The sniper case. It was just another fall evening in the nation’s capital—until a sniper’s bullet struck down a 55-year-old man in a parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland. Beltway Sniper Attacks Timeline created by ElliotForensics. First Victim At 6:30 P.M. James Martin is shot and killed while crossing a. The Reflection Terrace at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland is dedicated to the victims of the beltway sniper shootings in Montgomery County. Murder gardens memorials Community Contributors. Stranger fulfills Christmas list attached to balloon Alvin Bamburg was determined to get everything on the 4-year-old's Christmas list — including a puppy.
WASHINGTON – On Sept. 5, 2002, Paul LaRuffa left his restaurant in Clinton, got into his car, and, before he could turn his head, the window to his left broke and he was shot five times.
LaRuffa was one of the seven surviving victims of the men who became known as the “Beltway snipers” — John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo — whose shooting spree across seven states and Washington, D.C., killed 15.
“They were in different areas — that was the horror of it all,” LaRuffa said. “They could be anywhere, picking people off.”
In the Washington, D.C., region, the snipers killed 10 people in 13 shootings from Oct. 2 to Oct. 22, financing this spree with money they stole from LaRuffa. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the shootings that left every citizen worried they could be a potential victim, and was “in some ways, the scariest thing this country has seen outside of an organized terror attack,” according to a Washington Post writer who covered the story.
Muhammad and Malvo attacked randomly in parking lots of schools, gas stations and malls, mostly in the D.C. area, but they were also connected to attacks across the U.S.
The youngest victim was 13-year-old Iran Brown, who was shot and wounded on Oct.7 on his way to school in the parking lot of Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie.
The oldest victim, Pascal Charlot, 72, was shot and killed crossing the street at Georgia Avenue and Kalmia Road in Northwest Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3.
Bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, was the last victim, shot and killed on Oct. 22 at the intersection of Grand Pre Road and Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, Md., while standing on the top step of his bus.
These events brought the community together, including local and federal law enforcement agencies, in what has been called the “largest manhunt in U.S. history,” said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent April Carroll, who was involved in the case from the first week of the October attacks.
It was surprising how quickly Muhammad and Malvo were caught, Carroll said recently. “Had it not been for their determination to communicate with law enforcement and tell us things, it would’ve been a much longer process.”
Still, after 10 years, some things about the case will remain a mystery.
For example, there’s the case of the white van. Muhammad and Malvo were shooting from a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, but police were aggressively searching for a white van, which witnesses had reported speeding away from the scene of one of the shootings.
There were multiple reports about a Caprice at the crime scenes, first at the D.C. shooting, but there was never anything suspicious about it, law enforcement officials said. Multiple police departments had contact with Muhammad in the Caprice, but nothing was ever out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, the reports about the white van kept coming.
“To this day I really don’t have the capacity to articulate why that didn’t make it all the way up the flag pole, why we didn’t focus on that car,” said retired Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, then head of the sniper investigation. “It wasn’t as clear in the sense as the reports with regards to the white vans.”
While there are some things about the case that remain uncertain, 10 years have led to definite changes in law enforcement practices, but haven’t changed the concrete lessons learned by those involved.
Improved technology and resources today would probably have made the Caprice come up in the investigation sooner, law enforcement officials involved in the case said.
There are also more plans in place, better communication and more task forces, improving law enforcement’s response if something like this were to happen again, Carroll said.
Although the “scale and rapidness” of the Beltway sniper was unique, you never know when something can happen like this, Carroll said.
Six of the region’s shootings occurred within about 24 hours and within a few miles of each other on Oct. 2 and 3. Others came days apart and ranged through Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland.
“I don’t think there’s anything that makes us safer,” Carroll said. “I think the technology makes us more reactive.”
LaRuffa agrees the technology now would probably help catch a suspect sooner, but that technology doesn’t matter if people are intent on violence.
“Would that have prevented me from getting shot? Probably not,” LaRuffa said. “In the society we live in, I think something similar could happen again.”
Muhammad and Malvo were ultimately arrested after a refrigerator repairman saw their Caprice with the license plate that had been reported as the suspect’s at a rest stop parking lot off Interstate 70 in Myersville, Md., on Oct. 24 and told authorities. FBI agents, Maryland State Police, and Montgomery County Police Department officers arrived and arrested Muhammad and Malvo, who were sleeping in the car.
Ten years later, it is important to see the resolution of this case as a success, but know that improvements are being made, Moose said.
“If something similar happens again, there are people working to make sure the response is even better,” Moose said.
