The D.C. Sniper Attacks
Between October 2 and October 22, 2002, two snipers conducted a series of random shootings across the Washington D.C. metropolitan area — targeting gas stations, parking lots, schools, and shopping centers — killing 10 people and critically injuring 3 others. The attacks paralyzed a region of over five million people for three weeks, closing schools, canceling outdoor events, and forcing residents to crouch and zigzag between their cars and buildings. A phone call to police claiming responsibility described the shooters as "God" and demanded $10 million.
The investigation was massive and largely misdirected for most of the three weeks. Investigators focused on a white box truck seen near multiple shootings, while the actual vehicle used was a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice that had been modified to allow a shooter to fire from the trunk through a small hole while lying prone in the rear of the car. The mismatch between the profile and the reality allowed the killers to pass through dozens of police checkpoints unmolested.
The shooters were identified as John Allen Muhammad, a 41-year-old Army veteran, and Lee Boyd Malvo, a 17-year-old Jamaican national who had been taken in by Muhammad after entering the country illegally. A tip from an alert citizen led police to check rest stops, where the two were found sleeping in their Caprice at a Maryland rest area on October 24. Muhammad had wanted to extort money to fund a plan to train young Black men as assassins and ultimately kill his ex-wife to regain custody of his children.
Muhammad was convicted and executed by lethal injection in Virginia in 2009. Malvo, tried as a juvenile, was sentenced to multiple life terms without parole in Virginia and Maryland. In 2012, the Supreme Court's ruling in Miller v. Alabama raised questions about mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles, and in subsequent years Virginia courts have resentenced Malvo, giving him the possibility of parole. The case accelerated the deployment of gunshot detection technology and changed police procedures for handling sniper events.