Only two hours earlier, Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose had declared John Allen Muhammad, (born John Allen Williams), a 41-year-old gulf war veteran with no sniper training, and Lee Malvo, 17, “armed and dangerous” and wanted for federal firearms violations. The capture of the two black males, who federal authorities told NEWSWEEK they believe are responsible for three weeks of terror in the Washington area, may have come hours before there was another victim. A school surrounded by woods was located only a few miles away from the rest stop.
The Washington metro area was buoyant this morning. Since Oct. 3, 10 people have been killed and three critically injured by a slippery assassin widely believed to be driving a white van or boxy truck. Yet the region’s assumptions about their serial killer could prove far off base. The father-stepson duo was driving a dark blue 1990 Chevy Caprice with New Jersey plates. And far from being a well-trained sniper, Muhammad was a subpar soldier with no sniper training; he was an Army mechanic. “He looks like a guy that was an underachiever,” says an Army official who’s seen Muhammad’s record. “He only graduated high school and wasn’t that sharp, according to his test scores, which may explain why his notes weren’t written in good English.” Muhammad was rarely promoted and, according to an Associated Press report, was honorably discharged in 1994. A former Baptist who converted to Islam, Muhammad did, however, possess perfect eyesight.
The capture of Muhammad and Malvo, in the early hours of this morning, culminated a wild, often surreal, 24 hours. The drumbeat of criticism of the sniper task force had been growing louder and louder. In the sniper’s angry notes, he complained to the police that he had been hung up on when trying to contact authorities. He had begun taunting and asking for $10 million to be transferred to a credit-card account, according to published reports. Authorities say that Muhammad and Malvo had grown so confident that they began making bizarre requests of Chief Moose, whom they apparently wanted to operate like a puppet. “You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things,” Chief Moose said late last night after calling Muhammad and Malvo fugitives. “You asked us to say, ‘We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose’.”
Signals and signs like these will be gone over again and again in the coming days. Did Muhammad and Malvo believe there was a connection between Muhammad and Michael, the name of the craft shop that was near many of the shootings? And much will be read into the case’s minutia. Was there anything to be made of Muhammad and Malvo’s living in Washington state and terrorizing the city of Washington, D.C.?; of the alleged killer’s connections to Montgomery, Ala., where they’re implicated in a murder, and Montgomery County, Md.? Criminal profilers correctly predicted that the sniper was a former military man. Yet they also predicted the killer to be a white male in his 30s. Indeed, if guilty, Muhammad may turn out to have a lot in common with another murderous veteran of the gulf war: Timothy McVeigh. Including McVeigh’s fate.
