WEBVTT - The Confession [12] 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.720 Welcome to Monster d Z Sniper, a production of I 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.200 Heart Radio and Tenderfoot t V. The views and opinions 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.119 expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:13.480 author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:17.640 represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:24.320 Listener discretion is advised. September five, two thousand two, Clinton, Maryland, 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.800 about a month before the DC sniper attacks began, and 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.280 two months before investigators found Paul the Rufa's laptop in 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:37.040 the sniper's car, Larufa was ambushed. It's pretty amazing that 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.479 you go from just an ordinary routine to all of 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.159 a sudden, you're part of this crazy thing that happened. 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:47.440 That's one of the largest man hunts in history. At 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:49.760 the end of a long, busy day, he closed down 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.040 his family restaurant with a couple of friends. He put 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.640 the day's earnings in a bank bag and wished his 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.080 friends good night. I locked up the restaurants at the alarm, 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:04.800 We all to our cars. I got in the driver's side, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:10.759 shut the door, and before I could do anything, the 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:16.880 window to my left exploded. SID Emergency nine one one 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:24.200 center shooting. Now it doesn't know a lot. You're the 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.160 one at that time, No, man, it was the owner. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:29.520 I think you guys shot robbed. I heard the guests. 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:33.040 I thought, who was the robbery? And a shooting? Okay, 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:39.840 that the dulance from the police officer on the way. 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.720 Who did them? I have no idea. I couldn't tell 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.080 it from the back the black jacket, black backpack, and 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.160 the black pap What type of weapon would is? However? 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.080 Was gun shot? I don't know if you've heard of football. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:58.200 Five shots came in the window. They all hit me. 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.280 It went from a tremendous sound that deafened my left ear, 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:09.360 then within seconds it became incredibly quiet. I didn't have 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:13.640 time to blink, let alone see anything. All I saw 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:18.960 was a flash of light and that was it. I 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.240 was bleeding out of my chest and my upper back, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.280 lower neck because one of the shots hit me from 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:32.200 that angle. So I leaned on the horn to just 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.560 attract anybody who would be around, and leaned on it, 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.800 leaned on it, and then I opened the door. I 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.359 was able to get out of the car and stand up, 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.920 and one of the guys that I left with was 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:53.040 walking towards me. He was dialing his cell phone moment. 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.880 I'm at Mark Delanez on Stewart Lane in curt Maryland. 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.800 I need an ambulance right here. Uh. Guy came out 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:03.080 for behind the store and uh and shop Paul Arupa 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:08.160 and us leading. Uh. The person that you're talking to 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.679 or they in a car. I know he was in 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.560 the car and he's standing, but he's outside the car. Job. 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.520 I don't haven't stand. Try to get him to sit 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.320 down and not move around. Can you sit in the 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.720 car to sit down and not move around? All right? 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.280 But I don't want to sign here. The pressure of 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.680 the blood inside me was collapsing my lungs. I didn't 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:32.919 know that's what was happening. All I know is that 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.920 I was suffocating. They said they were going to get 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.880 a helicopter, but then the helicopter was too far away, 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.680 so they were just sending regular E M t s. 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.000 And they did. They got there, got me into the ambulance. 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.760 I was really having trouble breathing, and I just had 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.080 the feeling we weren't going that quickly. So I would 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.040 say how much longer? How much longer? And they said, 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.680 not not that much longer. If I lead, we got 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.400 to the hospital and there was a team. They're ready, 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.400 and they rolled me into the emergency room and just 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.160 basically did exactly how you see it on TV. There 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.880 were four or five six people around me just doing 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.240 what they had to do to save my life. They 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.320 got me into surgery and for six or seven hours 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.920 picked out as many as the bullet fragments as they 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:32.160 could and and sewed me up and and saved my life. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:38.720 So that's what happened the first night. And then I 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.960 spent just about another week in the hospital. I was 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:48.520 three days on a breathing machine in intensive care, uh, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:53.000 because I couldn't breathe. So after that they tested and 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.719 took me off and it was still tough, but I could. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.720 I could breathe on my own. After about a week, 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:01.960 I said I really wanted to go home, and they 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:06.520 said okay, So I I left the hospital with a 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:12.320 contraption from my left arm. The most lasting physical effect 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.719 of one of the bullets was that it severed a 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.760 nerve in my arm. I could close my hand, but 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.960 I wasn't able to open it again. So they had 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:26.159 therapists that designed and made a brace type thing from 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.120 my hand. It had rubber bands on it and it 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.880 would spring back and pull my fingers apart and open 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.560 my hand. I actually had that on about a year 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.000 before the nerve drew back and gave me function in 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:43.160 my left hand, and to this day it's not but anyway, 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.200 that was the lasting physical effect. Of course, I went 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:51.599 through tremendous mental effect of it, starting with the first 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:56.839 night I was in the hospital. I had flashbacks that 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:05.720 were incredible. You literally relive it. If you've ever had 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.320 a nightmare where you're scared or somebody's chasing you, it's 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.000 that times ten, because you really relive it. You hear it, 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.520 your ears, hear that sound, and you feel it, and 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.080 it's just terrible. It's it's horrible. You can't turn it off, 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.560 you can't make it stop. It just happens. Happen every night. 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.640 I was shot September five. They didn't catch them till October, 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.200 So for at least that time and probably a little more, 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:46.200 I had that flashback all the time. So that was hard, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.480 and then it began to wane and lessen, mostly I 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:55.080 think because they were caught. After they were caught, they 0:06:55.120 --> 0:07:00.200 found my computer and they put the whole thing together more. Mom, 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:05.000 it's ex wife lived right down the road from the restaurant. 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.560 There is a ruthless person on the loose. What unnerves 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.520 this community the most is the randomness of the murders, 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.360 ordinary people doing ordinary things. They killed the five people 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.360 in one day and then went on the rampage for 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:23.400 the next month. It is quite a mystery. The police 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.720 say they have never had a crime quite like this. 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.840 Be careful, these guys are using weapons that are going 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:34.560 to go right straight through our bulletproof vest. From my 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:40.040 Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, this is Monster d C Sniper. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:47.960 Following Mohammed and Melvo's arrest on October, investigators wondered whether 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.200 others were involved in planning the attacks, and they were 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.440 also trying to solve one of the biggest mysteries in 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.960 the case, what was the motivation? That question would become 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:02.600 increasingly important as they prepare for the upcoming trials. Mohammed 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.640 and Malvo had been brought to Montgomery County and interviewed. 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.800 Mohammed initially talked, saying he was innocent, but then quickly 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.960 asked for his lawyer. Malvo refused to speak at all, 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:18.160 so investigators turned to evidence from the Blue Caprice forensics 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:20.880 from the Bushmaster they found in the car matched bullets 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:24.600 from the shootings. They found Larufa's laptop which led them 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:28.120 to his shooting, and they began retracing Mohammed and Malvo's 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.320 steps using other evidence they found in the car, like 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:36.200 receipts and phone cards, and investigators unraveled a whole new 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.000 string of crimes. They didn't have a car. They had 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.960 come across country by buses and hitchhiking. What they did 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.040 was they took the money that was in my bank bag. 