The Teen Assasin Who Killed 17 People 

on the 7th of october 2002 a nurse drops her 13 year old nephew iran brown in front of benjamin tasker middle school in bowie maryland less than a second later a bullet from a long-range rifle tears through his abdomen and leaves him bleeding on the floor as his aunt nurse races against time bound for the emergency room praying that her nephew will survive the first question on anyone’s mind would be why why would anyone target a child with that amount of firepower but iran brown’s aunt knew better there was no method to this madness her nephew
was just another unfortunate yet random victim of a coordinated killing spree that was ravaging the washington metropolitan area and as the police would rightfully fear her sweet nephew wouldn’t be the last or welcome back to twisted minds my name is james and today we are going to deep dive into the cold and dreadful violent case of the dc snipers [Music] from a sinister perspective the events of the dc sniper case couldn’t be more timely in the year 2002 americans were still recovering from both the shock of
9 11 and the anthrax attacks so when some unknown snipers started gunning people at random on the streets of dc in that same year it was as if someone had revived a very familiar fear [Music] our case begins in montgomery county a peaceful suburban town just north of washington dc the county was known for its affluent residents serene and safe environment the ideal bubble for raising kids in an increasingly violent america however on the 2nd of october 2002 that bubble would burst at around 7 41 am a family man named james martin was
getting groceries for his wife and an 11 year old son when a high caliber bullet ripped through his chest he died within minutes at the time of the shooting the police were confused this was not the kind of crime one would expect in a neighborhood like theirs it had never happened in the county before and this would be an unexpected first the police combed the area for bullet casings but they didn’t find anything no evidence no clues just questions on the 3rd of october while police were still pondering the killing of the day before
an emergency call came out that cut the montgomery police department where it hurt a woman had spotted her neighbor bleeding on his lawn next to his lawnmower the victim was sonny buchanan and he was the son of former montgomery county police officer the woman thought it was the lawnmower that had cut him but when paramedics arrived they quickly realized that it was far from a domestic incident like james martin from the day before sonny buchanan had also been shot in the chest and by the time he got to the emergency
room his body was completely drained of blood at this point the situation was putting the police on edge the case was escalating a little too quickly for them to catch up [Music] less than an hour later at around 8 12 a.m another emergency call came in this time it was a 54 year old taxi driver named prem kumar waklekar prem was pumping gas when a bullet tore through his chest also killing him two brutal murders in under an hour the pd was in an uproar and yet the killings were not even done for the morning as the police rushed to
the site of that scene with just 30 minutes from the last murder another call came in this time it was sarah ramos a 34 year old babysitter she was waiting at a bus stop on a bench reading a book when a bullet shattered her skull and exited through her neck someone was targeting citizens and they didn’t know who or why radio traffic tore through airwaves as police rushed to the scenes of the crime if they were confused and concerned before now they were getting pretty desperate in just two hours three brutal
murders had occurred and they were clueless as the relatives of targeted citizens had begun demanding answers and yet the killings were still not over a little over an hour later at exactly 9 58 am a 25 year old lady lori ann louis rivera was vacuuming cheerios from her vehicle at a shell petrol station when a bullet also took her life for the first time ever the suburb was witnessing carnage unlike anything they had ever seen before as word spread amongst residents so did the fear later that night at around 9 30 p.m the killer took
out their final victim for the day pascal charlotte a 72 year old retired carpenter who was taking a stroll on georgia avenue at kalmia road in washington dc a county that had been used to witnessing violence on a tv screen now had it served violently to them on their doorstep [Music] after the end of an unbelievably bloody day the police began to establish their findings all the shootings happened so far had happened within a 25 kilometer radius all victims had been killed by a single high caliber bullet which
indicated that the killer was a sniper and this sniper was experienced and tidy he would strike then vanish into thin air leaving no clue behind with the victims there was no connection while the killings were coordinated it still appeared random there was no discrimination amongst the victims that would suggest a biased execution pasquel was black and elderly lori ann lewis was both young and white both completely unrelated and both sharing no ties it doesn’t get more random than that it was like the sniper was playing the lottery
with lives those that were murdered were just at the wrong place at the wrong time also these victims were not robbed which also made the motive of the sniper more obscure still police deployed swat teams into the community undercover cops were sent into areas where the violence had occurred and its surrounding areas the police also worked with the best snipers to determine how this killer was operating how did the killer wreak those attacks undetected it was the suburb so there were no woods in any of the kill
spots and no tall buildings that they could have used to shoot from it was during these debates amongst themselves that the police realized that the killer might be in a vehicle a witness had spoken of a white panel truck in the area when the fourth victim was killed according to the witness after sarah ramos got a bullet through the head they saw a white panel pickup truck leaving the vicinity immediately the police kicked into action and began searching every white van and every white panel pickup truck they could find as police
