Army sniper's murderous coalition

By Allan Olingo

As his marriage faltered, the shooting expert 'adopted' a criminal and in the course of training him how to use a gun, they randomly targeted and killed people

John Allen Muhammad became an infamous figure in US for his sniper murders that shocked the nation in October, 2002.

Born John Allen Williams on December 31, 1960 in Louisiana, he was raised by an aunt after his mother died when he was four.

He married Carol Kaglear immediately after high school before joining the Louisiana Army National Guard. In early 1980s, signs were beginning to show that he was violent and his marriage started crumbling. He separated from his wife, converted to Islam and later joined the US Army. He later married Mildred Green and they got three children. In the army, he became a skilled marksman and served in Germany and the Middle East during the Gulf War.

Muhammad left the military in 1994 and tried his hand in business, first with an auto mechanic shop and then a karate school, but both ventures failed. In 1999, his second marriage failed and his wife filed for divorce and a restraining order against Muhammad because of his violent nature.

Muhammad fled with the three children to Antigua where he met his future accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo. The police traced him on his return and the wife secured custody of the children.

Unhappy with the loss of his children, Muhammad began to act as a father figure on Malvo. They developed father-son relationship and he taught Malvo how to use a sniper gun.

In 2002, the two began their murder spree with random sniper shots killing victims with no warning. The indiscriminate selection of victims in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC made residents look over their shoulders and running or screaming at the slightest sound.

shooting spree

In July 2002, Muhamad began a spate of killings and robbery in Louisiana. He shot and injured John Gaeta the following month. The second shooting occurred in Maryland in September where they both shot Paul LaRuffa but he survived six shots. His laptop was later found in Malvo’s car. A few weeks later, a woman in Alabama was shot and killed while her co-worker was injured.

In October, the pair intensified their killings with five more victims being shot in a week. On October 4, a woman was shot and wounded in a parking lot near Fredericksburg. There was another shooting outside a school on the seventh followed by another on October 9 near a Manassas gas station. Another heinous shooting at a gas station in the Fredericksburg area on October 11 shocked police. The lack of connection between the victims puzzled police and stymied investigators.

The duo struck again on October 14 when a woman was shot in Falls Church, Virginia. The same week, they shot a man in a parking lot in Ashland, Virginia, before killing a 13-year old boy.

On October 19, authorities found a note asking for one million dollar ransom in order to stop the shootings. Three days later, Conrad Johnson was shot while in his bus in Maryland.

The real breakthrough in solving the crime came from phone calls made to two priests from someone claiming to be the sniper. He directed them to an earlier shooting in Alabama. A brochure was found at the scene of crime and the fingerprints dusted matched that of Malvo, which had been taken previously for immigration records. This gave the police their first suspect.

On October 24, authorities surrounded the vehicle in which Muhammad and Malvo were and detained them. Muhammad was charged with 20 counts in seven murders that left 10 people killed and another three wounded.

In his trial, Muhammad said he was innocent and believed the truth would set him free.

"The evidence will show that I had nothing to do with these crimes, directly or indirectly, or that I know anything pertaining to these crimes at all," he said.

Mohammed was sentenced to death while Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole.