Possible Snipers Caught, People Relieved
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2002–Last Saturday, Antonette Russell realized how afraid she was of the D.C. sniper. When leaving her house to walk her dog, she spotted a white van and quickly ducked back into her home.
“I almost popped the poor dog’s head off trying to get back inside,” Russell said. “He wouldn’t cooperate, so I leashed him and left him outside.”
Russell, 27, of the Capitol Hill area, hadn’t even pumped her gas since the sniper shootings started. She finally ran out last Saturday and made sure she brought her car into a heavily populated area to pump gas.
“I finally broke down and I didn’t even pump it myself,” Russell said. “I had my boyfriend pump it while I stood beside him.”
Since the possible snipers were taken into custody early Thursday morning, however, Russell said she feels a lot safer, but still carries the fear around.
“I am thinking they may be the ones who are asking for the money, but might not be the snipers,” Russell said. “If they are the people they are accused of being, they are stupid because you don’t shoot everyone first and then ask for money.”
The sniper task force surrounded a freeway rest stop before dawn, arresting the two suspected snipers, John Allen Muhammad, 42, also known as John Allen Williams, and his 17-year-old stepson John Lee Malvo, a Jamaican citizen. The arrests were made on federal warrants. The two victims were to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
The police recovered a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle from the vehicle impounded during the overnight arrest of the suspects. All of the victims have been hit by a single .223-caliber shot. Washington radio station WTOP reported that a scope and a tripod also had been recovered from the suspects’ vehicle.
John Nguyen, 27, of Silver Spring, said he lives down the street from the last sniper shooting, of bus driver Conrad Johnson. Nguyen said he trusts the police and thinks the sniper case is finally over, because all reports and evidence point to the two men.
“Before I was zig-zag walking and scoping out my surroundings when I left the house,” Nguyen said. “This afternoon, when I came outside for lunch I did cartwheels.”
Nguyen, who works at a computer firm, said he will begin his running routine again.
“This is such a great feeling,” he said. “It’s horrible to feel like you can’t run in your own neighborhood for fear that a sniper is hiding behind a tree with a rifle.”
A group known as the Guardian Angels will continue to pump gas for scared people in the area until all reports are final, according to John King Ayala, 33, the D.C. chapter leader of the nationwide group.
“Mostly women have been asking for their gas pumped,” Ayala said. “They pull up with tears in their eyes. They are so happy to see us there.”
The Guardian Angels are trained to patrol areas and call the police if they see any illegal activity. They also are trained in self-defense, and break up fights when necessary. Angels from Florida, New York and Pennsylvania have been filtering into the D.C. area, volunteering to help with gas pumping and patrolling duties.
Wearing their standout red berets, white T-shirts and black pants, they also plan to patrol various school neighborhoods until they know for sure that the sniper has been captured.
“Ever since the sniper sent the letter threatening to our children, we have been out there on the streets trying to keep the streets safe,” Ayala said. “We aren’t going to stop until everyone is sure because we aren’t going to leave the children unprotected.”
Sniper investigators were looking into a possible connection to a fatal shooting at a liquor store in Montgomery, Ala. Montgomery Police Chief John Wilson said Thursday that there were “some very good similarities” between Malvo and a composite sketch of the attacker at the Sept. 21 shooting.
Authorities said Thursday they had made a match between a fingerprint lifted from the scene and Malvo. But Wilson said the weapon used in the Alabama shooting is not the same as the one used in the sniper shootings in the D.C. area.
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
