A Fall of Innocence

Ask any teenager what their most memorable moment is from middle or high school, and you will get an array of answers. It may be when they made the varsity sports team, got to go with their crush to prom, or any of the embarrassing moments that come from hitting puberty.

But ask those who grew up in the Greater Washington DC Area in 2002, and they will tell you stories of crouching below cars when at gas stations, looking out for any white vans, and a localized sense of panic that they picked up from the teachers and grown-ups around them. For three weeks in October, those in Montgomery County and the Greater DC Area were the prey for two killers who would be forever referred to as “The DC Snipers.”

It is still impossible to have known that a shot fired through a window at Michael's Craft store in Aspen Hill, MD, would be the beginning of one of the most infamous crime sprees in recent memory. Since no one was injured in the shooting, it was written off as a fluke and reported as such. However, less than an hour later just miles from this incident, resident, husband, and father James Martin would be shot and killed in front of a Shoppers Food Warehouse. While tragic, no one expected that this would be the first of many in the reign of bullets that was soon to descend upon the area.

On October 3rd, the morning after James Martin’s murder, it was a typical Thursday. Children were at school, parents were at work, and the bustling metropolitan area ran like a well-oiled machine. But the events from 7 AM to 10 AM would forever change the residents of one of the country’s most densely populous counties. Five different individuals would be shot down and killed going about their days. James Buchanon, Prem Kumar Walekar, Sarah Ramos, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, and Pascal Charlot. One-shot, one kill. The calling card became apparent. These were no random acts of violence. These were calculated, unmerciful executions of members of the community, and it was just the beginning.

News of the murders quickly spread through the community. As soon as the news was heard, the panic began. People dropped what they were doing to rush to safety. Parents swarmed schools and pulled their children directly out of classes with no warning. This was one of the few times that schools had enacted a Code Blue since its inception, and children could only guess what was the matter. There was no precedent for what was happening. A fog of confusion and fear was shared by all.

That night, there were far more questions than answers. Who was doing this? What was their motivation? Was it over? No one had any answers, least of all the police officer who would be most closely tied to the case, Montgomery County Chief of Police Charles Moose. The only piece of information that was of any use was the reports of a white box truck fleeing the scene of one of the shootings. This clue would prove to be the most memorable, and ultimately the most inaccurate during the case.

The next day continued the madness as it spread beyond the borders of Montgomery County. October 4th saw the spread of terror to Northern Virginia as another innocent woman, Caroline Seawell, was killed in cold blood. This would be the last shooting till the 7th, where the case would take a dramatic and haunting turn.

Outside of Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland, Iran Brown (who at the time had his name withheld from the public) was shot in the chest and critically wounded. For once, the sniper missed his mark, and Iran was able to make it to the Emergency Room and overcome his injuries. At the scene of Iran’s shooting, the police found their first piece of concrete evidence. A shell casing and a Tarot card with the line “Call me God,” scrolled on it. This was no longer a killer lurking in the shadows. This was not some nightmare. The sniper was real, and they wanted to be heard.

After not long, forensics officially linked the shootings to the same gun. After a line of the shooter’s letter to police was released (“Your children are not safe, at anywhere, anytime”) on October 22nd, the area went into lockdown. People refused to go grocery shopping, pump their gas, or venture outside unless completely necessary. White box trucks, the suspected vehicle of the killer, were stopped, searched, and tagged to identify they had been inspected. The public felt that there was no end in sight. However, the investigation was playing their hand close to the chest. The next days would prove to be some of the most dramatic and eye-opening.

Discovered at the different crime scenes were ransom-like letters, full of incoherent ramblings and the taunts of an individual who had the upper ground. Requests for $10 Million and promises of more bloodshed appeared less the calculated plans of a mastermind and more the flashes of a madman. The clue that would break the case open came in the form of a phone call to police. The message left by the suspected shooter teased the authorities with references to an unsolved crime in “Montgomery.” Unbeknownst to the killer, this tiny piece of information would be the clue that tipped the scales of justice in favor of Moose and his team.

