Deranged Killers: DC Sniper (2009)

in the autumn of 2002 a ruthless killer stoked the suburbs of Washington DC he only needed a split second in he could take them out people were murdered at random white people black people young Oh children and then the killer vanished without a trace how do you find a ghost Millions lived in fear I felt like the water was over my head the snipers high-powered rifle sent shockwaves across the country people like this exist in our world one of the largest manhunts in American history spread from coast to coast there were many false leads but eventually the murderer became careless and the police were able to apprehend a pair of deranged killers Montgomery County lies just north of Washington DC in the state of Maryland the capital of the United States has had a reputation for violent crime but its suburbs are affluent calm safe places to raise kids in 2002 the tranquility of the suburbs was shattered by the blast of a sniper's gun it all began on October the 2nd at the Glenmont shopping center James Martin was picking up some groceries after work before heading home to his wife and 11 year old son out of nowhere there was the sound of a gunshot a shopper in the carpark heard an unsettling groan she looked up and saw James collapse on the ground the frightened caller was hiding behind her car clutching her five-year-old child is it bleeding yeah where's he bleeding from I don't know I'm like half a mile away on them this is inside no it's outside in a parking lot oh there's a police officer here now one of the first persons there was a police officer who heard the shot James was unconscious and bleeding heavily from his chest he was trying to lend medical attention to the victim but he was also keeping his eyes out looking for suspect information the victim died in minutes a detective at the scene phoned Assistant Chief of Police Deirdre Walker he explained the circumstances of James Martin's shooting which were very deeply troubling obviously a small entrance wound and a large exit wound indicated that he had been killed by a shot from a high-powered rifle I start running through my head the possible causes of something like this because Montgomery County we just don't have drive-by shootings involved in high-powered weapons I remember hanging up the phone and just having this feeling of wondering when the other shoe was going to drop police searched the area for bullet casings but found none they checked the carpark for evidence but found nothing as night fell police were left with no clues only questions who would want to kill James Martin and why a terrifying answer began to form as the violence continued at about 7:40 the next morning it was earlier in the morning and sunny Buchanan was cutting lawn at first neighbors thought Sony's lawnmower had malfunctioned and injured him call first went out it went out as a medical emergency what's going on there that guy lawn mower did not man and chopped him up he's bleeding real bad he's down and out but when paramedics arrived it was clear that this was no accident sunny was rushed to a hospital by then his heart had stopped and was completely drained of blood a doctor said he bled more than anyone he had ever seen serene Buchanan was the son of a former Montgomery County police officer so it kind of hit home sunny Buchanan's death was only the beginning of the bloodiest morning in the Montgomery County Police Department's history at 8:07 a.m. a taxi pulled into a petrol station on Connecticut Avenue about eight kilometres away Caroline AMRO was keeping an eye on her toddler as she filled her minivan suddenly she heard the report of a gun she was shocked to see a huge smear of blood across the side of her vehicle and then the site she would never forget the taxi driver was staggering to water with a gunshot wound in his chest premkumar while a car fell in front of her two brutal murders had been committed in 31 minutes and the day's violence hadn't ended around breakfast time on October the 3rd 2002 two men were shot dead in the normally peaceful suburbs just north of Washington DC each of them had been hit by a single bullet from a high-powered rifle a few minutes later the killer struck again Sahra Ramos had been waiting for a ride outside a senior housing complex called Leisure World she had moved to the u.s. from El Salvador in Central America there she had been a law student but in the state she made ends meet by cleaning houses yes I need a hamburger please eyewitness accounts only added to the confusion hey girl get out of the shell she just shot herself oh we got a possible 10 56 Alicia would please advise it was the third brutal murder in less than an hour it came out as a possible suicide and that I knew instantly it wasn't I don't be a weapon you don't clear out honey no this time police found the bullet that had shattered saara skull the 223 caliber bullet entered her forehead exited through her neck went through a window and landed on the floor of the restaurant behind her chaotic radio traffic filled the airwaves as emergency response teams raced to keep up with the murders but the killer was relentless his next victim was Lori Luis Rivera who was cleaning her car at a petrol station the quiet suburbs had never seen anything like this we ran the shooting about every half now all five killings were clustered in 25 square kilometers of Montgomery County the annual homicide rate had just shot up 30 percent there had been another incident about an hour before James Martin was shot while shopping less than five kilometers from the supermarket employees at a craft store heard a loud crack and found a bullet hole in their window the round just went high it actually entered at about the six-foot level in the window they've recovered some fragments from artificial flower in the store so far the police have found no connection between any of the victims different ages different sexes different races of the victims that was the most troubling part and there had been no secondary crimes like robbery