WEBVTT - The Blue Caprice [10] 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.920 Welcome to Monster DC Sniper, a production of I Heart 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:07.640 Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:10.720 this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.200 individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.479 of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:26.200 discretion is advised. It is February six, two thousand and two, 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.000 and my niece is gone. This is Ice and Nichols, 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.840 the former accountant for John and MILDRAA Mohammed. She came 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.920 home from grocery shopping one day to find that her niece, 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.640 Keenya Cook, had been shot dead in her kitchen. I 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.360 just went into a cold state. I was just on 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.519 auto pilot. My body had just shut down. They started 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.040 roping off the house and I saw where King's head 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.200 had laid. The bullet case it was still there, and 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.080 I just saw blood the back of her head that 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:04.160 just been blown out. Now my house is a crime scene. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.520 We go through burying Kenya and our family is grieving. 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.400 It's a cold case, and we don't hear anything, and 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.440 we're trying to go on with our lives. I'm no 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.959 longer in the house at this point. For several months. 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.800 But when I do move back into my home. But 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:28.600 we're trying to get back into some sense of normality, 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.520 if there's such a thing. With my husband and I, 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:38.200 we were just going through the motions and one day 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.360 I was at Bible study. This is like the end 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:47.160 of October. My page is going off. It was my husband. 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.000 I go and I returned. The colony says, what are 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.600 you doing. I said, I'm at Bible studies Thursday. He said, 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.000 have you looked at the TV? I said, I just 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.040 said I was at Bible study. He said, no, no, no, no, no, 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:02.639 you need to go home. Meet me at the house. 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:05.200 And I'm like, what what's going on? Need to just 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:07.160 meet me at the house. I get to the house 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.320 and I turned on the TV and we had been 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:16.000 hearing about these shootings on the East Coast. We're hearing 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.639 just shots of people pumping gas. A child was shot 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.960 at school. We're hearing about a woman getting shot in 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.480 the head coming out of home depot. I think she 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:30.720 was an FBI analyst. So where everybody's like, whoa, this 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:32.800 ain't it time to be traveling to the East Coast. 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.679 I actually had clients who canceled flight plans because this 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.960 what's going on. We're listening to all this news and 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.080 stuff on the West coast, and then I was sudden 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.000 the backyard of a duplex here in Tacoma, carefully marked 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.720 off in a grid up pops a tree trump at 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.920 a former client's house for almost nine hours, a deliberate 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.920 search by hand investigators sifting through dirt, then sawing down 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.040 a tree stump and hurting it off evidence believed to 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.799 have been used for target practice, possibly containing bullet fragments. 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:13.120 There's these helicopters flying all over the Tacoma community. There's 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:19.079 FBI agency, a t F Why is the investigation coming 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:24.440 to Washington? The DC sniper? They are actually saying it's 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:29.800 linked to Tacoma. At that point, in my soul, in 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:34.360 my heart, in my mind, I knew I was connected. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.840 I'm on the couch and fetal position. The next thing, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.640 you know, my husband comes home and he said, that's 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.840 what I was trying to tell you. It's John. It's John. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.040 There is a ruthless person on the loose. What un 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.360 nerves this community the most is the randomness of the murders, 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.200 ordinary people doing ordinary things. They killed the five people 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.200 in one day, and then when on the rampage for 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.240 the next month. It is quite a mystery. The police 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.560 say they have never had a crime quite like this. 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.640 Be careful, these guys are using weapons that are going 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:15.400 to go right straight through our bulletproof vest. From my 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:20.880 Heart radio and Tenderfoot TV, this is Monster DC Sniper. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:29.840 October two two it had been nearly three weeks since 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.720 the DC sniper attacks began. The investigation had become the 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.000 largest man hunt in the nation's history, which meant that 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:42.440 expenses for every police agency involved were skyrocketing. Law enforcement 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.599 had limited resources and limited time to catch the killers, 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.719 so they had to act fast. Three days had passed 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.120 since Jeffrey Hopper became the snipers twelve victim at a 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:59.320 Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia. Since that time, investigators had 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.080 connected the d Sea shootings to a liquor store robbery 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:07.120 in Montgomery, Alabama. There, police found a fingerprint on an 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:11.560 armor like gun catalog. Federal authorities ran that fingerprint through 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.080 the database of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or i 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.600 n S, and they got a match. The fingerprint belonged 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.120 to Lee Boyd Malvo. As soon as we found out 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.799 that his name was referenced in an I n S file. 