Community Corner

10 Years Ago: DC Sniper Shootings

What do you remember about the days when John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were on the loose?

 

Today, Oct. 2, is the 10-year anniversary of what became known as the DC sniper case—a horrific chapter in local history that began in Montgomery County and riveted the nation.

Only one of the attacks was in Prince George's County— outside of Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie.

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A 13-year-old Iran Brown was shot around 8:09 a.m. as he arrived to school. Brown survived the attack and later testified at the trials.

It's hard to describe to those who weren't here what it was like to fear a random bullet during routine trips to the grocery store or gas station, or to drive past playgrounds and parks empty of children, runners and bike riders.

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The cold calculation of the crime was unthinkable at the time.

The perpetrators, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, were regulars at the YMCA of Silver Spring in the weeks before their killing spree. 

New details of their time there emerge in an account in The Atlantic magazine by Jim Ross, a public health researcher. Read Ross' article here.

The Washington Post has published a rare new interview with Malvo in which he describes himself as a "monster."

Muhammad was executed by lethal injection in November 2009. Malvo was convicted of six murders in Montgomery County and is serving a life sentence without parole.

What are your memories of the case? Have you put it behind you or does it still haunt county residents?

Tell us in comments.


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