On this day, Oct. 2, in 2002, the Beltway sniper attacks began with the fatal shooting of 55-year-old James Martin outside a supermarket in Wheaton.
Over 23 days in October 2002, 42-year-old John Allen Muhammad and his protege killer, 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, spread terror throughout the nation’s capital region.
The duo used a high-powered rifle, binoculars and a tripod to indiscriminately shoot 13 people, killing 10 of them. The shooters sometimes left a tarot card at the crime scene.
On Oct. 24, police found the duo sleeping in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan at a rest stop off Interstate 70 near Frederick, Md. Investigators learned of three more killings in Louisiana and Alabama a month before the sniper attacks.
Malvo was sentenced to life without parole. Muhammad was executed in 2009.
– Scott McCabe
