Beltway Sniper Attacks

At 5:20 P.M on October 2, 2002, Ann Chapman was preparing for the end of the day at the hobby retailers in Aspen Hill, Maryland, at which she worked as a cashier. With no warning, the window of the shop suddenly cracked and she felt the wind of a high-velocity .223 rifle bullet crack past her head, so close that it touched her hair. She had just survived the first attempted killing by the individual who would become known as the Beltway Sniper (so called because he seemed to use the Washington Beltway road system to move between attacks), a person who for the next three weeks would terrorize the states of Washington D.C, Maryland, and Virginia. By October 24, 10 people were dead and three were seriously injured. 

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Lethal Accuracy 

Within 45 minutes of the shooting at Aspen Hill, the Beltway Sniper took his second shot. This time his aim was perfect-a single bullet killed 55-year old James Martin as he walked across the parking lot of a Glenmont supermarket. These incidents in themselves warranted a major police investigation, but nothing prepared the local police for what would occur the following day, Thursday October 3. Between 7:41 A.M and 9:15 P.M, the faceless sniper shot dead another five people. What was apparent was that the selection of victims had a distinctly random quality about it. They included 39-year old James Buchanan, 34-year old housecleaner Sarah Ramos, and 72-year old father of five Pascal Charlot. All had been killed in open, public locations within reach of major roadways. By the end of the day, it was not only state and Federal law enforcement agencies that were bursting into action, but also a startled urban media. Panic rippled through the public, stirred even further by the shooting of a 43-year old  mother of two, Caroline Seawell as she loaded up her minivan with goods outside a mall in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. She survived, but for the citizens using and living around the Washington Beltway, casual activities such as filling the car at the gas station or using a supermarket now seemed fraught with risk.

The main figurehead of the police investigation into the murders was the police chief of Montgomery County, Charles Moose. The Montgomery County police, however, provided the command center for a particularly wide investigation that involved agencies such as the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, and Firearms (BATF) and the FBI. All pooled their forensic and investigatory resources in an attempt to find the killer before he struck again.

Timeline of a Murder

1: October 3, 2002. 8:46 A.M Sarah Ramos, a 34-year old Salvadorean immigrant of Silver Springs, Maryland, sits on a bench outside the Leisure World Shopping Centre in Aspen Hill. Ramos works several jobs, and is waiting for a bus to come and take her to another place of work. 

2: John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo are parked nearby in their blue Chevrolet Caprice. They have already shot two people dead in the last hour, one at 7:41 A.M and the next at 8:12. They spot Ramos sat on the bench, reading to pass the time.

3: Muhammad moves into the rear of the car, lying flat on the specially designed luggage compartment. In the rear of the trunk, he has already drilled two holes-one for the muzzle of the weapon, and the other for the telescopic sight of the gun. He now takes aim at Ramos.

4: 8:47 A.M Muhammad fires a single shot. Witnesses at the scene recall hearing a crack, then seeing Ramos slump forward, with blood pouring from her head. The .223 bullet from Muhammad’s Bushmaster rifle destroys Ramos’ brain and skull, killing her instantly. 

5: Muhammad and Malvo, having taken a young, promising and innocent life, pull away from the scene. They kill two more people that day alone. Initial 911 calls at the scene report that the women has shot herself. Only when police investigators arrive do they realize that she has been shot by a third party.

Tarot Card Killer

Unfortunately, for many days to come the Beltway Sniper seem to have the advantage. At 8:09 A.M on Monday October 7, shortly after Charles Moose had cautiously reassured the public that there was no reason to keep children off school, the sniper put a bullet through a 13-year-old Iran Brown outside Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland. Incredibly the boy survived, but for the police it was apparent that not only was the sniper feeding off the media coverage, but he was also a potential child killer. There was another alarming development - the Death card from a pack of Tarot Cards was found at the scene of the shooting inscribed with the words “Call me God.” In addition to the title Beltway Sniper, the shooter was now also labeled the “Tarot Card Killer.” Radio and TV broadcasts were now filled with experts, real and professed, who offered profiles of the killer and suggestions as to how the police could track him down. Yet despite hurling huge law enforcement resources at the ease, the sniper seemed to remain elusive.

