INTERACTIVE: The hunt for the community center gunman Gunfire shatters another U.S. community 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 MESSAGE BOARDS: Mass shootings  BACKGROUND: Buford Furrow: • Full name: Buford O'Neal Furrow. Some accounts spell his middle name Oneal; he's also known as Buford O. Furrow Jr. Some people call him Neal. • Description: 37 years old; 5 feet, 9 inches tall; 185 pounds; brown, balding hair. • Background: Grew up in Lacey, Washington, a community in Thurston County, 60 miles south of Seattle; family lives in a mobile home on 5 to 7 acres of property. Neighbors say Furrow had recently been living with his parents.

August 11, 1999
Web posted at: 2:26 p.m. EDT (1826 GMT)

In this story: Hate group ties In psychiatric hospital Condition of wounded Washington state roots Escape from L.A. Site of shooting to reopen RELATED STORIES, SITES

LAS VEGAS (CNN) -- Expressing his hatred of Jews, the man suspected of shooting five people at a Los Angeles-area Jewish community center surrendered Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Buford Furrow, 37, told investigators he wanted Tuesday's shootings -- which left three children, a teen-ager and an adult wounded -- "to be a wake-up call to America to kill Jews," an FBI source said.

Information that surfaced after the shootings linked the Washington state native to hate groups in the U.S. Northwest.

Furrow took a taxi from Los Angeles and walked into the FBI office in Las Vegas, where he said: "You're looking for me. I killed the kids in Los Angeles," the source said. The source said Furrow assumed he had killed some children there.

He is suspected of entering the North Valley Jewish Community Center and firing more than 70 bullets from what was believed to be a 9 mm weapon before escaping.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office planned to file warrants charging Furrow with five counts of attempted murder, a procedure that allows authorities in Las Vegas to hold him for extradition to Los Angeles.

Authorities also said Furrow would be charged in the slaying of a postal worker who was shot near the community center.

Authorities also said Furrow would be charged in the slaying of a postal worker who was shot near the community center.

An investigation into Furrow's background determined that he belonged to, or was once associated with, the hate groups Aryan Nations, the Order and Christian Identity.

He is listed in a database maintained by the Southern Poverty Law Center of people connected with radical groups, said Mark Potok, a center researcher in Montgomery, Alabama.

Potok said Furrow was a member of Aryan Nations in 1995, and that he has a photo of Furrow in a Nazi uniform, taken that year at the white supremacist group's compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.

Meantime, newspapers in Washington state reported that Furrow once lived with Debbie Mathews, widow of Robert J. Mathews, founder of the Order, a neo-Nazi hate group. Furrow and Debbie Mathews reportedly met at an Aryan Nations gathering.

The Seattle Times said that until about a year ago they lived with Mathew's teen-age son in Metaline Falls, located in northwestern Washington near the Idaho border.

"He was very much a racist," said a former Metaline Falls neighbor, an unidentified woman quoted by the Seattle Times.

In yet another development, a van believed driven by Furrow contained a book, "War Cycles, Peace Cycles," written by Richard Kelly Hoskins, who Potok called "one of the principal ideologues of Christian Identity."

Christian Identity is a group with religious overtones that considers white people superior to Jews and nonwhites.

"Hard-line Identity adherents believe that in order for Christ to return to Earth, the globe must be swept clean of satanic forces -- meaning Jews, homosexuals and a whole laundry list of other enemies," Potok said.

In November, according to the Seattle Times, Furrow tried to commit himself to a psychiatric hospital in a Seattle suburb, but was reluctant to submit to impatient treatment and, at one point, pulled a knife on several staffers.

Court records show Furrow was charged with felony assault on November 2, 1998, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced to five months in the King County Jail.

Sources told CNN he was on probation at the time of Tuesday's attack.

The wounded included three young boys attending day camp, a 16-year-old counselor and a 68-year-old receptionist.

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

"We're hopeful he's going to make it, but he's very, very sick," said Dr. Hossein Mahur, head of the trauma services unit at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

The other two boys, ages 6 and 8, and the teen-age counselor were in stable condition. The receptionist, Isabelle Shalometh, went home Tuesday night.

Furrow grew up in Lacey, Washington, near the state capital of Olympia.

His family still lives there, and neighbors said Furrow had recently been living with his parents.

On Tuesday night, FBI agents visited the home and searched the area.

Agents also interviewed neighbors Janet and Tim Tyrolt. Mrs. Tyrolt told reporters Furrow was " a perfect gentleman" she first met two or three months ago.

As recently as 1994, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, Furrow had lived in Rosamond, California, a town about 40 miles from the scene of the community center attack in Granada Hills.

The suburban San Fernando Valley community is about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

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. In addition to the Hoskins literature, it was filled with ammunition, bulletproof vests, explosives and freeze-dried food.

The hunt next led police to a green Toyota Corolla that was believed to have been 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.

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.

Officials at the North Valley Jewish Community Center told CNN the facility would reopen as soon as police investigators allow it.

Meantime, a summer program for youngsters was to resume Wednesday at an Episcopal church next door.

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