Almost a quarter-century after one of the most chilling chapters in the region’s history, a new museum exhibit offers a first-ever look at artifacts from the D.C. sniper rampage.
“Without Warning: Ending the Terror of the D.C. Snipers” opened Thursday at the National Law Enforcement Museum and brings visitors inside what the D.C. museum calls one of the most intense and far-reaching manhunts in American history.
“In October 2002, a series of seemingly random shootings spread fear across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia,” said Thomas Canavan, chief operating officer of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and executive director of the National Law Enforcement Museum. “Ordinary routines, such as pumping gas, walking to school and running errands, became moments of risk.”
On public display for the first time are artifacts from the rampage, including the Bushmaster rifle used in the shootings, a tarot card and notes left at shooting scenes. But perhaps the most striking piece is the 1990 blue Chevy Caprice, in which John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were sleeping when they were arrested.
“As soon as we knew the vehicle we were looking for, and we knew the license plate of the vehicle, we felt it was just a matter of time,” Thomas Manger, retired chief of U.S. Capitol Police, said. In 2002, Manger was chief of the Fairfax County Police Department.
Manger said there was debate among law enforcement agencies that made up the sniper task force.
“Do we release it to the public? Then the bad guys know that we know what they’re driving, and they’ll change cars and change license plates,” Manger said.
Hours after their New Jersey license plate was leaked by law enforcement, a truck driver called 911 to report seeing the Caprice parked in a rest stop off Interstate 70, near Myersville, Maryland. Federal and state authorities apprehended Muhammad and Malvo without incident.
It wasn’t until investigators began searching the Chevy Caprice that they realized how Muhammad and Malvo “were able to do so many shootings without anybody seeing who the shooter was, and where the shot came from,” Manger said.
In their initial search of the vehicle, investigators were unable to find any firearms.
“When they pulled the seat down and broke down the back seat, not only did they find the firearm, but they then realized, ‘This is how these shootings occurred,'” Manger said.
Above and behind the rear license plate, a hole had been cut into the Caprice’s body, large enough to fit the barrel of the Bushmaster XM-15 E2S, which is on display in the museum.
“With the hole that was cut in the rear of the car, the shooter could be laying prone, half in the trunk, half in the back seat,” Manger said.
The walls of the museum exhibit include details of the shootings and the manhunt, as well as information about the investigation that led to Muhammad and Malvo’s arrests.
“Twenty days after these shootings began, the investigation got a break in this case, and we started honing in” on the two suspects, said Manger. “Three days later, those suspects were in custody.”
Muhammad was executed in 2009 for the Prince William County, Virginia, murder of Dean Harold Meyers, after his trial was moved to Virginia Beach. Muhammad had also been convicted in 2006 in Montgomery County, Maryland, for six murders, and had been sentenced to six life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Malvo was convicted in 2003 in Chesapeake Circuit Court for the Fairfax County murder of Linda Franklin. He was sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole.
In October 2004, Malvo entered an Alford plea in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, for the murder of Kenneth Bridges and attempting to murder Caroline Seawell. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the Spotsylvania murder.
Malvo was also sentenced to six life sentences without the possibility of parole in Montgomery County.
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