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.120 They got about thirty six hundred dollars in cash, which 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:55.120 financed their whole operation. They went to Jersey and bought 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.320 the car from Clinton, Maryland. Mohammed and Malvo traveled up 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.800 to Trent and Jersey. D m V records showed that 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:07.160 on September two thousand two, John Mohammed paid two hundred 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:11.120 fifty dollars to purchase the blue Caprice from a dealership 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:16.000 called shore Shot Auto Sales. Reportedly, when Mohammed looked at 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.360 it in the lot, he asked the dealer to open 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.800 the trunk and then climbed inside and there was a 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.680 strange incident the next day, on September eleven, two thou two, 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.880 the first anniversary of the terror attacks. While Mohammed registered 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.480 the car in Camden, the DMV building received a bomb threat. 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.839 Mohammed finished the registration just a few minutes before the 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:41.200 building was evacuated. It's still unclear if Mohammed or Malvo 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.079 were involved with the bomb thread or if it was 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.680 just a strange coincidence. After buying and registering the car 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:54.800 in New Jersey, Mohammed and Malvo head itself. Prepaid phone 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.920 cards found in the caprice showed that by the next night, 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:02.080 September twelve, they were in the DC area outside a 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:06.000 Shopper's food warehouse in Alexandria, Virginia. They used one of 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:10.080 these phone cards to place a call to Antigua. Then, 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:15.200 two nights later, on September in Montgomery County, Maryland, a 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.280 liquor store employee, Repender Oberoi, was locking up the store 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:27.080 when he heard a loud crack. Oberoy was shot. I'm 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.480 calling again to report that someone that apparently has gotten 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.440 shot in the Hill and Dale shopping Center. By safe way. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.480 Three ambulances had passed right by. One is across the street. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.720 I've said it each time, and other people are calling 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.719 to they're driving right by and this man has been 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.720 laid on the sidewalk. Ultimately, ober Roy survived the attack. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.840 A witness nearby reported seeing an old car pull out 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.120 of a parking space and drive away. The witness told 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:00.079 police about it, but the officers were perplexed ober It 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.840 hadn't been robbed and didn't seem to have any enemies. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.680 After arresting the snipers and retracing their movements, police now 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:12.200 suspect that the snipers had shot Oberoi. Investigators tried to 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.439 analyze bullet fragments from the crime, but the pieces weren't 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:20.040 large enough to make any comparisons, and without firearm forensics, 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.240 it was hard to prove. The very next night, on 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.080 September fift another attack took place at a liquor store, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.000 this one in Prince George's County, just miles from Paul 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:36.679 Larufa's restaurant and Mildred Mohammed's home. It was raining as 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.920 Mohammed Rashied locked up the store, he heard a loud 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.120 sound and saw two bullet holes appear in the glass 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.000 store in front of him. He turned and saw a 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.000 young man holding a pistol. The man fired a third shot, 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:54.120 and he felt a bullet enter his abdomen. Rashid realized 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.520 he was being robbed, so he made a split second 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:00.560 decision to drop down and play dead. Sheet says the 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.040 attacker rolled him over and rifled through his pockets. The 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:08.000 attacker grabbed his wallet and then walked away. Rashid waited 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.120 anxiously until he thought the man was gone. Then he 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.400 called nine one from his cell phone. Oh ma'am, I'm 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.439 buying for one piece that was there for somebody, so 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.320 fine to me. Have you been shut Yeah? Yeah, yeah, 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:27.760 my bunny stoma. One piece that was one body. Oh, 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.120 I'm gonna help you. Okay, you do shut you? No? 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:36.200 No liab okay, somebody there with you? Nobody okay, Okay, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:37.599 Now I want to just sit down. I want to 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.800 take your shirt on and put it tightly into the 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.200 stomach where you were shot. Okay, I want the morning 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.079 with you. What's today day? I'm gonna stay in a line. 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.320 We got somebody going to you right now. Did somebody 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:54.200 rob you? Why are you? Who are you outside? Okay, 0:12:54.200 --> 0:13:00.280 we're gonna help you with your cell phone. Never hommed, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.400 I'm not the one going out. We've already got an 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.959 ambulance going to you. I'm here with you. Okay, Oh 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.160 letten me take deep breath and try to say as 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.280 quiet as you can't. Okay, I'm right here with you. 