The shootings that took place in October 2002 led to a surge of panic, fear, and terror, creating one of the most chaotic months that the Washington DC metropolitan area had ever experienced. During this time, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, known as “The DC Snipers,” shot people throughout the region. This event would have a long lasting impact on the residents of the Washington DC area.1
It all began on October 2, 2002, at around 5:20 PM, when shots were fired into an arts and crafts store in Aspen Hill, Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC. The bullet narrowly missed Ann Chapman, a cashier at the store. No one was injured, and no serious alarms were raised at the time. An hour later, the DC snipers shot and killed James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This was one of the first few killings in the Washington DC area, but the shootings didn’t stop there. The next day, October 3rd, four people were shot dead over the span of two hours. The first victim was James “Sonny” Buchanan, shot dead at 7:41 AM while landscaping at an auto dealership. Two more people were shot while doing normal activities such as pumping gas or sitting on a bench. The last victim shot that morning was Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera. She was killed while vacuuming her Dodge Caravan at a Shell gas station.2
John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo then moved their operations to Virginia. On October 4th, 43-year-old Caroline Seawell was wounded in the chest in Spotsylvania at a crafts store. Hundreds of journalists and reporters converged to cover the events taking place. School officials reassured the public that they were taking precautions for the safety of children. Up until this point, there had not been no children hurt or killed until Iran Brown who was shot outside of his middle school on October 7th in Bowie, Maryland. This shooting was significant because not only did they kill a child, but at this shooting site, John Allen Muhammad left a tarot card with a note to law enforcement. No demands were made, but the note read “call me god” and “do not release to press.”3 Another significant shooting was the shooting of Jeffery Hopper on October 19th, 2002, in which the snipers left a four-page note that demanded ten million dollars and made numerous threats to children. On October 22, 35-year-old bus driver Conrad Johnson was shot in Aspen Hill, Maryland, and part of the letter left at this site was released to the public, which read “Your children are not safe, anywhere, at any time.”4
This chaos drove Washington DC area residents into a frenzy. Most of the shootings were random; anyone could have fallen victim to them. This created a great deal of public apprehension. Residents were especially vulnerable in large parking lots and gas stations. Some gas stations even resorted to putting tarps around the awnings of the gas station. Government buildings also resorted to having heightened security. Most schools took precautions for the safety of children after the threats against children were made. Outdoor activities like recess were canceled, and extra police officers were placed at schools.5
Charles Moose, chief of the Montgomery County Police Department, headed the investigation into the DC snipers. Early in the investigation, they believed the vehicle the suspects were using to be a white boxy van. Later, authorities received a call from a pay phone in Henrico County, Virginia, in which the shooters bragged about their cleverness in an unsolved murder in Montgomery, Alabama. Authorities matched the fingerprints of the Montgomery, Alabama murder and the Bowie, Maryland middle school shooting to Lee Boyd Malvo. Authorities gained an edge in the investigation. Police matched the New Jersey license plate on the 1990 Chevy Caprice to John Allen Muhammad. Authorities sent out an alarm for a dark blue 1990 Chevy Caprice. Ultimately, this led to the arrest of both suspects. Police arrested John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd at a rest stop in Frederick, Maryland after a witness tip-off.6
Authorities found a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic rifle in the car during the arrest. They found that the trunk of the Chevy Caprice was modified so that there was a snipers nest and a firing port to allow the shooter to shoot from a prone position. The firing port explained why authorities didn’t have any leads on the shooter for a number of days or an understanding of where the shots were coming from.7
John Allen Muhammed faced trials in both Maryland and Virginia. Ultimately he was given the death penalty in Virginia. Muhammad made one last final appeal but it was denied. He was executed by lethal injection on November 10th, 2009. Lee Boyd Malvo was spared from execution in a 2005 Supreme Court case that ruled out the death penalty for juveniles, since he was only 17 at the time of the attacks. Lee Boyd Malvo pled guilty to murder, terrorism, and firearms charges, and he received a sentence of life without parole.8
People have remembered the case of the DC Snipers for a long time because the victims of this vicious string of killings were randomly selected and shot down in broad daylight. Residents were afraid to go about their normal activities. They were scared to go to the grocery store, take their kids to school, and pump gas. They had immense fear to go about the activities that we do with such ease in our everyday life. People will also forever remember looking for a van while the real vehicle was a Chevy Caprice and their worries they felt with the minimal leads authorities had to catch the perpetrators. There were no leads for a long time, and so people of the area began to get inpatient and fear for their lives. Everyone seemed to be affected, like a ripple effect. The names of John Allan Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo remain infamous to all in the area and will forever be lodged in the memory of those who were affected. The tragic events of October 2002, will always be remembered.
