D.C. sniper attacks

Locations of the 15 sniper attacks numbered chronologically. Note: No one was injured at location "2".

The Beltway sniper attacks took place during three weeks of October 2002 in the Mid-Atlantic United States. As ten people were killed and three others critically injured in and around Washington, D.C., in various locations throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia, it was widely speculated that a single sniper was using the Capital Beltway for travel, possibly in a white van or truck. It was later learned that the rampage was perpetrated by two men, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, driving a blue sedan, and had apparently begun the month before with murders and robbery in Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia which had resulted in three deaths. An earlier spree by the responsible pair had killed victims in California, Arizona, and Texas, for a total of 16 deaths identified as of March 2007.

Snipers

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 men. The older of the pair, born John Allen Williams, age 41 at the time of capture, had joined the black nationalist organization the Nation of Islam some years earlier and changed his name to John Allen Muhammad in October 2001. The younger man was born Lee Boyd Malvo, but also calls himself John Lee Malvo and had posed as Muhammad's son (17 years old at the time of his arrest). Malvo's actual relationship with Muhammad was initially unclear, although it was later learned that Malvo was found by John in a homeless shelter after he lost custody of his children.

The two men practiced shooting in the backyard of the 3300 block of South Proctor Street in Tacoma, Washington, according to investigators, and studied the film Savior, produced by Oliver Stone.

Preliminary killings

On September 5, 2002, at 10:30 pm, Paul LaRuffa, a 55-year-old pizzeria owner, was shot six times at close range while locking up his pizzeria in Clinton in Prince George's County, Maryland. LaRuffa's laptop computer was found in Muhammad's car when he and Malvo were arrested.

On September 21, Claudine Parker, a liquor store clerk in Montgomery, Alabama, was shot and killed during a robbery. Her coworker Kellie Adams was also injured. Evidence found at the crime scene eventually tied this killing to the Beltway attacks and allowed authorities to identify Muhammad and Malvo as suspects, although this connection was not made until October 17.

Beltway Sniper attacks

Montgomery County

The main shootings associated with the Beltway Sniper incident began on October 2, 2002, with one victim killed that evening in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Four more victims were killed the next morning, and a sixth killed in the evening on October 3, 2002. All shootings happened within a few miles of each other. Normally a safe area, the killing spree increased the murder rate by 25% within a span of 20 hours.

At 5:20 pm, a shot was fired through a window of a Michaels Craft Store in Aspen Hill. As no one was injured, no serious alarms were raised. About an hour later, at 6:30 pm, James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst at NOAA, was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store, also located in Aspen Hill.

On the morning of October 3, four people were shot within a span of approximately 2 hours in Aspen Hill, and other nearby areas in Montgomery County. Another was killed that evening, just across the District of Columbia border from Silver Spring.

• At 7:41 am, James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper known as "Sonny," was shot dead in Montgomery County near Rockville, Maryland. Buchanan was shot while mowing the grass at the Fitzgerald Auto Mall.

• At 8:12 am, 54-year-old part-time taxi driver Premkumar Walekar was killed in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County while pumping gasoline into his taxi at a Mobil station at Aspen Hill Road and Connecticut Avenue.

• Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper, was killed at 8:37 am at the Leisure World Shopping Center in Aspen Hill. She had gotten off a bus, and was seated on a bench, reading a book.

• At 9:58 am, in what was to be the last killing of the morning, 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was killed while vacuuming her Dodge Caravan at a Shell station in Kensington, Maryland.

• The snipers then waited until 9:15 pm before shooting Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old retired carpenter, while he was walking on Georgia Avenue at Kalmia Road, in Washington, D.C. Charlot died less than an hour later.

In each shooting, the victims were killed by a single bullet, which were fired from some distance. The pattern was not detected until after the shootings occurred on October 3.

Fear quickly spread throughout the community, upon hearing about the shootings. Many parents went to pick up their children at school early, not allowing them to take a school bus or walk home alone. Montgomery County Public Schools and private schools went into a lockdown, with no recess or outdoor gym classes. Other school districts in the area also took precautionary measures, keeping students indoors.

Other areas

At this point Malvo and Muhammad started covering a wider area and taking more time between shootings. On October 4, 43-year-old Caroline Seawell was wounded at 2:30 pm in the parking lot of a Michaels craft store at Spotsylvania Mall in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, just outside the city of Fredericksburg, while she was loading purchases into her minivan.