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:19.760 I'm not going to go anywhere. Oh my Gogmed Mohammed 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.360 the person to shot you, white or black? I'm glad 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.840 that how old then something? And I need to put 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.000 the look at We're already coming to you. How old 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:35.360 is he? By? You're doing great? And what was he wearing? Mohammed? Like, 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.559 you can do it, We'll come assurance. I'm kind of 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.559 Buston's movie. Okay, great shirt and he had a gun? 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:45.160 Why you haven't which way did he run? You were 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.400 behind the door. Okay? If I know they're coming to 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:50.240 you now, but it's staying. Did they get to Mohammed? 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.840 Rashid was treated and survived. Surgeons recovered the bullet from 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.760 his abdomen and gave it to police. Investigators tested the round. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.160 It came back as being from the same pistol used 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.360 in the larofa shooting, the silver revolver that investigators would 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.160 later find in Alabama following the liquor store shooting there 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.560 on September eighth, three days after shooting Rashid. The snipers 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.200 used a phone card to make a call from outside 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.800 the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia, the very same restaurant 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.600 where they would later shoot Jeffrey Hopper as he walked 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:31.120 through the parking lot with his wife. Then another three 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.360 days later, just after midnight on September twenty one, Malvo 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.960 and Mohammed were likely five hundred miles southwest and the 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.600 parking lot of a liquor store in Atlanta, Georgia. It 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.920 was twelve sixteen a m an. Inside were two employees, 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:52.080 Mimi Tadisi, a million walled Amerium, both Ethiopian immigrants. The 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.760 store was closed, so they wondered why a car was 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.640 idling in the parking lot. Reportedly, Wallda Mariam wanted to 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.920 investigate to d C was worried and told him not 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:06.760 to go outside, but he did anyway. Seconds after wald 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.560 Merriam walked outside, to d C heard three gun shots. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.840 Wald de Merriam had been shot twice in the upper 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.840 back and once in the back of the head. He 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.360 died in the hospital. It's unclear if the bullets from 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:28.960 this shooting were ever analyzed forensically, not even Twenty four 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:33.120 hours later, Mohammed and Malvo were one hundred fifty miles 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:38.160 southwest in Montgomery, Alabama, robbing the ABC Liquor store, where 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.120 they shot and killed Claudine Parker and wounded Kelly Adams. 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.000 Two days after the Alabama shootings, phone card records and 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:53.840 receipts put the snipers in Mohammed's hometown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.200 at six forty pm, Hong M. Ballinger had just finished 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.760 closing up the beauty shop where she worked. Ballinger had 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.040 just reached her car when she was shot in the head. 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:10.600 She died almost instantly. Another employee who was also leaving, 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.360 saw a large, dark car pull out of a vacant 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.080 lot and pick up a black man who had grabbed 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:20.760 Ballinger's purse. Police found a bullet fragment embedded and Ballinger's 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.640 side view mirror. It appeared to have come from a 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:27.440 two to three rifle, but the case went cold after 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.840 the sniper's arrest. Investigators reanalyze the bullet fragment from the 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.440 shooting and they matched it to the snipers Bushmaster rifle. 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.040 Ballinger was a victim of the snipers, likely the last 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.600 one before the snipers returned to Maryland and began their 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:48.480 DC attacks. They'd likely killed three and injured four more 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.240 in a span of eighteen days, all before the spree 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.760 in d C even started. But why did the snipers 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.400 then switch from this pattern of parking lot robberies to 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.040 see me only random killings in d C. Although investigators 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.000 were learning more about the scope of the snipers attacks, 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:12.280 their motive still remained a mystery. The only people who 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.800 could really answer the question of why we're Lee Boyd 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:20.560 Malvo and John Mohammed investigators needed one of them to 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:41.320 crack under questioning. Immediately after the sniper's arrest, a battle 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.560 began brewing in the DC area, with attorneys fighting over 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.600 where the snipers should be tried. On October two, just 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.920 the day after the snipers were arrested, Montgomery