The D.C. sniper attacks (also known as the Beltway sniper attacks) started on this day in 2002. Ten people were killed and three others were critically wounded in the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia. The snipers were John Allen Muhammad (age 41 at the time) and Lee Boyd Malvo (age 17 at the time), who traveled in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan.
There have since been many speculations as to the motive of the killers. Family conflict, race, sexual orientation (the National Enquirer suggest that Muhammad and Malvo were homosexual lovers), mental illness, military training (Muhammad was a Gulf War vet), extortion (in one of his notes, the shooter promised to stop killing people if he was given $10 million) and religion. John Allen Muhammad was a member of the Nation of Islam, and the NOI was also a factor in the Zebra murders in the early 1970's in San Francisco. In those crimes 15 people were killed by five members of a group within the Nation of Islam called the “Death Angels."
The Death Angels believed that white people were created thousands of years ago by a black scientist named Yucub (the Biblical Jacob) who wanted an inferior race to dominate. The Zebra murderers believed they could earn “points” towards going to heaven if they killed white people.
The Associated Press also reported that, according to the DC Sniper's wife, that "he wanted to be a career soldier, but he returned from his tour of duty in the Gulf War a changed man, saying black soldiers like himself had been discriminated against." She said "When he got back, he was a very angry man." He shot white strangers at random, only killing a few black victims to make it seem as if race was not an issue.
Many however believe that Muhammad wanted to kill his wife and started the shooting spree as a cover-up.
Muhammad was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia on November 10, 2009. Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, but in 2017, his sentence in Virginia was overturned after an appeal.
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