Terror Relived, as Sniper Execution Nears

Metro D.C. Residents Discuss the Fear Wrought in 2002 by Three Weeks of Random Shootings

(AP)  When James D. Martin was shot dead on an early October evening seven years ago in the parking lot of a grocery store in Wheaton, a northern Washington suburb, it got little attention on the nightly news.

Early the next morning, a landscaper was fatally shot in nearby Rockville, also by a .223-caliber bullet. Then a cabbie, at a gas station not far away. There was another shooting a half-hour later just up the road - a woman slain as she sat reading on a sidewalk bench. Within 90 minutes, another woman was gunned down while vacuuming her van at a service station.

By 10 a.m., it was clear that something sinister was happening. Something awful.

Then it spread.

A sniper killing that night in Washington moved the killings south. The next day, a woman was wounded in a craft store parking lot in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 50 miles from Washington, D.C.

Supreme Court Denies Sniper's Stay of Execution

Fear reigned. People stayed indoors, afraid to go shopping or pump gas. Authorities on television recommended ways to avoid becoming targets. Schoolchildren were kept inside at recess and drilled on duck-and-cover techniques.

Then came a lull - three days without a shooting. But on Oct. 7, 13-year-old Iran Brown was shot in the chest as he was dropped off at school in Bowie, Maryland, just east of Washington.

"Shooting a kid - it's getting to be really, really personal now," a tearful Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose told a news conference as the nation's collective concerns settled on its capital.

There were three more fatal sniper shootings in Virginia the next week, followed by another break - three days. Four. Five. Just long enough for people to relax, at least a little.

"We were thinking everything was going to be OK," said retired school teacher Bernice Easter, of Wheaton.

It wasn't. On Oct. 19, a man was shot outside a steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia, about 80 miles south of Washington. Three more days passed quietly. Then bus driver Conrad Johnson was killed in Aspen Hill, Maryland, not far from where the shootings began.

(Left: Sheriff's deputies place crime scene tape around cars at an Exxon station after a man was shot in Fredericksburg, Va., Oct. 11, 2002.)

On Oct. 24, police captured John Allen Muhammad and teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo at a rest stop 50 miles northwest of D.C. Muhammad and Malvo had shot people at random with a high-powered rifle, firing from the trunk of a modified, beat-up Chevy Caprice. Ten were killed before authorities finally tracked down the pair at a Maryland rest stop.

The nerve-tingling terror that had gripped the region's 5.4 million people and captivated the nation was over.

As Virginia prepares to execute Muhammad on Tuesday for murdering Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station in Manassas, echoes of those three weeks on edge are reverberating throughout the region. (Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.)

"I don't think anybody felt safe," said Easter, now 82. "I was afraid to go out in my yard."

Paula Jean Hallberg, 54, of Silver Spring, felt a shiver every time she walked across the YMCA's wide-open parking lot.

"I would move about a lot," she said.

Ginger Pinchot, 67, a learning specialist from Kemp Mill, would start the gas pump and then sit inside her car.

"It was just that random feeling," she said. "It feels like a roulette wheel when you don't know where it's going to hit next."

Steve Murchake, 59, a tax accountant from Silver Spring, Maryland, remembered helicopters roaring overhead seemingly every morning as he started his commute to Herndon, Virginia, and the checkpoints that snarled Beltway traffic after nearly every shooting. Police focused on white utility vans and white box trucks, which witnesses had spotted - coincidentally, it turned out - near some of the shootings.

House painter Jose Romero, 39, of Silver Spring, parked his white van and took his car to work to avoid being stopped by police. Like everyone else, he imagined cross hairs trained on him whenever he stopped for gas.

"Keep moving around, don't be a target - that's what I heard on the news," Romero said.

Christian Torrenegra said he and his friends at Newport Mill Middle School in Kensington quit walking to a nearby mall after school and took the bus straight home instead. Safe on board, they made a game of pretending to spot the sniper.

"It was like, 'Oh, I see the van!'" said Torrenegra, now 19 and a student at Montgomery College. "We didn't want to take it seriously because we were so young, but at the same time we were scared."

(Left: John Allen Muhammad, acting as his own attorney, handles a rifle sight during his October 2003 trial in Virginia Beach, Va. He was convicted of capital murder in the death of Dean Harold Meyers.)

Rachel Pinchot, Ginger's daughter-in-law, said she hasn't been able to bring herself to go back to the Aspen Hill grocery store where James Martin was killed.

Such lasting effects aren't surprising, said N. Kyle Smith, associate professor of psychology at Ohio Wesleyan University. Negative news tends to influence one's behavior more strongly than positive information, he said, and the contagion of group anxiety can intensify one's emotional response.

"Even though the fear is gone, the effect on their behavior can still linger," Smith said.

Montgomery County's Mental Health Association received hundreds of calls from apparent first-timers during the sniper period, executive director Sharon E. Friedman said. Many were parents seeking advice on dealing with both their children's fears and their own.

"We advised people to try to stick to their routine as much as possible," even if it meant exercising at home instead of the gym, she said. "The routine is a comforting thing."

At Brookside Gardens (left), a botanical park in Wheaton, a granite monument to the region's 10 slain sniper victims invites quiet reflection on a time that was anything but tranquil. Spokeswoman Leslie McDermott said she hopes Muhammad's execution will bring calm at last.

"I think everybody was victimized," McDermott said. "I think everybody lost a sense of freedom and innocence during that time. They were scared."