County Prosecutor 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.160 Doug Gansler held the news conference before he even learned 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.960 Malbo's age or last name. The Montgomery County Police Department 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.520 will attain an arrest warrant for the arrest of John Muhammad, 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.800 aged forty one, and Lee Salvo, aged nineteen, for six 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.400 counts a first degree murder. The decision to charge these 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:16.080 cases in Montgomery County, Maryland, was reached after in depth 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:21.440 consultation with local, state, and federal law enforcement officials. Montgomery 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:25.119 County was the community most affected and most impacted by 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:30.400 the sniper shootings. The investigation began, ended, and was centered 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:35.520 here in Montgomery County. The Feds were furious, sources say, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:39.040 as local prosecutor Doug Ganceler walked to the microphones late 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.080 today to announce that Montgomery County is fighting the first 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:46.680 charges in the sniper case. Federal prosecutors privately accused Canceler 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.000 of breaking in agreements not to file charges until the 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.480 Feds decide if they want to take over the case. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.879 In unusually harsh language. One federal official accused Canceler of 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:01.719 quotes exploiting this tragedy for political purposes. So how did 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:05.119 the sniper case cracked only yesterday up to now a 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.480 model of cooperation between Chief Moose, the FBI, and a 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.320 t F How did it unravel so fast with prosecutors 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.480 engaged in and unseemly fights over who gets the first 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:20.520 crack at convicting them. Two weeks later, on November seven, U. S. 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:25.000 Attorney General John Ashcroft announced where Malbo and Mohammed would 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:29.840 first be tried for twenty three days in October. Our 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:34.720 communities lived in fear. Innocent victims from Maryland, Virginia, the 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.480 District of Columbia, Alabama, and Louisiana have paid the ultimate price. 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.360 It is appropriate, it is imperative that the ultimate sanction 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.679 be available. I have instructed the U. S. Marshals Service 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:52.360 to transfer custody of John Alan Mohammed to Prince William County, Virginia. 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.560 I have also instructed the marshals to transfer custody of 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.920 a juvenile to Fairfax County, Virginia. Right after his arrest, 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.520 Mohammed had talked briefly with detectives, then clammed up and 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.840 asked for his lawyer. Now, with federal charges dropped and 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.040 stay charges pending, two new investigators took their turn at 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:16.160 trying to get Mohammed to talk. I want to take 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:24.000 the handcuff, so to me. Okay, salad with tomatoes and 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:29.919 what else, Sir John Loup. We're not here to jam 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.240 you up anything like that, but certainly you know we 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.320 want to talk to him too. Beans or potatoes, beans 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.960 and russ and the partiular kind of potatoes. How you 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:44.200 want to picture or anything like I was telling you much, Mohammed. 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:47.840 I understand that you've talked to attorneys and that they've 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.040 told you not to say anything. There's been a lot 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:53.879 of people who said that this was meaningless and since us, 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:57.760 but it had me. I believe it had meaning to you, 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.879 and this may be your only tunity to tell your story. 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.040 Your lawyers are not going to put you on the stand, 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.920 because when your lawyer gets done asking any questions, they're 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:10.960 going to be subject across examination. They're not going to 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.600 put you on the stand. You need to say what 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:22.199 you can say, and ladies behalf now, John, aside from 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:26.040 his requests for food, John Mohammed just sat stone faced 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.719 in the interrogation room. Detectives knew that Mohammed and Lee 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:33.680 boyd novel weren't biologically related, but that he had often 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.520 introduced the lead to friends as his son, so the 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.920 detectives tried to use John's relationship with Lee to get 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.719 him to talk. I would assume that since y'all were 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.560 taken into customy did you not talk to him? And 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.359 I would imagine that's very difficult for you. He's a 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.920 long he's afraid, but as a father myself. I know 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.320 fame that must cause you also not being able to 0:21:57.400 --> 0:21:59.800 reach him in his time and trouble when he needs 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:03.800 your love more than he needs anything else. So if 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.639 you don't do anything else here for yourself, do this 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:11.119 for your son. Tell us the truth, tell us what 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.280 the meaning is behind this. Let's do some damage control 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.080 here and in some way try and spare his life. 