Maximizing the Chance for Justice in a Hate Crime

Everybody wants Buford. The feds want him. The state of California wants him. He would be public enemy No. 1 were he at large, rather than cooling his heels in a downtown L.A. detention jug. His is a face postal workers would have eagerly hung on a bulletin board at the post office.

No need. The law’s got him. Now everybody would like a shot at him--at convicting him, that is. At making sure that accused killer, child-shooter and senior-citizen-shooter Buford O. Furrow is found guilty of crimes to which he supposedly confessed.

“All the charges could go to federal court,” Gil Garcetti, the county’s district attorney, speculated Thursday morning, after an overflow crowd on the 13th floor of a U.S. district courthouse finally dispersed. “All the charges could go to state court.

“Or, the murder could go federal and the attempted murders could go state.”

Where to get him, now that they’ve got him?

“Where,” Garcetti wondered aloud, “are we going to maximize our chances for justice?”

Justice for Joseph Ileto, an innocent deliverer of mail, riddled with nine bullets from a gun that holds 10.

Justice for a trio of wee kids, Benjamin, Joshua and James, also shot, and 16-year-old Mindy, also shot. Justice for a 68-year-old woman, Isabelle, also shot.

Allegedly shot by a pusillanimous, smug bigot who walked into his arraignment Thursday sensing the disgust of those around him and uttered the words: “They all like me.”

*

Almost nobody loves Buford. If he did what he said he did--what the feds said that he said he did--then he is a miserable misanthrope who hates “nonwhites” and ought to be bedded down in a cellblock with the meanest nonwhites in the joint, just so they could come up and give Buford a big personal hello.

Hate crimes?

Hey, there is plenty of hate out there to spare. Nothing’s too bad for an assassin of unarmed civil servants or a guy who uses innocent tots for target practice.

Did Buford O. Furrow do this?

“I killed those kids in Los Angeles,” is how he allegedly introduced himself in Las Vegas, after being driven most of the way there by L.A. taxi driver Hovik Garibyan, a guy lucky to be alive today who had better begin using a little more common sense in carrying his fares wherever they want to go.

Furrow--what a name for somebody trying to find a place to hide--checked in to a hotel (where nobody at the registration desk must own a TV or watch the nightly news) and got a bad night’s sleep (one would hope). Then he turned himself in, one of the few decent things he’s apparently done in his life.

Then he shot his mouth off.

According to an affidavit filed by a U.S. postal inspector, Michael P. Delany, a man who has spent the last 12 years investigating postal-related robberies, bombings and serious assaults, an FBI agent told him Furrow was advised of his Miranda rights, waived them and explained how he ambushed Joseph Ileto.

It’s a bloodcurdling story:

“He stated that he was driving a new Toyota and happened to see a United States postal carrier standing on the street near a postal van. He stated that the postal worker was a good ‘target of opportunity’ to kill because he was ‘nonwhite’ and worked for the federal government. According to Furrow, the mail carrier appeared to be Hispanic or Asian.

“He exited his car and approached the mail carrier. He was carrying a loaded Glock Model 26 in his back pocket. He asked if the mail carrier could mail a letter for him. When the mail carrier agreed, he pulled out the Glock and shot the mail carrier two times.

“He stated that the mail carrier bent over and attempted to run away. He then shot the mail carrier a few times in the back until he saw the mail carrier fall to the ground face down. At that point, he got back into the Toyota and drove away.”

And where had he been before?

Shooting at children, 16-year-old girls and 68-year-old grandmothers, apparently.

*

Buford O. Furrow is described by Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the U.S. attorney who announced the federal charges against him, as a man who confessed to “willfully, deliberately and maliciously” committing the murder of Joseph Ileto.

Mayorkas vows to avenge Ileto’s family. Garcetti stands ready and willing to seek justice for the other Californians who were attacked.

Until then, Buford waits behind bars. He waits for his next appearance before people who “like me.”

Some who do are behind bars too.

*

Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com