at any of the shootings we knew we had to counter this threat and we knew we had to do it immediately a sniper or possibly a team of snipers was stalking the people of Montgomery County so right away we had to put all our assets out we had to put them out immediately and we had to go with a quick plan SWAT teams were deployed throughout the area we were going to engage this guy that he was pulling us along we were going to end up in our confrontation with him well police marksmen waited for a possible shootout other snipers helped with the investigation we sent out our trained snipers to go to each location to come back report what they believe happened in these locations the locations were all in public places undercover cops flooded similar areas hoping to catch the killer in the act at each crime scene the detectives face the same nagging question where could someone with a rifle have hidden there is no far as the woodland there is no cover and for no lookouts to come out we realized that maybe a vehicle could be involved the one and only lead police had so far seem to support this theory we had a witness who had seen a white panel truck in the area where the victim up at Leisure World had been apparently this witness had heard the shot turned around and saw that white panel truck suddenly it seemed as if white vans and panel trucks were everywhere police knew they would find more clues in the bodies of the victims there were now five corpses at the coroner's office the autopsies could provide crucial evidence get the lookout if there was any elevation which would lead us to believe they're taking these shots from rooftops and we also needed to know what type of damage occurred these victims on that day but even before the forensics could be completed another panicked call came in that night Pascal charlo an elderly Haitian immigrant was gunned down while crossing the road he was just over the Montgomery County border in Washington DC I went to the scene on that it kind of led me to believe like maybe they saw that this individual was in Washington DC and they wanted to extend the killing field to another location within a metropolitan area on October the 4th 2002 Washington DC area residents awoke to a new reality I guess going outside you're much more aware of what's going on around you the fear was palpable there was just this sense of of foreboding as people went about doing their work six innocent people had been gunned down in less than 48 hours police had no suspects no motive and very few leads now everyone felt like a target when people went to put gas in their car they would bob and weave people walk down the street they wouldn't walk in a straight line Montgomery County Police Chief Charles moose selected his most experienced detective to lead the investigation Barney Forsyth the chief of course asked me says what's the link and I said chief at this point we don't see a Lincoln so that's the commonality is that there is no link and of course that's one of the most difficult type of cases to deal with chief moose made an early decision to deal with the crisis by presenting as much information as possible to the public there's still all appear to be random victims don't appear to be anyone's enemy don't appear to be involved in anything coordinated just simply random targets schools went into lockdown with armed guards out front helicopters were everywhere meanwhile the autopsy results showed a consistent pattern analysis of the bullets indicated that they came from a long-range rifle possibly a Bushmaster these rifles that are military rifles they're built to kill they're not built just to hurt somebody there bill to kill them it goes in small and then it gets wider as it goes through so what you end up with is that all those organs they're in that range of that cone get injured whether they get hit directly by the bullet or not the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is the main national agency that deals with gun related crime in the United States its ballistics lab ran a trajectory analysis we looked at the different rounds the way the round hit the victim and that helped us figure out where the shot may have been taken from the shots were not coming from rooftops somehow the killer was finding a way to hide in public places investigators began to believe that the sniper was shooting from a vehicle which led to a theory that a pair of shooters might be involved for the purposes of shooting you want to have room available so you can have some mobility and that means when you're behind the wheel you don't have that kind of mobility the idea that the armed sniper was hiding in a vehicle spread fear like wildfire Washington area residents were already on edge it was just a year since the 9/11 attacks and they'd also been an anthrax scare during which five people had lost their lives and 17 had been infected now they faced the possibility that a team of terrorists was hunting them down the Washington Post on the front page says snipers and al Qaeda those questions were being publicly asked on the afternoon of October the 4th the sniper changed tactics he moved south of Washington emergency we've had a lady shot in our parking lot this is Michaels in Fredericksburg Caroline see.well was gunned down in Virginia as she loaded craft supplies into her minivan away from the window I'm sorry where's the person at she's laying in the parking lot sir while lying on the pavement caroline prayed that she could live her two children so delicate honey she's laying on the ground between our story Michael she is moving her arm is a lady standing over there the lady standing with her she would become the first survivor of the snipers long-range bullets this was the second shooting incident at a branch of the craft store investigators immediately seized on a link that could lead to the killer so we looked at disgruntled employees people that maybe had been terminated some connection between the Michaels and Maryland and the Michaels and Fredericksburg of course nothing