On October 7, at 8:09 am, Iran Brown, a 13-year-old boy, was wounded as he arrived to the Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland, in Prince George's County. (Brown's name was at first concealed from the public, but has since been revealed.)

Two days later, on October 9 at 8:18 pm, 53-year-old Dean Harold Meyers was shot dead while pumping gasoline at a station in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas.

Again, two days later, on the morning of October 11 at 9:30 am, 53-year-old Kenneth Bridges died while pumping fuel at an Exxon station off Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near Fredericksburg.

On October 14, at 9:15 pm, 47-year-old Linda Franklin, an FBI intelligence analyst who was a resident of Arlington County, Virginia, was shot dead after she finished shopping at a Home Depot in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Falls Church. The police received 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 subsequently arrested for interfering with the investigation.

After a five day wait, 37-year-old Jeffrey Hopper was shot on October 19 at 8:00 pm in a parking lot near the Ponderosa steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia, about 90 miles south of Washington, near Interstate 95. Authorities discover a 4-page letter from the shooter in the woods.

On October 21, Richmond-area police arrested two men, one with a white van, outside a gas station. The men turned out to be illegal immigrants with no connection to the shooter and they were remanded to the custody of what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently deported them.

The next day, October 22, bus driver Conrad Johnson was shot dead at 5:56 am while standing on the steps of his bus in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Chief Moose released part of the content of one of the shooter's communications, in which he declares, "Your children are not safe, anywhere, at any time."

While no shootings occurred on October 23, the day is significant for two events. First, ballistics experts confirmed Johnson as the tenth fatality in the Beltway shootings. But in a yard in Tacoma, Washington, near a sniper school operated by the United States Army, police searched with metal detectors for bullets, shell casings, or other evidence which might provide a link to the shooters. A tree stump believed to have been used for target practice was seized.

Arrest

The incident came to a close on October 24, when Muhammad and Malvo were found sleeping in their car, a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, at a rest stop near Myersville, Maryland and arrested on federal weapons charges. Police were tipped off by a trucker, Whitney Donahue, who noticed the parked car and also received another call from an alert motorist. A .223-caliber weapon and bipod were found in a bag in Muhammad's car. Ballistics tests later conclusively link the seized rifle to 11 of the 14 bullets recovered from earlier attacks.

Logistics and tactics

The attacks were carried out with the firearm found in the vehicle, a stolen Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle equipped with a red-dot sight at ranges of between 50 and over 100 yards. It should be noted that this rifle is not generally considered a sniper rifle even though it is used in long distance shooting competitions for ranges up to 600 yards. The ability and distance of the shots do not meet the skill sets of a military sniper. None of the shots involved in the killings were particularly difficult and many professionals in the law enforcement and military communities resented the use of the term "sniper" to describe the shooters. The XM-15 rifle came from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, Washington. Bull's Eye had been noted for violating firearms regulations in the past. It had not reported the rifle as missing, as required by federal law.

Investigation

Charles Moose

The investigation was publicly headed by the Montgomery County Police Department and its Police Chief, Charles A. Moose. The FBI, the Secret Service, and police departments in other jurisdictions where shootings took place provided assistance in the investigation.

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. Police canvassed the area, talking to people, and collected surveillance tapes.

By Friday night, October 4, the five shootings on October 3 and two on October 2 were forensically linked to the same gun.

Eyewitness accounts of the attacks were 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. Early tips from eyewitnesses included reports of a white box truck with dark lettering, speeding away from the Leisure World shopping center, with two men inside. Police across the area and the state of Maryland were pulling over white vans and trucks. A gray car was spotted speeding away after the October 4 shooting in Spotsylvania.

The shooter 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 were left as calling 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 shooter(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.

On the phone call, the sniper, boasting of his cleverness, also mentioned a previous unsolved murder in "Montgomery". [1] This was identified as the September 21 shooting at a liquor store in Montgomery. On October 17 authorities said they matched Malvo's fingerprint found at the Benjamin Tasker Middle School site with one lifted from the liquor store scene. [2] After further research into Malvo's background it was discovered he had close ties to a John Allen Muhammad.

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 coverage of the aftermath of each new attack, with the coverage often lasting for hours at a time. The Fox show “America's Most Wanted” even devoted an entire episode to the shooters in hopes of aiding in their capture.

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 capital beltway in Clinton, a community in suburban Prince George's County, 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 1990 Chevrolet Caprice had 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 law enforcement computer networks did not indicate that it was connected to any criminal activity and they were focused exclusively on the "white van".