Finding A Killer

Between the Iran Brown shooting and October 22, five more people were shot dead by the sniper, mostly in parking lots or gas stations around Virginia and Maryland. The killer was also becoming bolder, more tatunting. He started to leave messages and letters around the scenes of the shootings, boasting to the police about his impunity while also making blackmail demands for millions of dollars and threatening that “Your children are not safe, anywhere, at anytime.”Yet the sniper’s confidence would actually be his undoing. In a mocking phone call to Chief Moose’s office, the sniper mentioned his involvement in an armed robbery in Montgomery, Alabama, in September 2002, during which a liquor store clerk was shot dead. The FBI pulled details of the crime, and obtained fingerprints from a handgun magazine dropped near the scene of the crime. The FBI ran the fingerprints through their national database, and found that they belonged to 17-year old John Lee Malvo, a known associate of 41-year old ex-soldier John Allen Muhammad. Vehicle license checks revealed that Muhammad owned a blue Chevrolet Caprice that had been checked during random traffic stops around the areas of the shootings over the past few weeks. (For many days during the investigation, the police had been looking for a white box van believed to be associated with the shootings, although investigations into this vehicle proved to be a waste of time.) On October 24, around 3 A.M., the blue Caprice was spotted in a parking lot in Frederick, Maryland. Within minutes, police and FBI tactical units surrounded the vehicle and apprehended Malvo and Muhammad, who both gave themselves up with surprising compliance. Discovered in a bag in the car was Muhammad’s Bushmaster XM-15 .223 rifle, which forensics later linked to 11 of the 14 shootings. Further investigations revealed that the Caprice had been modified so that Muhammad could lay across the floor of the trunk and shoot through a small aperture drilled into the trunk itself, a modification that explained the inability of witnesses to provide sightings of the shooter.

Profiling 

John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo were a curious pair. Muhammad was the sniper-he had served in the U.S Army for nine years, during which time he saw active service in the first Gulf War (1990-1) and became classified as an expert in M16 rifle marksmanship. (The Bushmaster XM-15 is a civilian/law enforcement version of the military M16.) Malvo seemed to have simply acted as his compliant sidekick. Muhammad was actually born John Williams, but later changed his surname to reflect on a conversion to Islam in the 1980s. His life up to the murders was a litany of emotional, marital and commercial failures. If we were to spot a final catalyst for killing spree, it may have been when his (second) ex-wife won full custody of their three children, with a restraining order placed upon Muhammad. Many people go through tough lives without resorting to serial murder. During the trial in 2003, the court found both men guilty, sentencing Malvo to life imprisonment without parole and Muhammad to death. Despite his appeals, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection on November 10, 2009.

Timeline of a Murderer-the Beltway Shootings

October 2, 2002 (Victim, none) At 5:20 P.M a shot fire is fired through a window of Michael’s Craft Store in Aspen Hill, Maryland. No one is injured. 

October 2, 2002 (Victim-James Martin Age: 55) At 6:30 P.M. Martin is shot and killed in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store, Glenmont.

October 3, 2002 (Victim-James L. Buchanan Age: 39) At 7:41 A.M. landscaper Buchanan is shot dead near Rockville, Maryland, while mowing the grass at the Fitzgerald Auto Mall. 

October 3, 2002 (Victim-Premkumar Walekar Age: 54) At 8:12 A.M. part-time taxi driver is killed in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County, while filling his car at Mobil gas station.

October 3, 2002 (Victim-Sarah Ramos Age: 34) at 8:47 A.M. Ramos is shot and killed at Leisure World Shopping Centre in Aspen Hill, while seated on a bench, reading a book.

October 3, 2002 (Victim-Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera Age: 25) At 9:58 A.M. shot and killed while vacuuming her Dodge Caravan at a shell station in Kensington, Maryland.

October 3, 2002 (Victim-Pascal Charlot Age: 72) At 9:15 A.M. Charlot is shot while walking on Georgia Avenue at Kalmia Road, in Washington DC. He dies of his injuries shortly afterward. 

October 4, 2002 (Victim-Caroline Seawell Age: 43) At 2:30 P.M. Seawell is shot in the parking lot of a Michael’s Craft Store at Spotsylvania Mall in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, while loading purchases into her minivan.

October 7, 2002 (Victim-Iran Brown Age: 13)  At 8:09 A.M. Brown is shot and injured outside the Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland.

October 9, 2002 (Victim-Dean Harold Meyers Age: 53) At 8:18 P.M. Meyers is shot dead while pumping fuel at a Sunoco gas station on Sudley Road in Prince William County, Virginia. 

October 11, 2002 (Victim-Kenneth Bridges Age: 53) At 9:30 A.M Bridges is shot dead while pumping fuel at an Exxon station off interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

October, 14, 2002 (Victim-Linda Franklin Age: 47) At 9:15 P.M. Franklin, an FBI intelligence analyst, is shot dead at a Home Depot in fairfax County, Virginia.

October 19, 2002 (Victim-Jeffrey Hopper Age: 37) At 8 P.M Hopper is shot and injured in a parking lot near the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia.

October 22, 2002 (Victim- Conrad Johnson Age: ?) At 5:56 A.M Bus driver Johnson is shot dead on the steps of his bus in Aspen Hill, Maryland.