was really developed there was nothing there there was so little in fact at every crime scene after each killing the gunman vanished into thin air detectives were mystified we had no physical description we're no good eyewitnesses how do you draw up a plan to find a ghost in a desperate move police chief moose asked the public for help we're still convinced that people have seen something we want to talk to them we want to follow up a tip line was immediately overwhelmed by callers who were sure they knew the sniper we had over 100,000 tips come in to the tip line which is detectives began working around the clock to follow every worthwhile lead meanwhile assistant chief Drew Tracey scrutinized the snipers every move in search of a pattern they were close to major roadways we realized they were strip malls and we realized that certain stores would consistent at these places we also realized that they knew the traffic patterns in the area Montgomery County rather than get stuck in heavy southbound traffic the killer or killers traveled north after a morning shooting they went to the path of least resistance based on those movements police devised a scheme to trap the sniper it was called the concentric circle plan an immediate response team will be ready to deploy within one minute of an emergency call if we got the information within a minute the most they could of God was a half mile to a mile whether it was on foot or in a vehicle police teams would then create a trap consisting of a series of widening circles around the area and our goal was to be on scene within two to three minutes immediately after receiving information and basically we try to roadblock every one of these locations with a uniform presence we would flood internally with plainclothes operatives roadblocks began to spring out everywhere we needed to lock them into a certain location police searched white vans and every other suspicious vehicle one of the biggest manhunts in US history was underway and yet the sniper seemed to stay one step ahead slipping away after every shooting we would get ourselves just about where we thought we had things under control when something would happen in another jurisdiction the high kill rate suggested a particular kind of suspect we were dealing with a trained individual hunters have this expertise military has this expertise trained law enforcement would have this expertise based on the tight cluster of shootings on the first two days police had been looking for suspects in that part of Montgomery County but the Caroline seaworld case in Fredericksburg Virginia had expanded the attack zone tenfold the killer could be anywhere and as the weekend approached an entire region held its breath what would be next the killer might not be a local resident as they had first suspected the safety of school children was a particular concern I had three young children I ran them through parking lots I made them go down on the floorboard of the car when I got gas throughout the weekend school and police officials debated whether or not school should close it was decided that schools would remain open but the pupils would stay indoors I had my kids telling me mom you have to go to work you have to go to work till you catch them we need to go back out for recess so you know it's a different perspective but it was all that you could think about so far none of the shootings had happened near schools but that was about to change 13-year old Aaron Brown had been kicked off his school bus the week before he gotten in trouble for eating candy on the bus and it an't had to take him to school Aaron's aren't dropped him off at school an hour early because she had to get to work news of the sniper shooting was constantly on the radio no incidents no activities at the school very safe day for young people she turns around and there he is lie on the ground bleeding I ran Brown was was really losing consciousness in the car his aunt was a nurse she was trained and she called the hospital ahead of time and she was racing through traffic and she kept saying to him hang in there hang in there I love you when I first saw iron he was trying to die and I wasn't sure where we whether we're gonna be able to turn that around or not this is our home this is our community we took an oath to protect and serve and these guys come in and make a mockery you see the looks of people out here it's just this just uncontrolled feel right now once that child had been shot in our neighboring County of Prince George's it was like things had escalated and as bad as they were and we didn't think they could get much worse they did get worse we truthfully are a bit nervous about just standing still like now I'm standing here with you and you know I'm kind of looking around because I'm thinking really should I stand here I mean I've got a car behind me and the building over behind you and so there is some some protection if you will but again you don't know nobody was safe and I think people had a pretty good grasp of that I mean you guys feel safe right but some ideas yet you gotta give us a gospel basket it's just unbelievable and if there's no sense you can put to this I mean it's just a random act of violence and the most serene neighborhood you can possibly have we were pressed more and more in fact my own life started to not believe me saying you know our kids safe and I couldn't answer that because I didn't know ever since anything started I haven't been allowed to go anywhere I've been in my house you cancel the game wait a second this is a grown-up softball league you're adults hmm they've cancelled that too why for the safety of us we talked about wherever you are whatever you doing when you coming to school coming off the bus and look around look around and I've been doing that at service stations at all times everywhere I go parents felt like their children weren't safe and they weren't no one knew who would be shot next the general took the bus a the right in front of the door but since the snipers are no Asuna I have