[shaaronie]

Wow! This is a fast set execution! It's been 6-7 years since the murders. I always thought it took at least 10 years to get through all the appeals. I don't believe in the death penalty, but I will not lose any sleep over this guy.

[SAMTORRES66]

EXECUTE, EXECUTE, EXECUTE thats all I have to say.....

[Heychip]

I read this stuff from Anti Death Penalty people. Executing this guy won't bring those people back but maybe the next mass killer might think twice. And for all those bleeding heart liberals. I guess all one can say is **** off!!!!!

[bubbadubba]

The execution of this mass murdering Muslim is why Hasan killed all those soldiers. The timing says it all.
Don't let the "it had nothing to do with religion" or "he was angry he was being deployed" propaganda and lies fool you.
I am sure they have been ordered not to tell that to the public.

[get_down]

These two punks/thugs ? a.k.a. John Allen Muhammad and teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo cold-bloodedly and cowardly murdered ten innocent civilians for no justification whatsoever. The execution of John Allen Muhammad will be long time coming. Finally we?ll be able to see justice served a little bit late but not escaped!

[toldyouso21]

Wow..only 7 years on death row instead of the average of 20. gotta be some kind of a record. Mentally ill or not--there is no room in society for someone like this. Killing him will give the victims and survivors and their families some form of closure--and the killer won't be mentally ill and tormented any more. We really need to stop storing our dregs in jail like we are going to "save them for later" For some crimes death is the perfect solution because only death can ensure they will never do that crime again. Crimes like serial killing, mass murder, intentional homicides. pedophilia, rapists--esp those that kill or torture their victims as part of their own sick pleasure. They all should be eliminated, if there is irrefutable evidence.

[amurguz]

Your "blood lust," is frigtening in its narrative. I wonder what makes you such a clod blooded killer? The death penalty, does not work. Oh sure it puts people to death, and I guess in that facet it works, but it does not deter criminals from comitting crimes, as Mr. Muhammed is living proof. I would rather that this country adopt a draconian stance toward people that do such heinous crimes; like the Chinese do. Convict you, and then barely keep you alive, so that you get to think about the sorrow, and damage you've done to those you've wronged. A needle in the arm, is an easy way out. No pain, no suffering. We are doing these people "favors" and they are the least deserving; and they should not be granted peace through state execution. I often wonder, that if someone murders another individual, do they go to hell? Being Roman Catholic, I beleive yes. But the conundrum is, if these people are then put to death, by the state, and thus become enemies of the same, do they get a "free pass," into heaven, or at worst, purgatory? If so, then the actions of the death penalty, are nothing more then clearing the guity's book and allowing them salvation before their time. Stop murdering murders, and better, make them suffer well into their late years, and then let God deal with them.

[stryker54]

amurguz, you have a good point. It was painless for him. Your draconian thought is good, but lets take it one step further, how about a remote island where we put all these scum bums at, no food, water, bedding, nothing, just drop them off with the same kind of people that have been convicted of a heinous crimes and just let nature take its course. Rapist would know what it was like to be raped, people would be tortured and killed for things like food and water and the taxpayers wouldn't have to pay much to get them there. Only problem is the ACLU, (all criminals love us) would have a field day with cruel and unusual punishment. But what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Maybe that would deter criminals. Survival of the fittest. People like this scum bag would be shaking in his shoes and talking just to get life in prison. Criminals have it too easy.

[hush_puppy]

Who cares, just shoot him and wait until the next idiot shows up with a gun and shoot him, and wait until someone else shows up with a gun and kill them too. Wait there seems to be a common thread here...

[sorerect]

I used to not believe in the death penalty at all ......now I feel that only folks who believe in the death penalty should be able to have it. If you kill then I guess you believe in it.

[PaGuy1960]

I hope he's in alot of pain

[louiville35]

This is what happens when one guy is armed and millions are unarmed.

[omded]

I don't think you want to use this argument as a reason to keep gun ownership legal. It makes the implication that those "millions" would all be drawing their weapons at the first sign of danger, and, perhaps shooting at anything that looked suspicious. Instead, I encourage you to drop this argument, and, instead argue that gun ownership should continue to be legal, because legal gun owners more often than not will own their guns responsibly. For example, the majority of legal gun owners have taken at least one gun safety class, and know how to use their weapon. They also know the importance of using it only as a last resort. They also understand the importance of avoiding a situation where they "shoot first and ask questions later", or hastily jump into a shootout. The argument you make here implies a somewhat mass chaos, with millions of legal gun owners shooting blindly, as they would have been doing, saying as how they didn't know who the sniper was. I propose to you that this would have made the situation infinitely more dangerous.

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money-01]

How much good would that arsenal do with a pink mist spraying from the back of your skull as your body collapses into an inanimate heap?

Dude, he was a sniper. You could be armed to the teeth and someone stealthily concealed would just smirk at your arsenal before the trigger squeeze. He might just select you as a target based on your arrogance and the false sense of security you project, Rambo.

[betterusa]

At least this scum is not going to sit on death row for 20 plus years like many others. Seven years is more than enough to be kept alive at the taxpayer's expense. I hope the bleeding hearts realize how many innocent families these dirt bags affected before they cry for humane treatment.

TERRORISM, TERRORISM, TERRORISM, TERRORISM .....

[askagain]

Has anyone heard if the last minute appeals to the Supreme Court have been acted upon? This case should make even anti-death sentence people think about whether execution is warranted in this case.

[toldyouso21]

The SCOTUS has refused to hear the case.