Police have identified Furrow, left, as the suspect in the shooting RELATED VIDEO CNN's Walter Rodgers has the Israeli reaction to the shooting at the Jewish community center (August 11) Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Anne McDermott reports on a disturbingly familiar event (August 10) Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K RELATED AUDIO: Holy Cross Medical Center describe the 5-year-old boy's injuries 219K/20 sec. AIFF or WAV sound  ALSO: Tearful parent and child reunions after gunfire INTERACTIVE: Gunfire shatters another U.S. community MESSAGE BOARDS: Mass shootings

August 11, 1999
Web posted at: 9:06 a.m. EDT (1306 GMT)

In this story: Condition of wounded Suspect is from Washington state Hate crime? RELATED STORIES, SITES

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Police across the Western United States hunted Wednesday for Buford Furrow, the man suspected of walking into a Los Angeles area Jewish community center and firing more than 70 bullets from an assault-style gun before escaping.

Authorities were investigating the possibility that Tuesday's late-morning attack -- which left five people wounded -- was a hate crime. The wounded included three young boys attending day camp, a 16-year-old counselor and a 68-year-old receptionist.

Condition of wounded

The most seriously injured was a 5-year-old boy, shot in the abdomen and leg. He was in critical condition after six hours of surgery and his prognosis for recovery was fair.

Two 6-year-old boys and the teen-age counselor were in stable condition at hospitals. The receptionist, Isabelle Shalometh, was released from a hospital Tuesday night.

Suspect is from Washington state

Furrow, 37, who reportedly has lived in California, grew up in Lacey, Washington, near the state capital of Olympia.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that his family still lives there, and neighbors said Furrow had recently been living with his parents. On Tuesday night, FBI agents visited the home of a man believed to be Furrow's father.

According to the newspaper, Furrow was released from a Seattle jail on May 21 after serving five months of a sentence for second-degree assault.

He had been arrested for attacking another person with a knife, the newspaper said.

It also reported that as recently as 1994 Furrow had lived in Rosamond, California, a town about 40 miles from the scene of Tuesday's attack at the North Valley Jewish Community Center.

The center is located in Granada Hills, in the San Fernando Valley suburbs 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

A home in Lacey, Washington, believed to belong to the suspect's father, was visited by FBI agents

Hate crime?

Police said that after the shootings the gunman fled in a red van and, minutes later, stole a green car near the Van Nuys airport.

Investigators followed his trail, from the shell casings that littered the community center's lobby to the abandoned red-and-white van filled with ammunition, bulletproof vests, explosives and freeze-dried food.

Literature also found in the van was written by Richard Kelly Hoskins, a member of the American Nazi Party, according to the Los Angeles-based Simon Weisenthal Center.

The hunt for Furrow next led police to a green Toyota Corolla he was believed to have stolen and then left in front of a hotel in Chatsworth, a few miles from the community center. Police said they found weapons in the car.

Officers surrounded the hotel, but the search ended after four hours. "We were so close but still he managed to get away," Cmdr. David Kalish said.

The abandoned van, which had a Washington state license plate, was purchased Saturday in Tacoma, Washington, according to the used vehicle dealer who sold it. Kalish identified Furrow as the buyer.

Correspondent Charles Feldman, Anne McDermott, Jim Hill, Siobhan Darrow and Greg LaMotte contributed to this report.

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