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.240 We had them pull the file so we could see 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.839 what was in it, and the other name that came 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:36.120 up in that file was actually John Mohammed. This is 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.680 Linda Hooper. She was a supervisory special agent for the 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:44.360 FBI during the sniper investigation. Hooper immediately started to learn 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.479 everything she could about Malvo and Mohammed, and in doing 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.040 research on John Mohammed, we found out that he had 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.279 been in the army. He certainly knew weapons. The more 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.400 we dug into his background and who he was, there 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:04.800 was more and more information on his interest in weapons, 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:10.240 his shooting practice, shooting, target shooting, his involvement with this 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.960 young boy, seventeen year old Malbow. They weren't related, but 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.839 Malvo lived with him. He had a very rough, to 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:25.240 say the least, early childhood and not a good situation 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.920 with his mother, and he was kind of taken in 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.640 by John Mohammed. Much of this information came from a 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.560 man in Tacoma, Washington named Robert Holmes. He had called 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:41.040 the Sniper Task Force with a tip and he had 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:42.880 said that he had had a friend that had left 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:47.600 the area that was a very militant person, very upset person. 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.720 This is Michael Myrick, a former lieutenant for the Montgomery, 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:56.880 Alabama Police. Myrick says the tipster, Robert Holmes, was a 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.680 former friend of Mohammed's and he had served in the 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.120 Mill of Terry alongside Mohammed. He described as just being 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.880 very unhappy with life. The guy was very dangerous, and 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.640 he said it just bothers me that all this is happening. 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.960 His ex wife lives in the DC area, and he said, uh. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.320 He left with an a R fifteen Bushmaster rifle. He says, 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.320 nothing for nothing, But I'm just gonna let y'all know. 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.360 Don't want to sit on this information. And he had 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.520 a son named Lee. The friend thought this was his son, 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.120 at least step son, and he said son was a 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.640 very very good shot, and they talked about snipers and 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:35.600 they played sniper games. I and Nichols actually knew Robert Holmes, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.720 the man in Tacoma who called in the tip about 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.800 John Mohammed, Well, John stayed with him. He was a 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.200 good friend John. They both were in Fort Louis together 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.840 in the military, both of them former Army vets. Holmes 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.160 said that a few months before the shooting started in 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.080 d C. Mohammed stopped by his house. He wanted to 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.560 test out a homemade silence or for a rifle, and 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.920 in order to see if it worked, he had target 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.680 practice in his backyard in one of the trees. And 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.600 so that's why they were here getting the tree trump 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:13.080 and how the investigation came here. The tip from Robert 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.320 Holmes effectively connected Washington State to the DC sniper attacks. 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.440 So the Sniper task Force went to Tacoma. They took 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.520 the tree stump that Mohammed and Malbo had supposedly used 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.480 as target practice for evidence. Following the bullet trail, FBI 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.720 agents are now focused on this woodpilot in Olympia pieces 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.880 of potential evidence. The wood cut down months ago from 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.120 the backyard of this Tacoma duplex. It's where John Alan 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:40.600 Mohammed once lived, and it's said to have used the 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.880 tree for target practice. Authorities mapped a grid in the 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.040 backyard and carefully scammed for bullet fragments and shellcases, then 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.640 removed the stump from that tree sent to the woodpile. 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.000 NBC News has learned evidence recovered here, including the tree stump, 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.840 has been analyzed that the a t F lab in Maryland, 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.800 and already the evidence has been described just having quote 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.720 potential value. Again, all this is happening not in days, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.040 it's happening in hours. Now we had a very very 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:12.680 clear suspect to pursue my name. Police had quickly learned 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.600 a lot about the pair, but they weren't ready yet 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:20.160 to name them the snipers. Still, it fell to investigators 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.280 like they were finally zeroing in on their targets. Meanwhile, 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.520 I said, Nichols was getting some answers about the murder 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.800 of her niece Keenya Cook. Next thing I know, I 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.040 get a knock at the door. It's the FBI agent. Well, 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.840 he confirms that Lee and John were in Tacoma during 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.600 the time my niece was murdered. And that's all I 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.439 needed to hear. That said to me that they killed 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.560 my niece. She took a bullet mit for me. Nobody 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.880 knew she was leaving with me. She opens the door 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:58.840 and he lodges off his weapon. I didn't realize how 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:07.040 he the caame this diabolical evil person. But Mohammed and 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:11.160 Malvo weren't done yet. While the task force was making 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.800 the connection to Washington State, Mohammed and Malvo were in 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.800 Montgomery County, Maryland, and they were planning their next attack. 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:44.960 October two. Aspen Hill, Maryland. In Montgomery County, it's early 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.920 in the morning, so early that it's still dark out. 