For the community, this experience is something everyone shares in common. It brought everyone together — from the different police and federal agencies working on the case, to community residents, worrying about their children playing outside at school or spouses stopping to get gas.
Personally, for Moose, who is now retired in Florida, working on the case of his career simplified his idea of happiness.
“We spend so much energy seeking happiness, when we should just have happiness because we’ve got another day to be among the living,” Moose said.
LaRuffa said he hopes people will carry lessons they learned from this with them, even if they’ve moved on.
“People forget,” LaRuffa said. “That event was so big that anyone around at the time in this area of the country, they’ll remember it longer than a lot of things, but generally the public forgets the intensity after a while.”
The shootings were brought again to public scrutiny during the 2003 trials of Muhammad and Malvo. Malvo is serving a life sentence without parole at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, and Muhammad was executed in Virginia in November 2009.
For LaRuffa, Malvo and Muhammad’s trials — where he testified — were especially emotional. So was Muhammad’s subsequent execution, which LaRuffa did not attend.
“It brought it all to mind again,” LaRuffa said. “This whole thing–why did it happen? And now this guy’s getting executed.”
In the years since the attacks, the lives of those involved have changed, but they still keep their memories of the events with them and hope that while the years have lessened the memories for the community, the lessons learned won’t be forgotten.
In the aftermath of the sniper attacks, the community learned to appreciate little things and that is something people should not forget, said Moose.
“All of the sudden, going outside to play, kids were happy,” Moose said. “They didn’t have to have the new iPhone, they didn’t have to have the new this, the new that — they could just go outside. So maybe we’ve forgotten about that. Maybe this is a good time to remember that just going outside and walking the dog is a good time.”
LaRuffa sold his restaurant in 2008 and is taking a few years off work until he figures out what he wants to do next. While his life is a lot different now that he is not in the restaurant business, what happened to him will remain a big part of his life. As for the rest of the community, he thinks that while most people tend to forget the intensity of what happened over time, some probably learned at least a little from the attacks.
“A lot of those people left in the morning and never came back,” LaRuffa said. “People generally learn that might happen. That you should value every day because it might be your last one. I think some people learned that. If 100 people are different because of that, it’s a good thing.”
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WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Tuesday, October 15, 2002 | Jon Dougherty
Posted on 10/15/2002 12:31:51 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
A small-arms expert trained in sniper tactics says he believes the shooter currently terrorizing the D.C. area is very capable, but not because of shooting abilities – because he has yet to be captured.
'This guy is good, but not as a shooter,' says Charles Cutshaw, a technical small-arms and tactics writer for several publications, including Jane's Information Group.
'One-hundred-yard shots are nothing,' Cutshaw said in an interview. 'He is good at tactics. I believe he selects his location days in advance. He reconnoiters the site and selects a good 'hide' – a place that affords him cover and concealment, as well as an escape route. Then he takes his shot.'
In each of the 10 shootings thus far, only one shot has been fired – in accordance with the sniper's credo: 'One shot, one kill.' Eight of the 10 victims struck were killed.
If accurate, Cutshaw's theory would explain why police have few solid leads and why the sniper has been successful in eluding capture. His theory would be even more remarkable if there were more than one sniper, as police believe may be the case.
'Whoever this is, he's had some kind of [sniper] training,' Cutshaw said. Another hint: The shooter is leaving no brass bullet casings behind, he says, noting that snipers are trained to pick up their brass, as well as leave no other clues to their identity or shooting location behind.
The primary physical evidence police have are the bullets themselves. Authorities have said most of the shooting victims were struck with .223-caliber ammunition.
Cutshaw said the lack of brass casings at crime scenes may indicate the sniper is using a bolt-action rifle, in which he would not eject the shell casing at all. However, he said, if the shooter is using a semi-automatic rifle, he could have it fitted with a 'brass catcher' – a device that fits on a semi-automatic rifle and catches the brass casings as the weapon ejects them.
'Somebody has trained him not to leave physical evidence,' said Cutshaw.
Also, he added, 'the fact that nobody sees this guy means he is carefully picking his targets.'
The New York Post reported over the weekend that police may in fact have a videotape identifying the shooter. A surveillance camera may have caught the sniper in action in the Wednesday shooting at a Manassas gas station, the report said.
The paper reported Hobert Epps, a 36-year-old Georgia man detained by investigators near the scene of Friday's shooting, said police compared his face with a photo from the tape. Epps said officers told him a wallet-sized image was taken from a surveillance camera near the crime scene.
Cutshaw was skeptical, however.