On October 3, D.C. police stopped the Caprice for a "minor traffic infraction", two hours prior to the shooting of Pascal Charlot, after which witnesses reported seeing a Caprice near the scene.

On October 8, Baltimore city police investigated a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice with a person sleeping inside parked near the Jones Falls Expressway at 28th St. in Baltimore. The officers were concerned that his driver's license was from Washington state and the vehicle tag was from New Jersey. Despite the fact that the vehicle was suspicious enough for them to investigate, and the fact that the vehicle fit the description of a vehicle associated with the shooting in D.C. 5 days earlier, the officers did not question the occupants extensively nor did they search the vehicle.

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 public, as well as for law enforcement agencies throughout the region, this was a major change from the mysterious “white box truck” earlier sought based upon reported sightings.

Early in the morning on October 24, a trucker parked at a rest area noticed an occupied car matching the description. The trucker had been listening to WLW Radio’s “Truckin’ Bozo Show” hosted by Dale Sommers, who was providing continuous coverage on the events unfolding. Sommers asked his nationwide audience to be on the lookout for this car. The trucker blocked the exit ramp of the rest area, preventing any outgoing traffic until authorities arrived. Police arrested Muhammad and Malvo at a rest area on Interstate 70 near Myersville, Maryland. [3]

Moose’s actions were controversial in that his sharing of information with the public that would have otherwise only been known by the shooter, led to charges of grandstanding. He also made a public statement regarding the suspect’s identity, saying, “...we are looking for a white male....”, which turned out to be incorrect.

Aftermath

Criminal prosecutions

Virginia trials

Virginia authorities were selected for initial prosecutions. In accordance with United States law, each man was provided free legal counsel at public expense since they were both indigent. Change of venue requests by defense attorneys were 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 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's jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole over the death penalty. 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 charges are also pending in Maryland and other communities in Virginia.

After the initial convictions and sentencing, Will Jarvis, a Virginia prosecutor in Prince William County, stated he would wait to decide whether to try Malvo on capital charges in his jurisdiction until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on whether juveniles may be subject to the penalty of execution. While that decision in an unrelated case was still pending before the high court, in October 2004, under a plea-agreement, Malvo plead guilty in another case in Spotsylvania County, Virginia for another murder to avoid a possible death penalty sentence, and agreed to additional sentencing of life imprisonment without parole. Malvo had yet to face trial in Prince William County, Virginia.

In March 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution for crimes committed when under the age of 18. In light of this Supreme Court decision, the prosecutors in Prince William County have decided not pursue the charges against Malvo, after all. Prosecutors in Maryland, Louisiana and Alabama were still interested in putting both Malvo and Muhammad on trial. As Malvo was 17 when he committed the crimes, he will no longer face the death penalty, but still may be extradited to Alabama, Louisiana, and other states for prosecution. At the time of the Roper v. Simmons ruling, Malvo was 20 years old, and was held at Virginia's maximum security Red Onion State Prison in Pound in Wise County, Virginia.

Muhammad's death penalty was affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court on April 22, 2005, when it ruled that he could be sentenced to death because the murder was part of an act of terrorism. This line of reasoning was based on the handwritten note demanding $10,000,000 dollars. The court rejected an argument by defense lawyers that Muhammad could not be sentenced to death because he was not the triggerman in the killings linked to him and Malvo.

"Muhammad, with his sniper team partner, Malvo, randomly selected innocent victims" Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald Lemons wrote in the decision. "With calculation, extensive planning, premeditation and ruthless disregard for life, Muhammad carried out his cruel scheme of terror."

There has also been speculation that authorities in Virginia may proceed with what is termed a "backup case" against Muhammad. The death sentence is under appeal. It is not clear how many other jurisdictions will be allowed to try him on the capital charges they have pending before he is executed. Prior to extradition to Maryland, he was held at the maximum security Sussex I State Prison near Waverly in Sussex County, Virginia, which houses Virginia's death row inmates.

Maryland trials

In May 2005, Virginia and Maryland announced that they had reached agreements to allow Maryland to proceed with prosecuting charges there, where the most shootings occurred. There were media reports that Malvo and his legal team have been willing earlier to negotiate his cooperation, and he waived extradition to Maryland.

Muhammad and his legal team responded by fighting extradition to Maryland. Muhammad's legal team was ultimately unsuccessful, and extradition was ordered by a Virginia judge in August 2005.