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.280 In a dense wooded area, someone is walking up a hill. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:57.120 They're carrying a duffel bag with a sniper rifle inside. 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.280 Once they reached the edge of the wood area, they 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:05.880 stopped at the opening. They see an empty playground with 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:11.960 rusty slides, still swings and old park benches, and on 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.600 the other side of the playground sits an idle bus. 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.079 Inside the bus driver is waiting to start his morning route. 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.040 The person in the woods crouches. They pull a paper 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.760 note out of the duffel bag and attach it to 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:31.040 a nearby tree branch. Then they go back to the 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.160 duffel bag and pull out the sniper rifle. They get 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.920 low to the ground and lay flat on their stomach. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.640 They set up the rifle on the cold, leafy floor 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.000 and set their aim towards the driver of the bus. 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.680 So now we get to the morning of October, which 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:59.679 is day number in the morning, this has retired Maryland 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.800 State at least Lieutenant David Reichenball. He says that a 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.640 Jamaican American bus driver named Conrad Johnson was training a 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.679 new female driver. Johnson was standing up just inside the 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.440 entrance of the bus, on the other side of the 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.760 meter where riders pay. He was talking to the trainee 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.840 and getting ready to start his day. As he was 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:25.680 prepping his bus, he was shot and killed. The shot 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:31.240 came from a wooded area. This bus stop shooting would 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.120 be the thirteenth attacks since October two. I visited the 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.360 spot and was joined by Nick to Carlo, a retired 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:42.400 Montgomery County detective sergeant who responded to the shooting that morning. 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.000 I learned from officers on the scene what happened, who 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.720 the victim is, and where he's been transported. And we 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.800 have one witness. I have one of my investigators take 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.000 a statement from that witness that would have been the woman, 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.280 the trainee who was on the bus with Conrad Onto 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.320 One of the keys at this point in time in 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.960 the task force was the as you know, the involvement 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.439 of federal agencies, one of those agencies being the a 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.000 t F. Once we had a t F come on 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:17.280 the scene, they used their laser technology to give us 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:21.560 a trajectory show us exactly where the shot came from. 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:23.440 That led us to the edge of the woods. Here 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.559 I orchestrated and conducted a line search of probably about 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:33.400 twenty to thirty officers agents along this wood line, and 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:39.360 so we went I'm gonna say thirty yards into the woods, 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.880 where we found a note stuck on a tree limb, 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.800 and we also found a discarded duffel bag, which would 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:51.600 have been useful in carrying a long gun. To Carlo 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.960 remembers that this shooting felt like coming full circle. The 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.360 bus stop was only a mile down the road from 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.560 the very first shooting where James Martin was killed at 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.520 the Shopper's food warehouse. De Carlo had also been on 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.240 that scene three weeks prior. He says, police had learned 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.920 a lot of lessons between then and now. A homicide 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:17.840 involving a rifle in the outdoors very unusual, But when 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.840 you use a high powered weapon like that, your crime 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.320 scene has to expand. If you know that's what you're 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.880 dealing with, the scope of your crime scene grows immensely 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.360 now that we knew what we were dealing with. Fast 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:34.440 forward to Mr Johnson and this scene. We knew we 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.800 were dealing with a large area that had to be 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.760 closed off in a number of different directions, and a 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.480 lot further than you typically would do at a homicide. 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.880 By the time they had finished searching the scene, they 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.520 had found a duffel bag, a single glove, and another 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.920 note attached to a treat in the woods. Here's David 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:02.080 reichenba again again a notice found. This time it's an 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:07.040 angry note for you, Mr Police, call me God, do 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.560 not release to the press. You did not respond to 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:14.200 the message. You departed from what we told you to say, 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.880 and you departed from the time. Your incompetence has cost 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.320 you another life. You haven't toiled nine am to deliver 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.280 the money and until eight a m. To deliver this 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:28.560 response to let us know that you have our demands. Quote, 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.880 we have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose. 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.000 The same red sticky stars on top of the note 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.400 claiming that you know we we screwed him over and 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.800 we weren't talking to them, and the body counts from 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.280 then on was on us, not on them. The notes 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.080 had new deadlines for a phone call and for money, 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.520 but by the time police had secured and read the note, 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.440 they'd missed the deadline. The note also told police to 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.800 send a false message to the public that police had 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.800 caught the snipers like a duck in a noose. That's 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.800 where the media comes back in, because now we send 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:12.280 Chief Moose back out giving them some phrases that they 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.240 put on the note so that they know we were serious. 