04x14 - Stopping a sn*per

[bunniefuu]

- We had seen bombings,
arsons, attacks against

women's health-care providers,
against physicians.

Dr.
David Gunn was shot after getting out of his car

as he came to work at
the Pensacola ab*rtion clinic.

- I encourage you all
to continue the noble work

of supporting your local
baby defenders

from arsonists to sn*pers.

- A sn*per used a high-powered
r*fle and shot

a women's health-care provider
in Buffalo, New York.

- And he's nowhere to be found.

- He has used approximately


and false identification.

- He was affiliated with known
ab*rtion t*rror1st
organizations.

- He had a propensity
for violence.

We cannot let him off the hook.

Get back!
Everybody get back!

Let's go!
- We had get him,

we had to get him.
We had to get him now.

Oh my God!

In the FBI,
we make a lot of headlines.

Drug busts, mob stings.

t*rror1st takedowns.

We understand why people want
to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.
- Freeze!

- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

But they don't
know the half of it.

What really goes down?

We save that for each other

when we're talking
agent to agent.

This is FBI. True.

- Normally when I'm talking
about cases,

I'm talking to agents
about their cases.

In this particular matter,
I was on the squad and worked

this case intimately with...
you were there.

Kristy Kottis is
a 24-year veteran of the FBI.

Kottis was the supervisor of
the FBI's threat response

squad, overseeing the bureau's
response to terrorism threats
in New York City.

- You were there.
- I was there

- You were a big part
of it, Kristy.

You were one
of the leaders of that team.

The son of
a New York cop, Harold
Brantley's

New-York City FBI squad is
investigating violent crime

against children
and civil rights violations.

- FBI management for
the New York office asked me

to come over to supervise
that squad.

It was my job to come in to
support the agents to ensure

they had everything they needed.
- We knew the state

of the game in our territory.

I was very well aware of
the ab*rtion extremism movement,

and the high-profile ab*rtion
doctors in the United States.

A lawyer by
training, Cynthia Deitle

specialized in hate crime and
corruption cases for the FBI.

She rose to oversee civil
rights for the entire bureau.

- October 23rd, 1998.

Why is that date
a significant date?

- It was a tragic day in
that Dr. Barnett Slepian

Was shot and k*lled his
in his home.

The news broke before our
office even heard about it.

- This story is happening
right now.

Well-known ab*rtion doctor
Barnett Slepian has been shot.

- Sources tell News 4 a g*nman
shot from the woods behind

Dr. Slepian's home on Roxbury
Terrace in Amherst,

striking him in the back.

- A sn*per used a high-powered
r*fle and shot him

as he was warming up some soup
in his kitchen.

And within the matter
of minutes,

he bleeds out
in his kitchen and dies.

- Cynthia, who is Dr. Slepian?

- So when I joined the civil
rights squad in 1997,

I was very well aware of
the players in the game,

I was very well aware that, you
know, Dr. Barnett Slepian

was a women's health-care
provider who practiced outside

of Buffalo, New York.

- So just take a deep breath.

- So he did everything from
pregnancies, birth control,

into menopause, care for women,
and he delivered babies.

He was beloved by his community
and his patients

and also provided ab*rtion.

- I believe that as long as it's
legal,

I will provide total care
to my patients.

- His clinic had been subject
to numerous protests.

His home, his family
had been targeted

for harassment and abuse.

You pig!

Take your hands off the babies
and women!

- I suppose I'm a little
bit stubborn.

Adversity has never bothered me.

And the more that they come
after me, the more I'll dig in.

- It was the m*rder
of an ab*rtion doctor.

That was a violation
of federal law.

The United States had already
seen Dr. David Gunn.

in Pensacola, Florida,
an ab*rtion provider

who was shot and k*lled.

Dr.
David Gunn was shot after getting out of his car

as he came to work at
the Pensacola ab*rtion clinic.

- We had seen bombings of
ab*rtion clinics.

Oh! We got a b*mb
that just went off.

- Arsons, attacks against
women's health-care providers,

against physicians.

In 1994, after the sh**ting
of Dr. Gunn, Congress

and the President passed
the FACE Act and it is against

the law to use force or violence
to interfere with a woman

or doctors or patients
who are attempting to access
reproductive health.

- So the FBI gets involved
and we open a Civil Rights

FACE Act case in the m*rder
of Dr. Slepian.

- Yes, we did.

- Mike, where were you
on October 23, 1998?

- I was a new agent
at the academy

in Quantico, Virginia.

Michael Osborn spet


counterterrorism, crimes againt
children

and civil rights cases
for the FBI.

This was one of his first case.

The canvass of
the neighborhood is ongoing.