to take them too much give away education just because of this anyway we all need fresh air and the shades are down and let's go to my friend's house but really I'm a lot outside anymore hopefully this stops this craziness stops today knowing the full effect of these events on the community he'd vowed to protect the pressure began to mount for chief moose stepping over the line shooting a kid I guess it's getting to be really really personal now many was startled to see the police chief cry but those close to the investigation understood the police felt as though they were failing the community as they were unable to stop this elusive and ruthless killer during five days in October 2002 there had been seven shooting incidents in the Washington DC area they had all involved a single round from a high-powered rifle the local police force seemed unable to put a stop to the shooting spree however the FBI brought in greater resources to search for the serial killer a two hundred thousand dollar reward was offered for information leading to an arrest back at the scene of schoolboy iron Browns shooting investigators undertook a forensic walk stepping slowly shoulder-to-shoulder through the area and two of them discovered what they thought looked like a flattened out area and the shrubs where maybe somebody had been laying and they pursued that area much more intensely and with a metal rake found the shell casing they also found a pen barrel with the ink cartridge removed it was sent to a forensic lab to check it for DNA but the biggest find of the day was a mysterious tarot card and it said for you mr. police code call me God do not release to the press so they were using a code call me God it was almost like a calling card saying that it's us again and we did it at that point in time they did not ask for anything and that's a scary situation if the suspects made it very clear that they did not want the media notified with regard to this the task force wanted to honor the killer's request in order to establish communication but the media were everywhere no secret was safe police were determined to keep the tarot card evidence away from the press the next day the tarot card information was leaked and it pretty much made the front Washington Post this is the kind of reporting that while I understand wanting to get a big story can be very devastating to a case while the investigation seemed stalled there was a spot of good news we have been taking care of a young man Iren brown the 13 year old shot at school that morning was going to live shell casings from his shooting strongly suggested that a Bushmaster rifle had been used a weapon that could be lethal in the hands of somebody with little training I talked about that you don't have to be having military training or being expert marksman with this gun the investigators had to be careful about information released to the media at one stage Mike Bouchard had noted that all the victims had been shot in the torso after him Dean Myers was a civil engineer who had been decorated for service in Vietnam he was on his way from Virginia to Maryland he was leading work and he just stopped to get gas because he had a long ride home back to Gaithersburg and he got out of the car and he's pumping gas a 223 caliber bullet ripped through his skull it was October the 9th do you get a bullet wound like that to the head it doesn't matter what you do you're dead there's nothing we can do two days later Ken Bridges was killed also at a petrol station in Virginia on October the 14th the sniper struck again in Virginia Ted and Linda Franklin had just bought some shelves and were loading them into their vehicle when Ted moved towards the front of the vehicle to adjust a seat Linda walked to the rear she was standing still when the fatal bullet hit it was another shot to the head the right side of Linda Franklin's head was completely blown off she was the 11th victim of the DC sniper and we felt with each new one that we weren't being successful at doing our job and protecting this community but at this shooting a witness came forward now that was the first good information we had of a possible suspect as well as a good descriptor of a vehicle Matthew Dowd II said he was walking out of the hardware store when he saw the killer a Mid Eastern style male complected crouching down taking a shot he described a white or cream colored van with a burnt-out rear light an alert went out to the public we do want people to continue to watch for things that are out of place strange behavior report that please to say that people continue to call our tipline there are more bad guys than there are cops but there aren't more bad guys than our good guys so when you put the good guys out there and you ask them to help you with a task it's a force multiplier and that's what we were counting on in this case two days later a detective was reviewing the surveillance tapes from the hardware store at 9:21 p.m. dowdy appeared on the install security video tape three minutes after the shooting when they realized that this was a a false lookout and that a false suspect information the eyewitness turned out to be a hoax just someone looking for media attention two weeks after the shooting began the investigators were back to square one all the possible suspects from the surveillance tape recorded during Linda Franklin's shooting were eliminated sleep deprived and frustrated the investigators knew that to catch the sniper they'd have to work even harder you just couldn't walk away from the case I didn't want to go off shift you know your boss has had to send you home get your sleep you're gonna have to come back tomorrow it's a new day and you'd go home and on your way home there was another shooting incident just around the corner before this case Barney full sight had been planning to retire from the police force but those plans were now on hold it would have been very difficult for me to walk out the door and turn this over to somebody else then a lead came from an unexpected place takoma