Maryland has agreed to transfer Muhammad and Malvo back to the Commonwealth of Virginia after their trials. A date for Muhammad's pending execution in Virginia has not been set.

Malvo pled guilty to six murders and confessed to others in other states while being interviewed in Maryland and while testifying there against Muhammad. Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

On May 30, 2006, a Maryland jury found John Allen Muhammad guilty of six counts of murder in Maryland. In return, he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without possibility of parole on June 1, 2006.

The Real Plan (Updated from the May 2006 Maryland Trial of Muhammad)

In John Allen Muhammad's May 2006 trial in Montgomery County, MD, Lee Boyd Malvo took the stand and confessed to a more detailed version of the pair's plans. Malvo, after extensive psychological counseling, admitted that he was lying at the earlier Virginia trial where he had admitted to being the triggerman for every shooting. Malvo claimed that he had said this in order to protect John Allen Muhammad from the potential death penalty, because it was more difficult to achieve the death penalty for a minor. Malvo said that he wanted to do what little he could for the families of the victims by letting the full story be told. In his two days of testimony, Malvo outlined many very detailed aspects of all the shootings.

Part of his testimony concerned John Allen Muhammad's complete multiphase plan. His plan consisted of three phases in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metro areas. Phase one consisted of meticulously planning, mapping, and practicing their locations around the DC area. This way after each shooting they would be able to quickly leave the area on a predetermined path, and move on to the next location. John Allen Muhammad's goal in Phase One was to kill 6 people a day for 30 days. Malvo went on to describe how Phase One did not go as planned due to heavy traffic and the lack of a clear shot and/or getaway at different locations.

Phase Two was meant to be moved up to Baltimore, MD. Malvo described how this phase was close to being implemented, but never was carried out. Phase Two was intended to begin by killing a pregnant woman by shooting her in the stomach. The next step would have been to shoot and kill a Baltimore police officer. Then, at the officer's funeral, they were to create several improvised explosive devices complete with shrapnel. These explosives were intended to kill a large number of police, since many police would attend another officer's funeral.

The last phase was to take place very shortly after, if not during, Phase Two. The third phase was to extort several million dollars from the United States government. This money would be used to finance a larger plan. The plan was to travel north into Canada. Along the way they would stop in YMCAs and orphanages recruiting other impressionable young boys with no parents or guidance. John Allen Muhammad thought he could act as their father figure as he did with Lee Boyd Malvo. Once he recruited a large number of young boys and made his way up to Canada, he would begin their training. Malvo described how John Allen Muhammad intended to train all these boys with weapons and stealth, as he had been taught. Finally, after their training was complete, John Allen Muhammad would send them out across the United States to carry out mass shootings in many different cities, just as he had done in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. These attacks would be coordinated, and were intended to send the country into chaos.

The underlying cause for the terrorist plan was not directly addressed at the trial. However, a series of trial exhibits indicated that Malvo and Muhammed were motivated by an affinity for Islamic Jihad.

"Exhibit 65-006: A self-portrait of Malvo in the cross hairs of a gun scope shouting, 'ALLAH AKBAR!' The word 'SALAAM' scrawled vertically. A poem: 'Many more will have to suffer. Many more will have to die. Don't ask me why.'

"Exhibit 65-016: A portrait of Saddam Hussein with the words 'INSHALLAH' and 'The Protector,' surrounded by rockets labeled 'chem' and 'nuk.'

"Exhibit 65-043: Father and son portrait of Malvo and Muhammad. 'We will kill them all. Jihad.'

"Exhibit 65-056: A self-portrait of Malvo as sniper, lying in wait, with his rifle. 'JIHAD' written in bold letters. . . .

"Exhibit 65-067: A suicide bomber labeled 'Hamas' walking into a McDonald's restaurant. Another drawing of the Twin Towers burning captioned: '85 percent chance Zionists did this.' More scrawls: 'ALLAH AKBAR,' 'JIHAD' and 'Islam will explode.'

"Exhibit 65-103: A lion accompanies chapter and verse from the Koran ('Sura 2:190'): 'Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you and slay them wherever ye catch them.'

"Exhibit 65-109: Portrait of Osama bin Laden, captioned 'Servant of Allah.'

"Exhibit 65-117: The White House drawn in crosshairs, surrounded by missiles, with a warning: 'Sep. 11 we will ensure will look like a picnic to you' and 'you will bleed to death little by little.' . . .

"Exhibit 65-101: Malvo's thought for the day: 'Islam the only true guidance, the way of peace.'"