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.880 One of the phrases that the chief used, and I'm 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.680 sure the media was maybe a little astonished by it, 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.000 was you asked us to say, quote, we have called 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.600 the sniper like a duck in a noose. End quote. 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.400 We understand that hearing us say this is important to you. However, 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.280 we want you to know how difficult it has been 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.840 to understand what you want because you have chosen to 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:46.040 use only notes, indirect messages, and calls to other jurisdictions. 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:50.240 The solution remains to call us and get a private 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.760 toll free number established just for you. If you are 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.400 reluctant to contact us, be assured that we main ready 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.720 to talk directly with you. Our word is out bind 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.280 let's talk directly. We're waiting for you to contact us, 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.520 sort of giving them Okay, now we give we know 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.560 you're in charge. We're gonna do whatever it is you 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.159 want us to do, but we need you to call us, 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:22.280 so reach out to us. We'll make it work. Basically, 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.359 what the chief was trying to do was bide some 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.560 more time for us to track these guys down because 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.240 the chief knew that, you know, all the leadership knew 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.280 that we were starting to focus. We now knew their names, 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.560 so we were trying to communicate through the media back 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:40.560 to the snipers to have them reach out to us. 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:44.040 That was a role that the news media willingly but 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:49.040 cautiously took on. Here's Channel nine reporter Dave Stanner, A 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.200 lot of information was being transmitted through the news media. 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.719 We didn't know if the snipers were paying attention to 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.520 us in the news, but it was clear that we 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.119 were getting information out there that could be going to 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.560 the snipers specifically. We knew we had a responsibility to 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:06.800 be as accurate as we can be, as we always are. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.080 But Statter says local journalists don't want to just regurgitate 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.480 what police were telling them. He says, sometimes police have 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.399 an agenda and they put out false information as a 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.960 means to an end, and so the media has to 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:24.199 be careful if they were to broadcast false information it 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.880 would blow back on them and not law enforcement. When 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.639 you are the news media and you're a reporter, you 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.680 don't want to become the news and that's for sure. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:39.000 Still Channel nine and other local stations aired nearly every 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.800 press conference by Montgomery County Police. In another press conference 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:48.520 that day on October, Chief Moose revealed the contents of 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.920 the previous letter found up the ponder Rosa steakhouse shooting 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.400 in Ashlyn, Virginia. There continues to be a great deal 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.760 of speculation as to a reference a threat in the 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.560 usage previously received. As stated earlier, everyone knows that all 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.919 of our citizens are and have been at risk. We 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:13.480 recognize the concerns of the community, and therefore are going 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:17.200 to provide the exact language in the message that pertains 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:22.680 to the threat. Your children are not safe anywhere at 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:26.640 any time. My impression of why Charles Moose went out 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.320 with that information was one he likely knew it was 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:31.200 going to leak out to the press, and in fact 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.320 it already had started leaking out to the press, including me. Also, 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.399 they knew if there's a specific threat to children, and 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:40.840 they didn't let the public know there's a specific threat 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.640 to children, that this could be a problem for them 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.719 down the road. Chief Moose also indirectly referenced the demand 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.960 from the ponderous a letter that money be deposited into 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:55.080 a credit card the snipers were supposedly carrying. The sniper's 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.959 request for ten million dollars had not been made public, 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.679 but Statter says it had leaked to the media. It 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.640 seemed bizarre to us as reporters. Suddenly there's a request 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.280 for a large amount of money, ten million dollars, and 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.879 we can't make sense of it. We know that to 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.640 get that money, you're going to have to somehow show 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.760 yourself clearly you don't want to be caught from what 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.760 you're doing. Now, all of it's not making a lot 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.280 of sense to us. What's the motive behind this? Was 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.600 it really money? But police we didn't know at the time. