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D.C. sniper attacks

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The Beltway Sniper attacks took place during three weeks of October 2002 in the eastern United States. Ten people were killed and three others critically injured by spree killers in and around Washington D.C. in various locations throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The sniper attacks finally ended on October 24, when police arrested John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo at a highway rest area. In March 2004, Muhammad was sentenced to death and Malvo to life imprisonment without parole in Virginia for several of the attacks. Many more charges are pending.

Names

File:Lee Boyd Malvo 2.jpg
Lee Boyd Malvo
File:08-muhammad-court-inside.jpg
John Allen Muhammad

Authorities initially attributed the attacks to a lone sniper, dubbed by journalists the "Beltway Sniper," the "D.C. Sniper," the "Washington Sniper," the "Serial Sniper" or the "Tarot Card Killer."

After their capture, there was much confusion about the names of the two suspects. The older of the pair, John Allen Williams, had changed his name to John Allen Muhammad in October 2001 and joined the Nation of Islam. (In general, Muslims all over the world reject and disapprove of this group, also known as the Black Muslim Movement, because of its divergence, sometimes extreme, from the teachings of the mainstream and original Islam).

The younger man was born Lee Boyd Malvo, but also calls himself John Lee Malvo and had posed as Muhammad's son. His actual relationship with John Allen Muhammad was initially unclear, although it was later learned that Malvo's mother had been involved in some illegal activity with Muhammad.

Attacks begin in Maryland, public places

The sniper attacks began October 2, 2002, with a series of five fatal shootings in 15 hours in Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburban county north of Washington, and continued for the next three weeks in the Washington metropolitan area, filling residents of the region with fear. Police received messages left at the murder locations and believed, correctly, that the killer worked in concert with another person.

The shootings occurred at gas stations and in parking lots outside supermarkets, restaurants, and schools in a rough circular pattern around Washington. The victims were apparently selected at random, crossing racial, gender, and socioeconomic categories. The locations of the attacks always had close freeway access. It is believed the sniper used the circular Capital Beltway to get from place to place.

Bushmaster XM-15: a high-powered rifle

The attacks were carried out with a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle, the civilian equivalent of the U.S. military's M-16 assault rifle, at a range of 50 to over 100 yards. The rifle came from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, Washington, which did not report the missing rifle as required by federal law.

Investigation: multi-jurisdictional task force

The investigation was publicly headed by Montgomery County, Maryland Police Chief Charles A. Moose, with assistance from the FBI and police departments in other jurisdictions where killings and woundings had taken place.

Police responded within minutes to reports of attacks during the three weeks of the sniper attacks, cordoning off nearby roads and highways and inspecting all drivers, thereby grinding traffic to a halt for hours at a time throughout parts of one of America's largest metropolitan areas.

Eyewitness accounts of the attacks was mostly confused and spotty. Hotlines set up for the investigation were flooded with tips, as was the post office box set up for tips by mail. The most common tip was that the snipers were driving a boxy white van, which ultimately proved erroneous.

Cryptic messages, attempt at extortion, threatening children

The sniper attempted to engage the police in a dialogue, compelling Moose to tell the media cryptic messages intended for the sniper. At several scenes Tarot cards, including one Death card upon which was written "Dear Policeman, I am God. Do not tell the media about this." This information was leaked to the press. Later scenes had long handwritten notes carefully sealed inside plastic bags, including a rambling one that demanded $10,000,000 and threatened the lives of children in the area.

At one point, a telephone call from the sniper(s) was traced to a pay telephone at a gasoline station in Henrico County, Virginia. Police missed the suspects by a matter of a few minutes, and initially detained occupants of a van at another pay telephone at the same intersection.

During the period of the attacks, the North American media devoted enormous amounts of air time and newspaper space to news of each new attack. By the middle of October 2002, all-news television networks were providing live, ongoing coverage of each new attack - with the coverage often lasting for hours at a time.

Progress behind the scenes

Despite an apparent lack of progress publicly, federal authorities were making significant headway in their investigation and developed leads in Washington (State), Alabama, and New Jersey. They learned that Muhammad's ex-wife, who had obtained a protective order against him, lived near the beltway in suburban Maryland. Information was also developed about an automobile purchased in New Jersey by Muhammad. Much to their shock, police discovered that the New Jersey license plates issued to Muhammad on the older Chevrolet sedan been checked by radio patrol cars several times near shooting locations in various jurisdictions in several states, but the car had not been stopped because computers did not indicate that it was wanted. Of course, like almost everyone else, the police were looking very hard at white vans.

