Accused killer Buford O. Furrow Jr. told authorities that, while shopping for places to kill Jews, he scouted three of the West Coast's most prominent Jewish institutions--the Museum of Tolerance, the Skirball Cultural Center and the University of Judaism--but found security too tight.
Then he pulled off a freeway to get gas and stumbled upon an unguarded target, the lesser known North Valley Jewish Community Center, tucked away in a quiet pocket of suburban Granada Hills.
According to a law enforcement source familiar with Furrow's interrogation, the burly white supremacist from Washington state told investigators that he came to Los Angeles with mayhem on his mind, but no intention of shooting small children.
A 5-year-old and two 6-year-olds were wounded in the attack at the Jewish center. But Furrow said his targets were a teenage counselor and an older receptionist, who were also hit. "The kids got in the way," the source said Furrow explained.
The suspect also admitted shooting to death 39-year-old postal worker Joseph Ileto, a Filipino American making his rounds in nearby Chatsworth.
Furrow was ordered held without bail Thursday on a federal charge of killing a federal worker who was engaged in performance of his job--a possible death penalty offense. County and state authorities also filed charges against him.
Furrow explained that he noticed the letter carrier while he happened to be driving by in the aftermath of the center shootings and thought it would be a good idea to kill a nonwhite person who was also a government employee, according to an affidavit filed by a government agent in federal court.
Furrow, who has a history of mental problems, told his interrogators that he got out of his car and asked Ileto to mail a letter for him. When Ileto agreed, he shot him, the affidavit said. He continued shooting as the man fell.
Details are still emerging about Furrow's activities in recent weeks and immediately after the rampage that began Tuesday morning at the Jewish center, continued with a carjacking and ended with the postal worker's slaying an hour later. Furrow then fled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, where he surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday. Furrow had paid $800 in cash for a cab ride to Las Vegas, according to a taxi driver who said he drove him there.
Furrow had been in the Los Angeles area for two nights before the crimes, staying at the Hampton Inn in Stevenson Ranch in the Santa Clarita area, according to a police source familiar with the account the suspect gave law enforcement.
After Furrow allegedly abandoned a carjacked Toyota Camry in a hotel parking lot in Chatsworth, the police source said, he got a haircut and bought a new shirt. He then took a taxi to Hollywood, where he searched unsuccessfully for a prostitute and had seven or eight beers in a bar. At 8 p.m. in a 7-Eleven parking lot, Furrow flagged down cab driver Hovik Garibyan, more than two hours before police announced they were seeking Furrow for the shootings.
'I Don't Like to Fly in Airplanes'
At first, Garibyan recalled, his passenger asked to be taken to Los Angeles International Airport.
Then, recalled the 31-year-old Armenian immigrant who said he has been driving a cab for six months, the passenger changed his mind, saying: "Can you take me to Las Vegas? I don't like to fly in airplanes."
"I was just thinking: 'Who is this person, my passenger?' " Garibyan recalled, saying he noticed that the man seemed to be concealing something under his arm.
Shortly afterward, Garibyan said, Furrow fell asleep and stayed that way for most of their four-hour trip through the Mojave Desert.
He did not awaken until Garibyan stopped for gas at a service station 70 miles from Las Vegas, the cabdriver said.
There was a McDonald's nearby, and Furrow asked the cabby to use the drive-through lane to get an iced tea. He asked Garibyan if he wanted anything, the taxi driver said. He didn't.
They started on their way again. It was almost 11 p.m. and Furrow, perhaps noticing Garibyan's thick accent, asked him where he was from.
"Armenia," Garibyan said.
"Why are you going to Las Vegas?" Garibyan asked his passenger.
"I'm going to gamble, to play, to enjoy," Garibyan remembers Furrow saying. "It's a nice city."
Furrow told Garibyan to drop him off on the Strip outside the New York New York casino.
"I stopped under the Statue of Liberty," Garibyan said. "We said good luck to each other" and Furrow walked down the Strip and into the night.
Garibyan then went into New York New York, sat down at a poker table and lost most of what he had just earned, he said. By 5 a.m. he was down $600 and was on his way home, he recalled.
When he got back, Garibyan told the colleague who leased him the cab, Boris Krasnov, that he had driven a fare to Las Vegas and back and was going home to sleep.
Krasnov suspected that Garibyan's fare might have been Furrow.
