Here’s a look at the shooting spree that occurred in the Mid-Atlantic/Washington area in October 2002. Ten people were killed and three injured in sniper-style shootings.
John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were arrested, tried and convicted for the shootings. Muhammad received a death sentence and was executed on November 10, 2009. Malvo was convicted and is waiting for resentencing after a federal judge overturned his two life sentences.
Timeline – DC Area Shooting Spree:
October 2, 2002 – A shot is fired through a window at a Michael’s crafts store in Aspen Hill, Maryland, but no one is hit.
– Not linked by ballistic evidence.
October 2, 2002 – The first killing takes place when 55-year-old James D. Martin, a program analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is shot in the parking lot of Shoppers Food Warehouse in Wheaton, Maryland.
– Not linked by ballistic evidence.
October 3, 2002 – Police are called to a crime scene and find James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper who has been fatally shot while mowing a lawn at a commercial establishment near Rockville, Maryland.
October 3, 2002 – Premkumar Walekar, 54, a part-time cab driver, is killed while pumping gas into his taxi at a station in the Aspen Hill area of Montgomery County, Maryland.
October 3, 2002 – Sarah Ramos, 34, of Silver Spring, Maryland, is killed at a post office near Leisure World Shopping center. A witness reports seeing a white van or truck speed from the post office parking lot immediately after the shooting.
October 3, 2002 – Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, of Silver Spring is shot dead at a Shell gas station in Kensington where she was vacuuming her van.
October 3, 2002 – In the only killing in Washington and the first one to occur at night, Pascal Charlot, 72, is shot in the chest as he walks along Georgia Avenue. He is taken to a hospital, where he dies less than an hour later.
October 4, 2002 – In a Michael’s parking lot in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Caroline Seawell, 43, is shot as she puts her bags inside her Toyota minivan. She is released from a Fairfax hospital on Monday, October 14.
October 7, 2002 – Iran Brown, 13, is shot and critically wounded outside Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Maryland’s Prince George’s County.
October 9, 2002 – A tarot card is found near the scene of the shooting at the school. CNN sources say it is the “Death Card” with the message “Call me God” for police.
October 9, 2002 – Dean Harold Meyers, 53, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, is killed while pumping gas at a station in Manassas, Virginia. A white minivan seen in the area is first thought to have some connection with the shooting but is later cleared by police.
October 11, 2002 – Kenneth Bridges, 53, a Philadelphia businessman, is killed at an Exxon station just off I-95 near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Police enforce a huge roadblock, trying to find a white van-like vehicle (similar to a Chevy Astro) with a ladder rack on top.
October 14, 2002 – Linda Franklin, 47, of Arlington, Virginia, is killed by a single gunshot in a Home Depot parking lot in Falls Church, Virginia.
October 19, 2002 – Jeffrey Hopper, 37, is shot in a parking lot at a Ponderosa Steakhouse near I-95 in Ashland, Virginia, 83 miles south of Washington. Doctors remove the bullet from the victim during surgery on October 21 and connect him to the others by ballistics.
October 21, 2002 – Police surround a white van at a pay phone at an Exxon gas station in Richmond, Virginia. They arrest one man in the vehicle and a second man “in the vicinity” but later say that they cannot be connected to the sniper shootings.
October 22, 2002 – Bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, of Oxon Hill, Maryland, is shot as he stands on the top step inside his commuter bus in Aspen Hill, Maryland. He later dies at a hospital in Bethesda. Investigators confirm on October 23 that his death is connected to the sniper.
October 24, 2002 – John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo are arrested. They are found sleeping in a 1990 Chevy Caprice at a rest stop in Frederick County, Maryland.
November 10, 2009 – After receiving the death penalty in 2004, Muhammad is executed.
May 26, 2017 – A federal judge overturns two of Malvo’s life sentences in Chesapeake and Spotsylvania County in Virginia. Malvo remains in prison as his Virginia convictions still stand, as well as his previous sentences from Maryland.
Timeline – Other incidents where Muhammad/Malvo were charged or considered suspects:
February 16, 2002 – Keenya Cook, 21, is murdered. Her aunt was a former friend of Muhammad’s ex-wife. There is circumstantial but not ballistic evidence.
March 19, 2002 – Sixty-year-old Jerry Taylor is shot and killed on a Tucson, Arizona, golf course.
May 2002 – A synagogue in Tacoma, Washington, is vandalized. Police consider Muhammad as a suspect. Guns used in both incidents belong to a man with whom Malvo and Muhammad had stayed for a time.
September 5, 2002 – Shooting at a Clinton, Maryland, pizzeria. Paul LaRuffia is injured.
September 14, 2002 – Benny Oberoi, 22, is shot and wounded outside the Hillandale Beer & Wine Store in Silver Spring, Maryland. The shooting is linked by circumstances, witnesses and location of the alleged snipers, but not by ballistics.
September 15, 2002 – Shooting at a Brandywine, Maryland, liquor store. Muhammad Rashid is injured.
September 21, 2002 – Million Waldemariam, 41, is shot three times and killed at a liquor store in Atlanta. Ballistics on a .22 caliber handgun links both the Atlanta and the Montgomery shootings.
September 21, 2002 – Shooting at a Montgomery, Alabama, liquor store. Owner Claudine Parker is killed and clerk Kellie Adams is seriously injured. Ballistics are a match to Bushmaster .223 rifle and eyewitness accounts link to the DC snipers. Capital murder charges are filed against Muhammad and Malvo.
September 23, 2002 – Shooting outside a beauty shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, kills 45-year-old Hong Im Ballenger, the shop manager. Malvo and Muhammad are charged with capital murder and armed robbery on October 31 when ballistics match the Bushmaster .223 rifle.
September 26, 2002 – Wright Williams is injured at his grocery store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.