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DC residents remember reign of terror of DC Sniper
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John Muhummad caused fear in the minds of local DC residents
Yesterday's executiion of John Muhummad, convicted DC sniper, was a symbol of newfound peace as local residents recalled how John Muhummad's actions created an atmosphere of terror during the three weeks he anonymously killed area residents with accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo during the Fall of 2002. The 48-year-old Muhummad died by injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday as relatives of the victims watched from behind glass, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond. Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during the spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Quineice Clarkson, mother of three and resident of the metro area, remembers vividly how the killings disrupted any sense of safety she had. "I remember being terrified and confused. At the time I lived and worked in Maryland, so I was constantly looking over my shoulder. I was also concerned for my children."
Clarkson was not alone. Muhummad and Malvo sparked fear in those with children and those who worked closely with tkids in the schools and in community youth programs. Particularly when victims of the shooting spree included a middle-school student.
"I remember thinking, when we heard about the first five killings in Montgomery County that morning, 'thank you God that for once it wasn't DC or PG County,' and then I remember never feeling safe anywhere outdoors because you or the person near you might be shot. Such a truly frightening time," recalls Valarie Banks Ashley.
During the 2002 killings, Ashley worked at a DC nonprofit in southeast that served young people. After-school programming at the nonprofitshe worked was sharply impacted when the DC Sniper alerts began-- parents who were queasy with the idea of their children being vulnerable to the sniper chose, during those three weeks, to keep them home and out of most after-school activities. Most area programs, during that time, cancelled activities altogether.
"I remember how they cancelled activities for kids and parents were scared for them to be outside. Who terrorizes the kids? [It was] Crazy!," remembers northwest DC resident Keisha Dawson.
Sniper John Allen Muhammad refused to utter any last words as he was executed.
The terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo while they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected.
Malvo, who was 17 when carrying out the attacks, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing Linda Franklin, a 47-year-old FBI analyst who was shot as she and her husband loaded supplies at a Home Depot in Falls Church, Va.
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