Research into the unsolved crimes found that the Montgomery mentioned was the city in Alabama, not the county in Maryland. In mid September, prior to the sniper shootings, a shooting occurred at a liquor store. Comparison of fingerprints lifted from both the liquor store and the Tasker Middle School scene showed a match. Once taken to the FBI, they were able to positively identify the fingerprints by matching them with a criminal record in the database. The DC Sniper finally had a face: Lee Boyd Malvo. However, the most startling information gleaned from the positive identification was the possibility of an accomplice, Malvo’s uncle, John Allen Muhammed.

Slowly the thread started to unravel. Investigation into the suspects traced a treacherous cross country path from Washington, to Alabama, New Jersey, and Maryland. Following up with leads from Muhammed’s ex-wife in Clinton, Maryland, the authorities were able to identify a car purchased by Muhammed in New Jersey. It was not a white box car as told to the public, but a blue Chevy Caprice. Following up on this new lead found that this same car had been noted as suspicious by area police near the crime scenes. Minor traffic infractions close to the time of one of the October 3rd shootings showed that the men had slipped through the law’s fingers. Moose and team would not make the same mistake twice, amending their initial white box van warning to a dark blue Chevy Caprice. The eyes of the Mid-Atlantic were now part of the effort to catch the culprits.

On October 24th, at a rest stop in Myersville, Maryland, a tip came in of two men sleeping in a car that matched the police description. It was not long before officers arrived on the scene, using their vehicles and those of onlookers present to block the exits. With escape blocked, the SWAT team moved in and arrested the two men. Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammed were taken into custody. Found inside the car was a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle that has been linked to 11 of the 14 shootings. Closer inspection of the car found a small hole in the trunk door of the vehicle. Either man would lay down on the backseat with the barrel of the rifle slightly pointing out the hole. A design so simple, yet had been the bane of the existence for law enforcement. The men were apprehended and brought it. For now, it appeared that the nightmare was be over.

The aftermath of arrests was confusing to say the least. Multiple theories were presented in court from both the accused and their lawyers. Everything from revenge against Muhammed’s ex-wife, to a jihad against America, to a plot to abduct children and train them to be terrorists in Canada were presented. Because Malvo was under 18, it was decided that the main charges in the Virginia trial would be pushed onto Muhammed. In April 2005, after nearly two years after the trial began, John Allen Muhammed was found guilty of acts of terrorism and sentenced to death. Despite attempts to stay the verdict and delay the execution, no such action proved fruitful. Muhammed was given the lethal injection and pronounced dead at 9:11 PM on November 10th, 2009. It is reported that he remained silent when asked if he had any last words.

As the Maryland trials began, a state in which there is no death penalty, Lee Boyd Malvo would face justice as well. Both men were found guilty of six counts of murder and sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Malvo’s testimonies, while questionable, were disturbing nonetheless. Detailed plans of victim selection, extortion, and terrorist training of children formed the basis for three weeks of terror they had brought about the Mid-Atlantic.

For the media, the DC Snipers became the subject of news reports, movies, books, and everything in between. But much like many horrific moments in history, the story became legends, and legend faded into obscurity. For those of us who lived in this exact moment in time, October 2002 has left a scar upon us. The grocery store of the first shooting has changed names. Gas stations where victims were shot were often closed or moved. For myself, I will always be left with the image of visiting one of my favorite restaurants, where Prem Kumar Walekar was shot outside the store front while on a bench. I was able to visualize the bullet path from the residential neighborhood 150 years up the hill as it made its way towards where I was standing. The bench has since been removed, but the shatterproof glass of the restaurant showed the exit wound of the victim. It looked like someone had shot the glass with a cannonball at point blank range. That image will always be seared in my memory till the day I die.

Listed below are those that lost their lives during the DC portion of the Sniper attacks. A memorial was laid for them at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland:

James D. Martin, 55

Prem Kumar Walekar, 54

Sarah Ramos, 34

Lori Ann-Lewis Rivera, 25

Pascal Charlot, 72

Dean Meyers, 53

Kenneth Bridges, 53

Linda Franklin, 47

Conrad Johnson, 35