They talked to one
of Dr. Slepian's neighbors

who said: "Yeah, I did see
an individual that didn't seem

to fit in the neighborhood."

She sees this guy jogging, but
she said it really wasn't a jog.

And so they said: "Well, you
know, can you describe him?"

"Yes." "Can you give us
a description of the car?"

And she says: "Yes.

Not only that, but I can give
you the license plate."

They're like, "That's huge."
- That's rare.

When you get a witness like
that, that actually have

the wherewithal to actually
capture a license number.

- So now we've got
a license tag.

What happens then?

- Well, obviously, we're doing
all of the searches

of the vehicle and we ultimately
find out it's registered back to

James Charles Kopp.

- Mr Kopp is being sought based
on the sighting of a 1987 black

Chevrolet Cavalier bearing
Vermont license plate BPE 216

in Amherst, NY, in the weeks
preceding Dr. Slepian's
homicide.

James Kopp had been
a frequent protester.

He was affiliated with known
ab*rtion t*rror1st

organizations, Army of God,
Lambs of Christ and others.

So he was a very well known
player in the game.

- Didn't the Army of God
actually have a manual

that gives instructions on how
to attack an ab*rtion clinic

using chemicals, bombs?

- Yes, and our squad had been
tracking them for years.

So, we knew all the t*rror1st
organizations that were

very active and prevalent
in the United States.

So we look for a pattern, right?

Like, we want to see,
is the pattern of what happened

to Dr. Slepian, was
that replicated at some
point before that?

And what we saw was that same
type of idea

of the high-powered r*fle
sh**ting from a distance

sh**ting into a location.

Was the same situation
that we had seen with shootings

in Canada of ab*rtion providers.

- Yeah, as I recall, there were
three doctors shot in Canada,

one in Rochester.

And Slepian who was
shot in Buffalo

and he actually was the first
one that was k*lled.

- So we knew there was a pattern
here where the person

who probably did the shootings
in Canada

might have been the same person
who k*lled Dr. Slepian.

The Chevy Cavalier.

It's registered to James
Charles Kopp, we know that.

We know he's got an address
in St. Albans, Vermont.

- Which is really close
to the Canadian border.

Which circumstantially, puts
Kopp in the right position

to commit all five
of these shootings.

- Law enforcement goes back
to Dr. Slepian's home

to where they think the sh**ter
would have been standing

in the woods and they find
evidence

that is buried in the dirt.

In the woods, they find the ear
protection

that the sh**ter used.

A ball cap that he was wearing.

The fibers in the hat matched
the Chevy Cavalier.

And they also find a tube that
is partially buried in the dirt

that has the high-powered r*fle
inside of it.

That was a huge break
in the case.

When we recover the high-powered
r*fle in the woods

behind Dr. Slepian's house,
that also gives us evidence

that ties us back to James Kopp.

We could match the DNA from
the scope, from that little

piece of rubber that surrounds
the scope of the r*fle,

we could collect DNA
from the r*fle.

- And we got Kopp's DNA off
a toothbrush from a place

he was staying in New Jersey.

It was in a backpack he had left
behind at a friend's house.

- So we collect the DNA together
and further tie it to Kopp.

- We obtained an arrest warrant
up in Buffalo

and he's nowhere to be found.

I mean, figuring out who k*lled
Dr. Slepian was hard enough.

But actually catching James
Kopp before he kills again

is going to be harder
and more dangerous.

- We don't know where he is.
- Right.

- We know where the other
high-profile ab*rtion doctors
are.

Is that where he's heading?

- James Kopp, you know, he had
a propensity for violence.

We could not let
him off the hook.

- And then shortly thereafter
we announced James Charles Kopp

as a member of the FBI's Ten
Most Wanted list.

From opposite
corners of the globe,

the Bureau selected
alleged t*rror1st ring leader

Osama Bin Laden currently hidig

in Afghanistan, and James
Charles Kopp, the suspected

k*ller of a New York ab*rtion
doctor,

current whereabouts
unknown.

- He has no known permanent
address, has traveled

extensively around
the United States

and through 11 countries.

We know that he has used
approximately 29 different

aliases and false
identification.

- I mean, this is long before
we had the electronic

surveillance tools and
capabilities that we have today.

Kopp was changing his look.

He was wearing a beard,
shaving it.

Fake IDs, fake names,
living off the grid.

Made it very difficult.

- The mission was to find
and arrest Kopp

but you're just trying to see
who might be tied to him,

who maybe was a co-conspirator
in the crime,

and who might be providing
financial assistance.

And there are two individuals
that here in the New York area

that were identified, and
that's Dennis Malvasi

and Loretta Marra.

- Dennis Malvasi was a b*mber.