searched for the van the five bodies were taken in for autopsy the community was paralyzed with fear in less than 48 hours six innocent people had been killed and yet the police had no suspects no motive and no clues however the worst feeling was the fact that every resident felt like they could be the next victim to suffer the sniper’s bullet the montgomery county police chief charles moos assigned his most qualified detective barney forsyth to lead the investigation their first major decision was to share as much
information they could with the public schools went into lockdown armed guards patrolled the vicinity and the first clues presented itself the bullets were traced to a long-range rifle a weapon like a bushmaster now bushmasters are the kind of military rifles that are designed for one specific purpose in the hands of anyone even the untrained the weapon could be lethal after the trajectory analysis came in it confirmed the police’s earlier fears the bullet was coming from someone on the ground not from any rooftops or elevated
pedestal the person was mobile and this led to the next suspicion there were two individuals involved in this mindless mayhem when the community caught wind of the fact that an armed sniper was hiding in a vehicle the residents of washington entered into a state of panic the press didn’t help either there were speculations in the paper on the news and they were mostly pointing in one direction the infamous al-qaeda it seemed like a convenient explanation and there was no way to confirm it but that didn’t stop the press from stoking fear
[Music] the next day october 4th the sniper changed tactics and moved south of washington the victim of the day was caroline seawell a 43 year old homemaker she was loading packages into her minivan in the parking lot of michael’s craft store in fredericksburg virginia when the cold bullet of the deranged sniper tore through her abdomen as she lied on the floor bleeding she prayed that she would live for her two children thankfully she survived this marked the first survivor of the october attacks once again the police were left with
nothing the criminals had once again vanished detectives were mystified no physical description no good eyewitnesses it was like they were chasing a ghost it was at this junction that police chief moose decided to throw all of his weight on the public he called out to them for help a tip line was released and immediately it was overwhelmed by callers some people were convinced that they had seen something relating to the sniper and others had ideas of how to catch the criminals at one point the police department received
over a hundred thousand tips detectives began working around the clock trying to follow every worthwhile lead they noticed that the attacks were close to roadways strip malls and certain stores they also noticed that the killer or killers were very familiar with the traffic patterns in the area after studying these movements closely the police devised a method for trapping the sniper they called it the concentric circle plan and it would involve the immediate deployment of a response team at the ring of an emergency call once
the emergency call comes in the police team would create a trap consisting of a series of widening circles around whatever area the shooting happened they would roadblock every exit and floor in the premise with plainclothes operative in the first two days the shootings had been contained within the montgomery axes however with the killing in virginia the radius had expanded the killer could be anywhere there was a debate about whether schools should remain open or not so far no child had been targeted by the sniper so it was
decided that schools would remain open but kids would remain indoors there would be no recess the authorities believed this would keep the kids safe [Music] on the 7th of october a 13 year old iran brown had been kicked off his school bus for eating candy his aunt now had the task of dropping him off she dropped him off in front of school an hour early because she was getting late for work and that is when it happened the sniper gunned down the 13 year old and left him bleeding on the pavement his aunt raced through traffic and was
able to get her nephew into an emergency room the boy eventually became the second survivor of the dc sniper but the gravity of the situation was not lost on anyone the president of the united states at the time george bush condemned the attack sniper attacks uh first of all i’m just sick sick to my stomach to think that there is a cold-blooded killer at home taking innocent life you know the idea of moms taking their kids to school and sheltering them from a potential sniper attack is not the american i know the police department was devastated
targeting a child that was lower than anyone had expected in the five days since the mayhem began there had been seven shooting incidents in the washington dc area now the fbi got in on the case a 200 000 reward was offered to anyone who had information concerning the shootings the fbi would soon suspect that this was not the antics of just one killer but rather a duo or group of vicious criminals investigators also undertook what was called a forensic walk which involved them walking slowly shoulder to shoulder through the area
around the shooting they found a flattened out area in the shrubs that looked like someone had laid there however the most intriguing find was a mysterious tarot card that had a direct message for the police it read for you mr police code call me god do not release to the press the eeriness of this message wasn’t lost on the police these killers were not asking for anything still and that was a problem however it was a step in the right direction the police could establish a line of communication the police also
wanted to honor the requests of the killers they weren’t going to leak anything to the press however that was next to impossible and by the next day it was on the front page of the washington post on the 9th of october 53 year old vet dean myers was driving home on his way from virginia to maryland it was around 8 p.