- Sari Horowitz and Michael Ruane, Sniper Inside the Hunt for The Killers Who Terrorized the Nation (New York:Ballantine Books, 2004), 1-6. ↵
- Wikipedia, s.v. “D.C. Sniper Attacks.” ↵
- Encyclopædia Britannica,November 10, 2016, s.v. “D.C. Sniper Sttacks of 2002,” by Rachel Philofsky. ↵
- Wikipedia, s.v. “D.C. Sniper Attacks.” ↵
- Wikipedia,s.v. “D.C. Sniper Attacks.” ↵
- Wikipedia,s.v. “D.C. Sniper Attacks.” ↵
- Wikipedia, s.v. “D.C. Sniper Attacks.” ↵
- Encyclopædia Britannica, November 10, 2016, s.v. “D.C. Sniper Attacks of 2002,” by Rachel Philofsky. ↵
32 comments
Dylan Coons
Very interesting article. I would have liked if the writer included a little more background information since it was such a short and brief article. Other than that, despite its size, it was very informative. Still, to know and learn a little bit about the motive and the person as a whole would have been nice. Anyway, very good article!
Crystal Baeza
It’s crazy what goes on across the world and many don’t have the slightest clue about it. I, personally have never heard of this case and had me reading from beginning to end. What was the cause behind their random acts? What was there reasoning to destroy loved ones and ruin lives of others? I wish I knew a little more about their background information, maybe they had a tough childhood and wanted revenge. They definitely had their killing spree all planned out considering they even had a firing port for their gun in the trunk of their vehicle. This was an interesting article!
Alexandra Berrones
This is something so sad to read about people shouldn’t have to go through that especially children whom are still so innocent and have so much more to experience. I sometimes wonder as to how people can have such dark minds and the heart to cause any violence. This all happened when I was so young but till this day there is still so much violence and not so long ago a tragedy that included so many young children passing away. The world has to do something about guns control I love guns and I personally don’t want them to take them away but it all comes down to the back checks. I hope that an incident like this doesn’t happen again.
Jose Fernandez
This is a very interesting article. It presents important facts in a very organized way. I didn’t know about this incident, and reading this article informed me a lot and made me investigate more about the topic. It is sad to read about mass shootings, I feel like it is happening more and more. There are many crazy people out there. I strongly recommend this article.
Ysenia Rodriguez
I have never heard of this event before but this article was very interesting and tragic. These two men, seemingly without a motive, decided to go on a killing spree that could have ended the lives of any individual who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I could not imagine the fear and worry of the people affected by this tragedy, nor could I imagine the fear of parents.
Madeline Torres
I have never heard of this event until now. I enjoyed the amount of detail added in the article and I liked how it described how they committed their crimes, still very heartbreaking to read the lives of this people taken this way. The article really gives a full perspective on how horrible the killings were. I cannot believe they actually thought of creating their spot in the trunk of their chevy, really makes you realize how planned their killings were. I also cannot believe they threatened the lives of poor children, it leaves me wondering why they thought killing a child would be okay. Overall, very interesting read.
Robert Rees
Definitely an interesting read, the article is very concise and doesn’t drag in any areas. Most importantly, I think this article does an excellent job in encouraging the reader to do further research on the subject matter by mentioning certain events without going into too much detail. Overall this is a good crime article that informs the reader about a tragic series of events that plagued one of nation’s greatest cities.
Adrian Cook
I have never heard of the DC sniper shootings but it was definitely an interesting read. The way these two killers were able to pull off the killings is very smart but yet again very sad for the people killed. I can imagine how confused people may have been because they weren’t able to witness where the shots were coming from or where the next shootings might take place. But in the end Muhammed and Palvo got what they deserved and the history of these shootings will go down in American history.
Luis Magana
I was never really aware of what happened and what crimes Muhammad and Malvo committed. They were on a killing spree, but what i don’t understand is how a person can not think and be so impulsive as to do something like that. The way the story was written it was very interesting, i loved the article and the images. Especially the first image because it emphasizes how he us to be in the army.
William Rittenhouse
The DC Snipers were definitely up there with the Unibomber. They both have a similar story. The intentional killings of innocent civilians. They both obviously had mental issues that weren’t addressed soon enough. It’s always tragic when serial killers kill innocent people. They are usually very smart people where somewhere down the line became deranged from some event and took it out on other people.