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.840 We're actually getting a little bit closer and what this 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:36.280 was about. The media didn't know it yet, but police 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:40.280 had made significant progress on tracking down the snipers, now 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.160 believed to be John Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malbo. Here's 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.040 former FBI agent Linda Hooper. Again, it certainly looked like 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:53.200 they were two viable suspects in this case. But we 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:58.119 had no information that they were in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:02.680 DC area at all. What they did is they were 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.960 looking for that name, John Mohammed. Had that name ever 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:12.320 been queried by any law enforcement in our area? And 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:16.280 it's called an offline search. And based on that offline search, 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:22.000 they got information that in Silver Spring, Maryland, day queried 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:44.440 John Mohammed October two, early in the morning, U. S. 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.159 Marshall Billy Serrucas asked the FBI to find out if 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:52.119 John Mohammed where Lee Boyd Malvo had any interactions with 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.120 law enforcement in the DC area. So the FBI went 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.320 to n c i C, the National Crime and Information 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.120 Center in c i C has one of the most 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:06.119 extensive crime related databases in the country. Police use this 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:08.840 database to get information on a driver when they run 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:12.439 a tag, that information comes back, who the owner of 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:16.119 the car is, information on that person in criminal history, 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:18.320 that sort of thing. We didn't have any of that. 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.960 This is former FBI agent Linda Hooper. She says that 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.800 because they didn't have a tag number to run, and 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.520 they couldn't access Mohammed's vehicle history, but they could do 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.320 an offline search or reverse in c I S to 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:35.920 see if John Mohammed's name had come up in any 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:41.119 local police reports, and they're able to get information that 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:45.960 you couldn't get through running it through your dispatcher. As 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.879 a result of the offline search, the FBI discovered that 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.240 John Mohammed had been pulled over in Silver Spring, Maryland, 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:56.919 as well as in multiple other nearby locations in the 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:01.639 last month. Here's retired Montgomery County pol He's commander Drew Tracy, 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:05.520 and one of the most important traffic stops was in Baltimore, Maryland, 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:10.359 where John Mohammed was stopped by a patrol officer and 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:13.439 he ran him and I find very correctly. John Mohammed 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:17.080 was saying, oh, he's out visiting relatives and he was tired. 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:20.480 He was sleeping at the gas station. From that traffic stop, 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:25.080 we got information. Police learned that John Mohammed had been 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:30.040 pulled over on October eight in Baltimore, Maryland. Shortly after 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:34.280 the officers stopped John Mohammed, he cued his dispatch microphone. 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:38.159 Over the radio, he announced the make and model of 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.760 the car, as well as the license plate number. But 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.120 the recording of that dispatch call was hidden. An hour's 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:48.800 worth of tape Deputy Marshall's listened to more than five 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:52.240 hours of police radio call tapes before they heard the transmission. 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.320 They were searching for an officer reading off the license 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:59.240 and description of the car. Well, the information that came 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:03.040 back was this was driving this blue Chevrolet Caprices with 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:07.479 new Jersey tags, and they provided the tag number for it. 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:14.640 The snipers were driving a blue Chevrolet Caprice with new 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:20.320 Jersey tags. Chevy Caprices are long, boxy cars with big trunks, 0:24:20.960 --> 0:24:23.520 and they were used by many law enforcement agencies in 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:27.800 the ninety nineties as police cars. David Reichenball says that 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:30.879 even though the Caprice was stopped multiple times during the 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:35.320 sniper investigation, police had no reason to suspect that it 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:38.560 was involved in the shootings. There were no warrants, no 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:42.320 reason to stop the vehicle, and after all, we're all 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:45.440 looking for white vans and white trucks. We had stopped 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:48.639 every white van in three states at least three times. 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:52.680 They're not in a white van. Police had spotted them 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:56.560 either before or after the shootings and just didn't make 0:24:56.600 --> 0:24:59.920 the connection because we were so focused on the white 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:04.520 vans and the white trucks. But by October law enforcement 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.879 had the snipers names, their car, and their license plate number, 0:25:09.520 --> 0:25:12.560 and although they couldn't directly connect Mohammed to the crimes, 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:15.240 they were able to secure a warrant for his arrest. 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:19.640 That day was really spent putting everything that we had together. 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:23.119 By about nine thirty ten o'clock at night, we had it. 0:25:23.600 --> 0:25:25.760 We knew who we were looking for, we knew what 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:30.480 they were in. We just didn't know where to find them. 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:33.480 So the next move was to inform everyone involved in 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:38.360 the investigation. Here's former FBI agent Linda Hooper. Again. They 0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:41.760 put a bolo out beyond the lookout to tell all 0:25:41.840 --> 0:25:46.280 law enforcements, and not just in Maryland and Virginia, but 0:25:46.400 --> 0:25:49.560 to tell all law enforcements. If you see this blue 0:25:49.640 --> 0:25:53.040 Chevy Caprice with these new jersey tags, you need to 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:57.080 pull it over and identify it. There's a John Mohammed 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:01.159 driving it, and then there's an arrest forrant warm so 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:05.840 that it goes out so everybody knows, and then like 0:26:05.960 --> 0:26:10.439 at every briefing at every police department, particularly in the area, okay, 0:26:10.480 --> 0:26:14.240 this is what we're looking for. Tonight. As I recall, 0:26:14.320 --> 0:26:19.560 we had over twenty three police agencies involved the nets, local, state, county, 0:26:19.600 --> 0:26:24.760 federal We had at the height over a thousand police 0:26:24.760 --> 0:26:30.240