in the state of Washington on the other side of the country everyone to call don't assume we have your information do not assume that the information you have is no good as Robert Holmes watch the coverage of the DC sniper shootings he had an alarming revelation he somehow has his gut feeling that his friend John Muhammad is behind this John Muhammad had been his buddy in the army he owned a long-range rifle just like the one shown in the news reports and here was the clincher John had an estranged wife who had taken custody of their children and moved to the Washington DC area so he calls the tip line and his tip gets completely lost ironically the sniper wanted to talk to the task force too but he also had trouble getting through reported come on don't say anything where the people are causing the killing in here look on the terrified yes sir call me God sir any good freshmen at Montgomery County police hotline we're not investigating there Carla you like to no further further complicating the situation other callers were also taking credit for the crimes the real sniper got lost in the shuffle they got desperate for law enforcement to to accept that they were the killers when they called so they brought up a shooting in Montgomery Alabama and asked us to look into that shooting was a you got to believe me I'm the sniper and here's how you can tell on the sniper I immediately called my cami Alabama and I asked if anyone handle the situation at an ABC store and he said he said yes we had a robbery homicide the liquor store shooting was unsolved and the gun used in the crime was not a Bushmaster the DC sniper didn't rob his victims they didn't seem to be a connection on October the 19th Jeff and Stephanie hopper were driving to their home in Florida when they pulled off the interstate highway some 150 kilometers south of Washington to fill up their car and have dinner they thought they were out of the danger zone they were walking out of the Ponderosa restaurant together after a nice dinner and they were holding hands they heard a gun report it took a moment before Jeff realized he had been shot in the abdomen his wife struggled to unlock her cell phone to call for help it took five operations over 18 days to save Jeff's life in the woods near the restaurant an ATF dog found a bullet casing and a note tacked to a tree the note was tucked inside a ziploc bag but the sniper left vital evidence there was DNA on the ziploc bag that the note was contained in it's actually one of the ways in which law enforcement can pick up DNA is with a zip lock mechanism that that draws the DNA from the fingers as you as you do that the DNA however didn't match anything in the FBI's national database however the note was intriguing for you mr. police call me guard and then it went on to make demands very specific demands of what was expected of law enforcement to make the killings end the sniper wanted ten million dollars deposited in a bank account once I heard that they were looking for really an exorbitant amount of money I really felt very confident that we were going to get them the sniper also wrote that at 6:00 a.m. he would call the restaurant where Jeffrey hopper had been shot we missed the time cutoff because of the DNA analysis so chief moose went out with a very specific communication and a press conference following the discovery of what was on the note to the person who left us a message at the Ponderosa last night we do want to talk to you call us at the number you provided thank you in the morning of October the 21st the call came finally the police and the sniper were in direct contact don't say anything just the voice on the phone told the police to follow the demands from the note or more people will be killed there were to tell the press that the sniper had been caught like a duck in a noose it ended with a chilling warning PS your children are not safe the call was tracked to a petrol station 33 minutes later two men were arrested one was driving a white panel truck but these men were simply to illegal immigrants near the phone at the wrong time the taskforce regrouped and focused on the strange wording in the snipers last message you caught the sniper like a duck in the noose we didn't know what that meant when we first read it we we all looked at each other cross-eyed and didn't know what what those words meant the snipers note mentioned the Alabama shooting once again a second call to Montgomery revealed more information a magazine had been dropped at the crime scene it had a fingerprint on it but local officials said they had not processed the print the magazine was immediately flown to Washington and lo and behold the fingerprint matches the boy Malvo Lee Boyd Malvo was a 17 year old from Jamaica he had been fingerprinted by immigration officials in Bellingham Washington so that gave us basically an individual in a face to a fingerprint police were convinced that the teenager had an accomplice if we could just have 24 hours with this information before the media gets a hold of it that we could catch them but if this were to leak they would be in the wind and probably not surface for a very long time just as police felt they were hot on their trail the snipers struck again they came back and they hit us once again in a heart of Montgomery County on October 22nd Conrad Johnson a bus driver was the next victim he was shot and killed as he was at the front steps of his bus ready to do his route at the scene a new message had been tacked to a tree your incompetence has cost you another life the police were determined to turn this incompetence into an arrest they had a fingerprint a photograph and a name Lee Boyd Malvo he was born in Jamaica an immigration report revealed a custody battle between his mother and a man named John Muhammad Muhammad had helped Malvo and his mother into the United States illegally from the Caribbean John Muhammad and Lee Malvo became friends often passing themselves off as father and son in Tacoma FBI agents played the tapes of the sniper for Muhammad's