, a former police firearms instructor said he believed Baumhammers likely had formal firearms training and had practiced to develop accuracy.
"As I was reading [new accounts] about this, the first thing that came to mind was that he was a pretty damn accurate shot," said Wayne Joyce, a retired Pittsburgh police detective and former instructor at the city's police training academy.
"The shots he fired at people, these were killing shots," Joyce said. "Everyone he shoots is dying. This guy ... it definitely seemed like he had some training."
Joyce said all of the victims were struck by bullets in what experts term "the center of mass," or the center of the body where critical organs are located.
He speculated that the two types of ammunition might have been used in order to achieve different objectives.
The .357-caliber ammunition is more powerful and penetrating but creates more of a "kick," or recoil, when fired, Joyce said.
The .38-caliber ammunition is not as powerful and has less kick when fired, making it possible to re-aim and shoot with more accuracy, he said.
Based on measurements taken by authorities at the shooting scenes, straight shots were fired at the victims, always from at least 18 inches away and sometimes from as far as eight feet.
Killed were Anita "Nicki" Gordon, 63, Baumhammers' neighbor in Mt. Lebanon; Anil Thakur, 31, of Bihar, India; Thao Q. "Tony" Pham, 27, of Castle Shannon; Ji-Ye "Jerry" Sun, 34, of Churchill and Garry Lee, 22, of Aliquippa.
Sandip Patel, 25, of Plum, who was wounded, remained in critical condition yesterday at Mercy Hospital, where a spokeswoman said he was alert.
Baumhammers was arraigned Friday night in the fifth and final killing, the shooting of Lee, which occurred at a Beaver County karate studio in Center Township.
Gordon, who was buried yesterday, was about five feet from her attacker and received at least six or seven bullet wounds that struck her hands, throat and chest.
Coroner Cyril H. Wecht said he couldn't be certain of the number of shots because he had not yet determined whether the shots to her neck first went through her hands.
At Robinson Town Centre, the gunman was six to eight feet away from Pham and Sun, the two employees of Ya Fei Chinese Cuisine restaurant, when they were shot. Two bullets struck Pham in the chest. A single bullet to Sun's chest ripped through his lungs, heart and aorta.
Thakur, who was shot while shopping at the India Grocers in Scott Towne Center, was hit by four bullets. Patel, the store's manager, was shot in the neck.
When Lee was shot through the door of the karate studio, he was at least three and as much as eight feet away from the gunman.
William Difenderfer, Baumhammers' attorney, said his client has been hospitalized twice for mental illness but would not be more specific.
Lee Rothman, another of Baumhammers' attorneys and who spoke with Baumhammers over the weekend, also said the immigration lawyer had been treated for mental illness since 1993 and had voluntarily admitted himself to a psychiatric ward at least once.
But Jeff Roehm, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Baumhammers would not have been prohibited from buying a gun under federal law if he had voluntarily committed himself to a mental institution.
The 1993 Brady Bill, which requires a criminal background check for anyone buying a gun, prohibits people from buying a gun if they have been committed against their will to a mental institution or been deemed "a mental defective" by a court.
Pennsylvania law has a similar provision, making it illegal for anyone to buy a gun who has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution or has been ruled "incompetent" by a court.
The federal form that every handgun buyer has to complete asks: "Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?"
If, in fact, Baumhammers had never been ruled incompetent or involuntarily committed, he could have truthfully answered no to those questions,allowing him to legally buy the gun.
Staff writers Tom Birdsong, Cindi Lash and Johnna A. Pro contributed to this report.
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