Wednesday, October 3, 2012
The "Beltway Sniper Incident" Story
It was
an ordinary day. Talking on the phone with my daughter, Brynn, who
lives near Frederick, MD. I was asking her if she remembered about the
Beltway sniper incident that happened 10 years ago. It was that
morning that I happened to be leafing through the Lancaster Sunday News
and saw a very familiar face staring back at me. The youthful face of
Lee Boyd Malvo
staring right into the camera. Those were really scary days for my wife
and I as we thought daily about our daughter, pregnant with our first
grandchild, and our son-in-law Dave, who lived right in the midst of it.
Brynn called often, telling us she was OK and not to worry. Not to
worry? She must have been scared to death for the couple of weeks
during October in 2002 when sniper John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo were picking out random targets and killing them. Brynn and Dave, who lived in a development in Urbana,
MD, which is only a stone's throw from Frederick, said that they were
so scared that they didn't even go out for groceries. They would call
the store and order their groceries delivered to the house. They would
drive as far away from the area as possible to buy their gasoline. Many
gas stations put up tarps around the awnings over the fuel pumps so
people would feel safer. Many people fueled their vehicles inside the
guarded fence of the Naval Base of the National Naval Medical Center.
Finally, the incident came to a close on October 24, when Muhammad and Malvo
were found sleeping in their car at a rest stop off of Interstate 70,
near Frederick, not far from the home where our daughter and son-in-law
lived. Brynn and Dave could once again live a normal life and head to
work without fear of the sniper. Carol and I could also sleep better
realizing that the culprits had been caught. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - In 2003 Muhammad was sentenced to death and Malvo was sentenced to life in prison. In 2009 Muhammad was executed. Malvo is incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison in the remote super max facility tucked among Virginia's Appalachian coal mines.
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