Beltway Sniper Attacks

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Map with the locations of the shots around Washington, chronologically numbered

The Beltway Sniper Attacks were a series of attacks on the civilian population by two snipers in October 2002 affecting the Washington, DC area and Interstate 95 (known as the Beltway ) in Virginia. The two perpetrators, who were arrested at the end of October 2002, shot at passers- by using a self-loading rifle equipped with a target device . At least ten people were killed and three seriously injured, but three other murders could not be proven to the perpetrators.

The perpetrators contacted the authorities several times by telephone or in writing by taking notes at the crime scene. There are, however, contradicting statements about the motive for the acts, including terrorism, the extortion of 10 million dollars and the concealment of the planned murder of the wife of one of the two perpetrators.

The shooters

After the authorities initially assumed a single shooter, the perpetrator received various titles from the media: Beltway Sniper , DC Sniper , Washington Sniper , Serial Sniper and, towards the end, Tarot Card Sniper . Contrary to speculation, however, it turned out that there were two perpetrators: 41-year-old John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo , who pretended to be Muhammad's son and called himself John Lee Malvo.

Chronology of events

  • At 10:30 p.m. on September 5, Paul LaRuffa , a 55-year-old pizzeria owner, was hit by six bullets as he was about to close his place. He survived. His laptop was found in Muhammad's car when he was arrested.
  • On September 21, Claudine Parker , a saleswoman at a liquor store in Montgomery , Alabama, was shot dead in a robbery. Your assistant was injured. The investigating authorities suspect Muhammad and Malvo of having committed this robbery as well. A fingerprint of Malvo's was found at the scene.
  • October 2nd:
    • 17:20: A shot crashed through a window of "Michael's Craft Store" in Aspen Hill ( Maryland ). Nobody was injured.
    • 6:05 pm: The first known victim of the Beltway Sniper Attacks died in Wheaton . 55-year-old James Martin , a programmer at NOAA and father of an 11-year-old son, was shot in the parking lot of a supermarket chain.
  • October 3: Montgomery County was hit by a wave of attacks within 15 hours .
    • 7:41 am: James L. Buchanan , a 39-year-old gardener, was shot dead while mowing a lawn in Rockville .
    • 8:12 am: Prem Kumar Walekar, 54, a retiree of Indian descent and part-time taxi driver , was shot dead in Aspen Hill while refueling his taxi.
    • 8:37 a.m .: Sarah Ramos (34), babysitter from El Salvador and mother of a seven-year-old son, was shot while reading a book at a bus stop in Silver Spring .
    • 9:58: Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera (25), a budding nanny was when refueling in Kensington ( Maryland shot).
    • 9:15 p.m .: Pascal Charlot, 72, a retired carpenter from Haiti, was met while walking on Georgia Avenue in Washington, DC. He died an hour later.
  • At 2:30 p.m. on October 4, 43-year-old Caroline Seawell was shot dead in the parking lot of a Michael's craft store in Spotsylvania County , Virginia, while she was putting her shopping in her car.
  • At 8:09 am on October 7, Iran Brown , a 13-year-old student, was shot in the stomach while entering Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie . The attempted murder was seen as a response to a media statement that schools were safe from the sniper. Near the scene of the crime, the police found a tarot card, Death, which read "Dear Mr. Policeman, call me God".
  • At 8:18 p.m. on October 9, 53-year-old Dean Harold Meyers , project manager and Vietnam veteran, was shot dead while refueling in Prince William County .
  • At 9:30 a.m. on October 11, Kenneth Bridges, 53, a father of six and a self-made businessman, was shot dead while refueling on Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County.
  • At 9:15 p.m. on October 14, 47-year-old Linda Franklin , an FBI officer, mother-of-two, and grandmother-to-be, was shot and killed near Fairfax County after doing her shopping. After the murder, the police received a tip from a witness, which turned out to be useless because the witness was lying in bed and sleeping during the time of the crime. He was later convicted of misleading the authorities. The authorities were unable to establish a link between the victim's profession and the crime.
  • On October 15th, Malvo dialed the American emergency number 911 early in the morning . “ Good morning… ” began a male voice. “ Don't say anything. Just listen. We're the people that are causing the killing in your area. Look on the tarot card. It says: 'Call me God. Do not release to the press. ' We have called you three times before, trying to set up negotiations. We have got no response. People have died…. ”“ Sir, Mont… ”interrupted the officer. “ Get your people…, ” Malvo replied. When the officer from the emergency call center wanted to refer him to the investigating authorities, he hung up.
  • At 8:00 p.m. on October 19, Jeffrey Hopper, 35, was shot in the parking lot of the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland off Interstate 95. He survived after an emergency operation. Officials discovered a three-page letter from the sniper in a forest.
  • On October 21, police arrested two illegal immigrants in a suspicious vehicle, but they had no connection to the sniper. They were turned over to the immigration authorities.
  • At 5:56 a.m. on October 22, the last victim died: 35-year-old Conrad Johnson , father of two, was shot on the steps of his bus in Aspen Hill. A letter was found after a telephone tip from Malvo, demanding money, which ended with the words: “Your children are not safe. Nowhere and at no time. "
  • On October 23, Johnson was confirmed as the tenth fatality based on ballistics tests .

arrest

After information from the population, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo came under urgent suspicion, so that an arrest warrant was issued. A blue Chevrolet Caprice, built in 1990, was registered on Muhammad and the police publicly called it for a search. On October 24th, a truck driver discovered the vehicle in a parking lot and alerted the police. At first it was not clear whether the suspects were also in the vehicle. A special task force attacked the vehicle and surprised Muhammad and Malvo in their sleep. The officers found the murder weapon in the car.

Criminal trial and conviction

Muhammad was sentenced to death on April 22, 2005, and was executed by lethal injection on November 10, 2009 . His accomplice Malvo was sentenced to life imprisonment without probation because he was a minor at the time of the crime. Malvo gave an interview to the Washington Post in September 2012 , in which he apologized for the acts. In the interview, he described himself as a monster and a thief for stealing people's lives.

The civil process

The families of some victims brought charges against the perpetrators, the arms dealer and the manufacturer. The arms dealer was found to be grossly negligent, and a total of 238 rifles "disappeared" from his warehouse over the course of three years. The manufacturer was also prosecuted because his distribution of weapons could be described as irresponsible. All three defendants were convicted and the victims' families were awarded US $ 2.5 million. It was the first time gun companies and their dealers were convicted of acts of violence committed with their products, setting a precedent .

Cultural processing

  • In 2003, former Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose wrote the book Three Weeks in October .
  • In June 2008 Barbara Kopple produced the documentary The DC Sniper's Wife , which describes the events from the point of view of Mildred Muhammad, wife of John Allen Muhammad. Mildred Muhammad was also the guest of Larry King the day before her husband was executed.
  • The case of Muhammad and Malvo was filmed in 2003 under the title DC Sniper: 23 Days of Fear ( German  Sniper - The sniper of Washington ) directed by Tom McLoughlin for television. Bobby Hosea played John Allen Muhammad, Trent Cameron Lee Boyd Malvo.
  • In 2010 the feature film DC Sniper was filmed. Ken Foree played John Allen Muhammad and Tory N. Thompson Lee Malvo.
  • In 2013 the story was filmed under the title Blue Caprice , with Malvo played by Tequan Richmond and Muhammad by Isaiah Washington .

memory

A memorial to the victims stands in Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland.

Trivia

The sniper firing from the trunk tactic had been used by the South Armagh Snipers during the Northern Ireland conflict until 1997.

Web links