Regulatory, civil actions

According to the Seattle Times in a story of April 20, 2003, Muhammad had honed his marksmanship at Bull's Eye's firing range. The newspaper also reported that Malvo told investigators that he shoplifted the 35-inch-long carbine from the "supposedly secure store." [4]

According to U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) officials, the store and its owners had a long history of firearms sales and records violations and a file 283 pages thick. In July 2003, the ATF revoked the federal firearms license of Brian Borgelt, a former Staff Sgt. with the U.S. Army Rangers and owner of Bull's Eye Shooter Supply. Later that month he transferred ownership of the store to a friend and continued to own the building and operate the adjacent shooting gallery. [5]

On January 16, 2003, the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, on behalf of the families of many of the victims of the Beltway sniper attacks who were killed (including Hong Im Ballenger, "Sonny" Buchanan, Jr., Linda Franklin, Conrad Johnson, Sarah Ramos and James L. Premkumar Walekar) as well as two victims who survived the shooting (Rupinder "Benny" Oberoi and 13-year old Iran Brown) filed a civil lawsuit against Bull's Eye Shooter Supply and Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. of Windham, Maine, the gun distributor and manufacturer that made the rifle used in the crime spree, as well as Borgelt, Muhammad and Malvo. Muhammad, who had a criminal record of domestic battery, and Malvo, a minor, were each legally prohibited from purchasing firearms.

The suit claimed that Bull's Eye Shooter Supply ran its gun store in Tacoma, Washington, "in such a grossly negligent manner that scores of its guns routinely 'disappeared' from its store and it kept such shoddy records that it could not even account for the Bushmaster rifle used in the sniper shootings when asked by federal agents for records of sale for the weapon." It was alleged that the dealer could not account for hundreds of guns received from manufacturers in the years immediately prior to the Beltway sniper attacks. It was also claimed that Bull's Eye continued to sell guns in the same irresponsible manner even after Muhammad and Malvo were caught and found to have acquired the weapon there. Bushmaster was included in the suit because it allegedly continued to sell guns to Bull's Eye as a dealer despite an awareness of its record-keeping violations.

The case had been set for trial in April 2005. After losing several decisions as the case made its way through the courts, Bull's Eye contributed $2 million and Bushmaster contributed $500,000 to an out-of-court settlement. Bushmaster also agreed to educate its dealers on safer business practices.

After the settlement was announced, WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., reported that Sonia Wills, mother of victim Conrad Johnson, said her family took part in the lawsuit more to send a message than to collect money. "I think a message was delivered that you should be responsible and accountable for the actions of irresponsible people when you make these guns and put them in their hands," she said. [6]

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. Also in 2003 a book written by former Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose was published.

During the fall season of 2007 BET showcased a documentary on the DC snipers in its "American Gangster" series.

Effects on society

Fear, targets outdoors

During the weeks that the attacks occurred, fear of the apparently random shootings generated a great deal of public apprehension, especially at filling stations and the parking lots of large stores. People pumping gas at gas stations would walk around their cars quickly, hoping that they would be a harder target to hit. Some gas stations put up tarps around the awnings over the gas pumps so people would feel safer.

After the specific threat against children was delivered, many school groups curtailed field trips and outdoors athletic activities based upon safety concerns. Extra police officers were placed in schools because of this fear. In addition to this, Joel Schumacher's film Phone Booth was deemed potentially upsetting enough that its release was delayed for months, although it bore little resemblance to the shootings beyond the villain being a sniper. Reportedly, when news of a sniper attack made the nightly news, people that had been "hiding" in their homes would make a large exodus to their local gas station, which they had been avoiding as long as possible in order to not be a target. It is not known if this is an urban legend, or an actual change in behavior for a significant portion of the local population during the affected time.

Profiling

Of longer impact, the Beltway Sniper Attacks may have permanently changed the perception of mass murderers as primarily disgruntled and/or mentally unbalanced middle-aged white men. Eyewitness reports gave descriptions as "a crazy white guy armed with an AK-47, driving about in a boxy white van," when in fact the shooters were two black men armed with an AR-15 (which is a civilianized derivative of the M16 that bears little resemblance to an AK-47) driving about in an old blue Chevy sedan. There were even reports that police were searching for a white supremacist[7][8].

See also

• Joseph Paul Franklin (The Race Hate Killer)
• 2003 West Virginia sniper
• Ohio highway sniper attacks
• Serial Shooter
• Baseline Killer
• Zebra murders

External links

• Interactive map of the shootings, Washington Post