'I'd be very surprised if a surveillance camera picked him up,' he said. 'If he's smart enough to do what he's doing, I'd certainly think he'd be smart enough to avoid surveillance cameras.'
But is the sniper a terrorist? Cutshaw says he thinks it's very possible the shootings have been the work of terrorists.
WorldNetDaily reported Sept. 4 that an al-Qaida training videotape, captured in Afghanistan, shows Osama bin Laden's terrorists are not only planning attacks with weapons of mass destruction but are preparing to kill Americans with drive-by shootings and home break-ins, through ambushes of law-enforcement officers and targeted assassinations on golf courses.
Meanwhile, the Post also reported yesterday that cops have retreated somewhat from their initial belief that the shooter may only be a 'sniper wannabe' – someone who is fascinated with the sniper subculture but has only limited sniper skills – because of the Manassas attack.
Last Wednesday, the sniper shot and killed Dean Myers, 53, from a distance of around 150 yards – a difficult shot, police said, because Meyers was hit in the head by a bullet that threaded a tight corridor between two fuel-pump islands, said the paper.
Cutshaw even opined that the Beltway sniper, as he is being called, may never be captured, unless he gives himself up.
That viewpoint was shared by a 31-year Marine Scout Sniper veteran, the details of which were included in a column penned by Capitol Hill Blue's Doug Thompson yesterday.
'He won't get caught,' the Marine sniper vet – who was not named – said. 'He will have to quit on his own or turn himself in.'
The veteran also voiced concern over a theory now under consideration by police and federal officials – that the shooter or shooters were trained in the U.S. military.
He said the Manassas shooting 'was the work of a pro. Well-planned, scoped out. I'm starting to think this guy was trained by one of the services.'
Police have asked the Defense Department to check various armed forces' sniper schools for information about former students, rejected applicants or students kicked out for psychological problems, the New York Post said yesterday.
Over the weekend, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., badgered the National Rifle Association for opposing a bill he has authored calling for a national database of 'ballistic fingerprints' for every firearm sold.
Each firearm would be test-fired by gun makers before they are sold, with the bullet 'fingerprints' put into a federal database.
'We let our police use human fingerprints; why don't we let our police use the fingerprint that guns and bullets make?' asked Schumer.
Cutshaw said he is disappointed by some lawmakers' calls for stricter laws against so-called 'sniper rifles,' mostly because he says they are – perhaps intentionally – misrepresenting certain weapons for political gain.
'The call is already going to ban sniper rifles, but what's a 'sniper rifle'?' he said. 'It could be any rifle with a scope on it.
'You don't need a true sniper rifle for shots at 100 yards or so,' he continued. 'Any rifle with open sights will do. I can take those kinds of shots with most [semi-automatic] rifles on the market now.'
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Quote of the Day by friendly
That's a scary thought.
Beltway Sniper Victims List
'But is the sniper a terrorist? Cutshaw says he thinks it's very possible the shootings have been the work of terrorists.'
I believe this as well.
al-Qaida terrorists, that is.
http://www.usgunlaws.com/sniper-swat-books.html
My own opinion is that this sniper is somehow associated with Al Queda, and is just a warning of things to come.
The enemy has sneaked into our country while our government turned a blind eye to the absense of our borders. The chicks have come home to roost.
Beltway Sniper Victims List Photos
pretty decent eyewitness accounts this time apparently
tonight may have been his slip up; I was trying to guess his next location and I thought he would have have gone outside the current range, but he stayed inside -- he's got seriously pumped over the weekend
Beltway Sniper Victims List Names
Learn how to be a sniper. It seems logical to me that if these guys spent years learning how to do their deeds of 9-11, they could have also spent time learning to shoot. There could be other cells in other cities ready to do the same thing.
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He's probably beacketed by stuff that hides his position and the muzzle flash. Unless you know where to look, you won't see it.
Beltway Sniper Victims List Pictures
The shooters are proving that they cannot be identified nor stopped, and thus, when the shooting starts at other locations, there goes the retail economy.
How many Al-Quaeda cells are estimated to be already here and in place? In what areas? How much is being learned by these from the reaction to and the coverage of the present snipers?
What defense do we have? Nada!
Beltway Sniper Victims List Picture
I'm not sure why the 'semiautomtic' parenthetical was added. You can take accurate 100 yard shots with a good Civil War era design black powder rifle.
Beltway Sniper Victims List
If he screws up, however, and is exposed in public, then the authorities will be deprived of private vengeance. Count on this: if he keeps it up, they'll get him.
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