Authorities were quick to issue a media alert to the public to be on the lookout for a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice sedan. For the anxious and vigilant public, as well as law enforcement agencies throughout the region, this was a major change from the mysterious white van earlier sought based upon reported sightings. Within a day, the disclosure to the public of the new vehicle lookout information led directly to the sighting and report of the vehicle by two different alert citizens at a Maryland Rest Area, resulting in the capture of the two murderers.

Publicity finally helps: Murderers caught sleeping in "killing machine"

The sniper attacks finally ended on October 24, when police arrested John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo at a highway rest area on Interstate 270 near Hagerstown, Maryland after receiving two separate tips from alert citizens who saw an occupied car parked which matched the description distributed by the media. The former police car had been especially configured with a firing port so that a sniper could shoot from inside the closed trunk. Police labeled it a "killing machine."

Aftermath, prosecution

Virginia authorities were selected for initial prosecutions. A change of venue was granted, and the first trials were held in the independent cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach in southeastern Virginia, more than 100 miles from the closest alleged attack (in Ashland, Virginia).

During their respective trials in the fall of 2003, involving two of the victims in Virginia, Muhammad and Malvo were each found guilty of murder and weapons charges. The jury in Muhammad's case recommended that he be sentenced to death, while Malvo received a sentence of life in prison without parole. The judges concurred in both cases.

Alabama law enforcement authorities allege that the snipers engaged in a series of previously unconnected attacks prior to October 2 in Montgomery, Alabama. Other capital charges are also pending in Maryland and other communities in Virginia for both men.

More prosecutions, execution(s)

It is not clear whether additional trials will take place before Muhammed is executed in Virginia.

Regarding Malvo, he is currently under a sentence of life in prison without parole. One Virginia prosecutor stated he would wait to decide whether to try him on capital charges in his jurisdiction until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on whether juveniles may be subject to the penalty of execution, an issue pending before the court. (Malvo was 17 years old when he committed his crimes.) According to newspaper reports, prosecutors in other states, including Alabama and Louisiana, are seeking Malva's extradition to face potential death-penalty charges for killings there.

TV movie, book

On October 17, 2003, on USA Network's USA cable station, a TV movie was shown that was based on the events that occurred in 2002's sniper incident. The movie's name was D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear. In 2003 a book written by former Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose was published .

Timeline of 2002 Beltway Sniper attacks

  • September 21 (2002)
    • Claudine Parker, a liquor store clerk in Montgomery, Alabama is shot and killed during a robbery. Her coworker, Kellie Adams, is also injured. Evidence found at the crime scene eventually ties this killing to the Beltway attacks and allows authorities to identify Muhammad and Malvo as suspects, although this connection is not made until October 8.
  • October 2
    • The first Beltway-area sniper shooting occurs on October 2 in Montgomery County, Maryland, a northern suburban county near Washington, DC in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The first victim was James Martin, who died in the parking lot of a grocery store.
  • October 3
  • October 4
  • October 7
  • October 9
  • October 11
  • October 14
    • Linda Franklin is shot dead at about 9:15 a.m. after she finishes shopping at a Home Depot in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Falls Church. The police receive a supposedly very good lead after the October 14 shooting, but it is later determined that the witness was inside at the time and was lying. The witness was arrested for interfering with the investigation.
  • October 19
    • A man is shot in a parking lot near the Ponderosa steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia, about 90 miles south of Washington. Authorities discover a 3-page letter from the sniper in the woods.
  • October 21
    • Richmond-area police arrest two men, one with a white van, outside a gas station. The men turn out to be illegal immigrants with no connection to the sniper and they are remanded to the custody of the INS.
  • October 22
    • Bus driver Conrad Johnson is shot dead while standing on the steps of his bus in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Chief Moose releases part of the content of one of the sniper's communications, in which he declares, "Your children are not safe, anywhere, at any time."
  • October 23
    • Ballistics experts confirm Johnson as the 10th fatality in the sniper attacks.
    • In a yard in Tacoma, Washington, near to a sniper school operated by the United States Army, police search with metal detectors for bullets, shell casings, or other evidence which may link to the snipers. A tree stump believed to have been used for target practice is seized.
  • October 24
    • John Allen Muhammad (born John Allen Williams) and Lee Boyd Malvo (also known as John Lee Malvo) are found sleeping in their car, a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, at a Maryland rest stop, and arrested on federal weapons charges. Police were tipped off by a trucker who noticed the parked car and also received another call from an alert motorist. A .223-caliber weapon and tripod are found in a bag in Mr. Muhammad's car. Ballistics tests later conclusively link the seized rifle to 11 of the 14 bullets recovered from earlier attacks. Mr. Muhammad was previously a member of the United States National Guard and later the United States Army, where he earned medals for expert marksmanship under his given name of John Allen Williams.

Possible copycats

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