friend Robert Holmes it was a longtime friend of John Mohammed's from the army they confided in each other Robert had called the tipline five days earlier but failed to get through he recognized the voice as Lee Malvo a kid who hung out with Muhammad he also gave the agents a possible motive he knew that John Muhammad was devastated when he lost his children to Mildred Mildred was John Mohamed's ex-wife when Muhammad had threatened to kill her she moved to the Washington DC area with their children Robert Holmes led the agents to a tree stump in his backyard but Malvo and Muhammad had used for target practice back in Maryland the task force was closing in on their suspects we ended up getting the tag number which was a new jersey plate description of the vehicle listed to mr. Mohammed we knew we were looking for a blue Chevy Caprice with New Jersey tags and we realized we were looking for at least two or more individuals we're keeping our fingers crossed that this is the right thing Whitney Donahue repaired industrial refrigerators for a living he had been working late on October the 24th in Virginia at about 11:30 I decided to go home I got my van started on the route 66 home was a couple of long dark hours away to stay awake he turned on the radio we are looking for a blue Chevy Caprice with New Jersey tags and DA Whitney had owned the Chevy Caprice so he knew exactly what he was looking for I started scanning the cars as I went in towards the Beltway and I got on route 70 and decided to stop at the rest area on South Mountain and as I turned in I seen the Caprice it was dark blue and then as I came on in I could see the front tag and it was what I'd written down and I pulled in right directly across in front of them picked up my cell phone and called 911 was about to tighten around the necks of what we're now a pair of sitting ducks through good police work some lucky breaks and a tip from an observant member of the public the task force hunting the DC sniper were about to make the arrest this would end a 21 day reign of terror tactical teams prepared for a shootout these are the same individuals who trained together and work together for the prior two and a half to three weeks they planned the takedown they got in the wood line and they execute I remember looking down at Malvo and seeing beads of sweat on his forehead and this is October it was cool he didn't say a word and I looked down walked over to John Muhammad and I saw his face he was angry it was a quick operation and everybody knew we had them and everybody was relieved and everybody was glad it was over I was extremely tired both physically and psychologically but his exhausted as he was there was one thing Bonnie Forsyth had to do I stopped actually by the school that were my wife Marsha works called her out of her classroom and put my arms around her I said we gotta I said you can't tell anybody right now cuz it hadn't been released but we got him we are gathered to share some information with regards to a sniper situation that has been occurring in the Washington Metropolitan Area at approximately 1:00 o'clock a.m. today a motorist called 911 a 1990 Chevy Caprice and I was home at the time watching the news and my kids were there and they were you know jumping up and down does this mean we're gonna have recess again we can lease a tit there's some family that's gonna be together tonight because we got it done for several days Lee Boyd Malvo remains silent but finally detective June Boyle got him to talk he was hungry he wanted a veggie burger and that started the process we sent out for a veggie burger - over him in fact and some water once he started eating and talking everything just flowed pretty well Malvo told her that he would fast before killing because it improved his aim he just was bragging about how they had planned to do five killings in one day he said because he knew the police couldn't handle it he gave details of each killing in the Franklin shooting he said he aimed at Ed Franklin first and Linda Franklin moved to the back of the car he said it only took him two seconds he locked on to her in Chartres he pointed to his head laughed about it said it was a great shot Malvo began to open up slowly revealing information about his relationship with John Allen Muhammad he referred to mohammed as sometimes his best friend sometimes his father but they were very tight everything they did they did together he and John Muhammad trained shooting out in the state of Washington and he talked about that they would shoot and said we taught each other everything today many investigators believe the killing spree was a twisted plot by John Muhammad to kill his ex-wife and get his children back I think it's very plausible that he intended to kill her and make her one of the random victims John Muhammad had hatred he was involved I think when they finally put it all together at the end it was between 24 and 26 shootings throughout this nation that were involved by both of these individuals he taught hatred to Lee Boyd Malvo in 2004 John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death by a Virginia Court he is appealing that verdict 17 year old Lee Boyd Malvo received a life sentence two years later a Maryland Court sentence each of them to six consecutive life terms

Channel: darkdocumentaries

Views: 2,910,515

Rating: 4.5932903 out of 5

Keywords: serial killer, serial killers, DC Sniper, Beltway Sniper, documentary, documentaries, John Muhammad, Lee Malvo

Id: EiQ-J5Wq1s4

Length: 43min 25sec (2605 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 28 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/slightlystoopidest]

Very weird story. Met someone who knew the son. They said he was a pretty nice guy and they hung out a few times right before him and his dad started doing this

[u/RikerT_USS_Lolipop]

I wonder what that divorce case looks like. Was there good reason for the children to go with their mother or was it a case of "Welp, you're getting divorced, kids go with moms lol get fucked."?