- Dennis Malvasi, was the first
person to b*mb an ab*rtion

clinic in New York City and
he had ex*cuted other bombings

in clinics throughout Manhattan
as well.

In New York City
early today an ab*rtion clinic

was the target of a bombing.

Flying debris injured
two passers-by.

Police think the device was
planted inside

during business hours.

- And you know, and Malvasi
actually went to prison

for seven years for his violence
against ab*rtion clinics.

And even when he got out,
he still advocated violence

against ab*rtion clinics.

- I encourage you all

to continue the noble work

of supporting
your local baby defenders

from lock-gluers to bombers
to the Avon crowd

to the monkey wrench crew,
from arsonists to sn*pers.

- So he obviously was somebody
we had to be concerned about.

- Loretta Marra, was
married to Dennis.

She had been tied to Kopp

in a number of different ways
in previous protests.

She was definitely on the radar.

There are a lot of people
that would have supported him.

But there was, you know,
a handful, maybe five

or six people in the world
that knew where Kopp was.

But in terms of, where he was
and what his plan was,

we believed home base was Dennis
and Loretta's apartment.

So it would have been late
summer, early fall of 99,

after being assigned
to the New York office.

One of the first tasks was
to find individuals

that were close to Dennis
and Loretta.

And ultimately they identified
one individual and they asked

us to go out and in
and talk to this person.

- In every investigation
in the Bureau, your life is made

a lot easier if you have
somebody who can provide you
information.

Mike had the temperament
and I felt

he was the right man
for the job.

- I personally thought,
you know:

"Hey, I can talk to him, I can
talk to anybody."

This person was very close
to Dennis.

And you're saying: "Hey, can
you give us information about

a friend of yours?"

That's not a comfortable
situation to be in, right?

It doesn't always go well.

It was an extended period
of time

that we were
talking to this individual.

- Mike had the patience of job
to deal with this informant

because he was one of those
guys who was extremely high
maintenance.

- And one day, the source calls
back and says:

"Hey, okay, I'm in."

The source had known Dennis
for a number of years.

Essentially, I was trying to
parlay that off into

a relationship between
the source and Loretta,

because we knew that Kopp
relied on Loretta.

Loretta would do anything
for Kopp.

- Mike, tell me a little bit
about what the source did

to develop the reader's trust.

- On one particular day Loretta
wants to go glue locks.

So basically what that is,
is activists will go up

to clinics and they'll shove
glue into the key locks.

The source was like:
"Hey, I want to glue locks

with Loretta.
Loretta wants me to go"

And I'm like: "no, we're not
doing that because we would need

a lot of authority before
he starts going."

- Uh, you just can't do that,
you're acting on our behalf.

- I personally viewed
it as a test.

So what ultimately happened
is Loretta is driving

the source, gets out and goes up
and pretends to glue the lock

and gets glue all over them and
comes back and super excited.

And then she was really excited.

Uh, you know, from
that experience, and I think

at that point really started
to really established

the source as a major player
with Loretta,

another step forward,
a big step forward.

The source was able to, from
Loretta, get a couple of pieces

of paper and was able to see
that there were some

phone numbers that turned out
to be phone numbers to Ireland.

We thought that that's
where Kopp was.

We felt like we would have
major success if we were able

to listen to the conversations
that were happening

in Dennis and Loretta's
apartment.

And the source and Dennis
played cards all the time.

So we developed this plan where
the source would take

Dennis and Loretta
down to Atlantic City.

So we got a vehicle

wired the vehicle up.

So when they were driving down
there, anything that they said

we would be able to hear.

We wired up two hotel rooms.

So we would be able to monitor
that as well.

At the same time, up here
in New York, we were going to be

getting into their apartment
and planting a bug

and then also putting a tracker
on their computer.

I mean it was a huge weekend.

- And in this case, you, Harold
are the one who's doing it,

this black back job.

How did you decide that you
should be the one

that's going in there?

- There was no way I was going
to turn that case over

to an undercover agent because
if there was going to be

any screw ups, then I was going
to be the one front and center

who had to answer those
questions.

- How stressful is it
getting ready to go?

It's 3:00 in the morning.

You've got the whole
team out there.

You've got technical guys,
b*mb techs, you.

- Highest level of stress
because we could not make
a mistake.

We had the best plan in place
when we went inside
that apartment.

The one thing we didn't factor
in was there was a cat

in that apartment, and the damn
cat ran out the building,

out the apartment door,
down the hallway.

And we're like, you got
to be kidding me.

We were taking pictures
of passwords.

We were taking pictures
of codes

because we didn't know
what exactly they were.

So we had to decipher
that stuff.

And of course, we had to get
that cat back in the house,

because can you imagine
if Dennis and Loretta comes home

and they come in that apartment
and that cat missing something?