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:25.440 Did Lee pull the trigger? Did le do any of 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:30.280 the shootings? Now? I can tell you what Leaves gonna do, 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:33.879 just based on what I know about kids and what 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.160 I know about their love to their parents. To save 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:40.240 his own life, that boy's not gonna say it was 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:44.359 all my daddy, It wasn't me. You know that in 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:48.400 your heart there's only one person that has any hope 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:50.960 of saving his life, and that's going to be you, 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.240 because if you don't say anything, he's not going to 0:22:56.320 --> 0:23:03.320 say anything at least and lose his life over this John. 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:05.840 They're going to make an assumption that made pull of 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:10.480 the trader. They'renvasing on the fact that that was a 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.440 small area back there, and that in all likelihood you 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:16.560 were driving. Being more mature, you would be able to 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.200 drive with more calm than Kimp All we want to 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:23.040 know is the truth. And I don't want to see 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:27.440 a seventeen year old kid put it down namelessly. At seventeen, 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.160 he is not a man. He's a kid, and he's 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.760 afraid and he has alone, But the court's going to 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:39.480 treat him like a man. There was one person, seemingly, 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:41.119 and you know better than I do, because you know 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:44.840 he intimate details. There was one person who really seemed 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:50.400 to care about him. And here you are, and he's 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:54.520 not strong without you, and you know what he might do. 0:23:56.680 --> 0:24:01.440 He might say I shot him out. He might say 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:06.480 by daddy drove, and I shot because I was the 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:10.200 smallest and I could sit back there. And what would 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:16.360 happen if he says that is he most assuredly will 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:20.720 be sentenced to death. But I can tell you something. 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:25.280 You can take the kid who's shot people and the 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:29.440 head or maybe he has watched people get shot for 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:33.200 no reason. You can take the kid and teach you 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:38.560 all of those tough, hard things, and he can do 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:42.560 it just like you wore. He can kill men, he 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:45.440 can cut the throats and not lose a wink of 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:49.320 sleep about it. But when it comes time to die, 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:53.960 when he's wounded on the battlefield. When the game is 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:59.160 over and he's facing death, he demonstrates loud and clear 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:05.280 that he's a boy play in a man's game. You 0:25:05.400 --> 0:25:09.960 know why, John, because that's when they cry, and that's 0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:15.160 when they call for the mamas for their daddy. When 0:25:15.200 --> 0:25:19.440 he's in a man's prison, it's you he's gonna want. 0:25:20.040 --> 0:25:23.000 When he lies on that wreck at night crying, it's 0:25:23.040 --> 0:25:26.640 you he's going to think about. He played a man's game, 0:25:26.960 --> 0:25:30.760 but he's a boy, and he's your boy that's gotten 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:34.480 to touch you in your heart. He wouldn't win his 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:39.159 mom or whoever his biological father was. He was with you. 0:25:40.160 --> 0:25:43.119 And you know something, John, This is harsh, but this 0:25:43.320 --> 0:25:47.359 is important. If you two are sentenced to death, I 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:51.480 pray to God that they execute you before they execute him, 0:25:51.880 --> 0:25:55.160 because I'm gonna take something, John, And they could be executed, 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:58.720 and you could receive a stake for whatever reason, and 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:00.640 then you would sit and pray and for the rest 0:26:00.720 --> 0:26:04.320 of your life with him going on ahead of you. 0:26:05.280 --> 0:26:08.040 And you know what, that might not be his man. 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:12.040 He's seventeen years old, him spending the rest of his 0:26:12.400 --> 0:26:15.760 natural life in prison. After you've made your peace with God, 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:21.320 that could be the real hell for him. If you 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:23.760 love him the way I think you love him, if 0:26:23.840 --> 0:26:26.560 you love him the way I love my children, it 0:26:26.640 --> 0:26:31.240 will tear your soul away from you. You will live 0:26:31.560 --> 0:26:35.359 hell on Earth. Save his life if you don't do 0:26:35.480 --> 0:26:40.160 anything else, do the right thing, fix this thing. If 0:26:40.200 --> 0:26:42.440 you were on a sinken ship and there was one 0:26:42.560 --> 0:26:45.080 life jacket, I have no doubt in my mind that 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:48.200 you would give it to late. You're on a sinking ship. 0:26:48.400 --> 0:26:52.399 Now give that kid a life jacket. Give him an 0:26:52.400 --> 0:26:55.200 opportunity to save himself, because he's not going to do 0:26:55.320 --> 0:26:58.960 it unless you give him permission to do it. Because 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:02.399 if it were me and now, I wouldn't do it 0:27:02.480 --> 0:27:05.280