Something as simple as that.

Can you imagine? A cat kind
of blew that whole operation?

- We got great information.

There was a Yahoo!
account and we could see

that there were draft emails.

So essentially Kopp and Loretta
were communicating through
drafts.

It was an email that they would
write but never send,

and then they would both access
that account

and basically be able to have
a conversation.

We knew he was in Europe.

We thought he was in France.

We didn't know where.

- During that time we were
working overnight and everybody,

we were feeling the pressure.
- And then we would

talk to somebody else
and we'd say:

"Oh, he was here a week ago" and
then "he was here yesterday".

We knew we were getting closer.

We knew we were within


It was kind of one of those
things where, like, you can see

him, then you can smell him
and you can touch him.

So we knew we were, you know,
really, really close.

We were also concerned
that potentially

he wanted to come back.

- And we heard that in some
of the conversations.

Dennis was saying to Loretta:

"I'm the one that's going
to meet him.

I'm the one that's going."

But all the emails were
written in code, right?

- Some of the code we had
already been able to break.

There were all these references
to the margins and

to the "jackie area"
and we worked with

the Bureau's code breakers
to figure out

that these were references
to the Canadian border

south of Montreal where
Loretta Marra's son was born.

We were concerned that there
was a plan that

he was going to come back and
try to come through

Canada into the U.S. again.

If they're willing to go
to this level of planning,

you know, what are they
planning next?

- We knew that James Kopp was
possibly implicated

in sh**ting doctors in Canada.

We knew he had
a violent tendency.

Like, if he gets away with
k*lling Dr. Slepian,

what's the next thing
he's going to do?

We had to get him,
we had to get him.

We had to get him now.

- But then also, there was
a financial component here.

And one day, Loretta, she asked
the source

to wire money to Kopp.

That's what we've been working
for, for over a year.

And the source goes
out and wires money.

And then after wiring the money,
there was basically

a flurry of communications
because now Kopp needed to get

the code and he needed to get
the money out.

But the problem is he didn't
get the right code.

Kopp ends up going into a post
office in Dinan, France,

tries to get the money and
is not getting the money.

Kopp became very, very
frustrated because he had

the wrong code and potentially
there were some language
barrier issues.

- Yeah, an on the email
that Kopp was writing,

he was all ticked off because
he said the keys

were all "frenchied up"
and that he can't get the money

"without the control number."

- So we were getting a lot of
intelligence

that was coming
very, very quickly.

Kopp was in Dinan.

He was calling back to Dennis
and Loretta in Brooklyn.

We were monitoring
that from Manhattan.

And I'm on the phone
with Buffalo.

And I said:
"Here he is, it's Kopp.

You can hear it."

So I put the phone
to the speaker.

They were relaying the message,
you know, live time

to the LEGAT in Paris
and the LEGAT in Paris was

listening to Buffalo and talking
to the locals in Dinan, France
at the same time.

So it went live time from Dinan
to Brooklyn to Manhattan

to Buffalo to Paris to Dinan.

And he's at the phone booth
right outside

the main post office.

They went there.

They saw him.

Kopp saw the cops.

Kopp started running.

There was a small foot chase...

and they tackle him.

Immediately it was like,
we got to get to Brooklyn.

We were worried about
evidence destruction.

We were worried about
potentially

what might Dennis do.
He's a known b*mber.

- We were on two wheels
on the median strip

driving lights and sirens going.

We got there in record time,
like from Manhattan to Brooklyn

in like 10 minutes
- I had called the SWAT guys.

I was about a block
and a half away.

The SWAT vehicle comes just
hauling by me, right?

Just super fast and then
pulled right in front.

And they go into
the... to the building.

And I remember just sitting
there thinking:

"Please don't blow up.
Please don't blow up."

- Oh, my God.
- Because I was worried

what he might do.

- We pull up and Loretta
is in the laundromat.

She was definitely
non-compliant.

Late this
afternoon, the FBI arrested

two people in New York on
charges of helping Kopp

stay on the run.

- We're here to announce
that James Charles Kopp

is in custody and awaiting
extradition

to the United States.

- Knowing that we stopped a very
violent individual

from committing violence again.

I mean, capturing a Top Ten
fugitive as an FBI agent

is a once in a million
opportunity.

- The most technically advanced
case that I've ever worked on.

This is the pinnacle
of my career.

I'm basically two
and a half years into it.

- You know, it was such a hot
button issue too, Harold.

the fact that this was in
the sphere

of the ab*rtion debate.
- Sure.

You know, for me and rest
of the team, it was never

discussed we were laser focused
on one mission only,

and that was to bring Kopp
to justice.

So I think that's the beauty
of the team,

the beauty of the Bureau.

We never give up.