m that night he had stopped to get gas and was pumping it into his car when a 223 caliber bullet ripped through his skull the police responded by deploying more than 200 investigators to the case on the 11th of october ken bridges was also at a petrol station in virginia when he was shot by a sniper by the 14th the fbi were the ones who took a hit ted franklin and his wife linda were loading some newly acquired shelves into their vehicle linda was an fbi analyst remarried a mother of one and an expected grandmother all it took for her to be a victim was to stand still for
some seconds as her husband tried to find a way to fit in the shelves a bullet blew off the right side of her head she was the 11th victim of the dc sniper the fbi responded by lobbying the department of defense to approve the use of sophisticated military spy planes with high-tech surveillance gear to hunt down the sniper meanwhile the police released sketches of a white van eventually on the 16th of october hope arrived in the form of a witness a man named matthew dowdy gave a description of a middle eastern man taking a shot he
said he saw a hardware store close to the vicinity he also reported that he had seen a white or cream-colored van with a burnt out rear light the police immediately informed the public to be on the lookout however two days later a detective was reviewing the surveillance tapes from the hardware store when they noticed that dowdy had appeared on the videotape at 9 21 pm which was three minutes after the shooting there was no way he could have seen the killer matthew dowdy was just hungry for media attention and he was promptly arrested
once again the investigators were back to square one the police ran through all the suspects in surveillance tapes and came up with absolutely nothing however there was still another silver lining a man named robert holmes was watching coverage of the dc sniper shootings when he had something of an epiphany he realized that the killer might have been his buddy john muhammad from their days in the army he also remembered that jon owned a long-range rifle like the one in the news if jon was the dc sniper then robert
could also establish a motive [Music] no matter how far fetched it might have sounded jon had an estranged wife who had taken custody of their kids and moved to the dc washington area so robert holmes called the tip line but unfortunately his tip was missed during the same time the sniper was also trying to communicate with the police but he couldn’t there were just too many tips coming in to make the situation more complicated there were multiple callers who were also trying to take credit for the crimes so the killer began to get
desperate as twisted as this might sound he became concerned that someone else was going to take praise for all of the killings so the next time he called he brought up an unsolved shooting in montgomery alabama that happened earlier that year and asked the police to look into the shooting the police called montgomery and found out that it was a robbery homicide and that the gun used in the crime was not a high caliber rifle the police didn’t see any connections aside from the different weapons used the sniper hadn’t robbed any of his
victims so it didn’t stick and the police disregarded the caller on the 9th of october jeff hopper and his wife stephanie were driving to their home in florida when they pulled off the interstate highway some 150 kilometers south of washington to fill up their car and have dinner in their minds they were clear of the danger zone they finished their dinner held hands and made their way to the car when they heard a gunshot it took a moment for jeff to realize that he had been shot in the abdomen and it took five operations and another 18 days for
him to survive the attempt on his life this would mark the third survivor of the dc snipers during the investigation on this particular shooting an atf dog found a bullet casing and a note tacked to a tree in the woods near the restaurant the killer was making a very direct method of communication the note was tucked inside a ziploc bag and that was how the killer slipped this is because police found the dna on the ziploc bag unfortunately the dna didn’t match anyone in the fbi’s database in the note there was a message it had the same call
me god calling card of the killer and this time for the first time the killer was demanding money specifically 10 million that would be deposited in a bank account it was at that point that the police knew they would catch the killer the sniper also wrote that at six am they would call the restaurant where jeffrey hopper was shot the police department got ready for the call on the morning of the 21st of october the phone rang and finally police and the sniper were in direct contact the sniper told police to follow the content
in the note they had to follow all of his demands or more people would be killed then he ended the note with a chilling warning p.s your children are not safe the police were able to track the call to a petrol station there they arrested two men one of the men was driving a white panel truck they fit the description but it turned out that they were just illegal immigrants who happened to be near the phone at the wrong time in the sniper’s note there was also the mention of the alabama shooting so the police decided to call
alabama once more and this time they broke through a brick wall in the case it happens that a magazine had been dropped at the crime scene and it had a fingerprint on it which the local officer had not yet processed the magazine was immediately flown to washington and the fingerprint got a match a boy named lee boyd malvel lee boyd malvo was a 17 year old jamaican who had been fingerprinted by immigration officers in washington this find was a combination of luck diligence and stupidity on the part of the sniper the police were banking on
more stupidity on his part however they believed the teenager was just an accomplice on the 22nd of october in the heart of montgomery county a bus driver named conrad johnson was preparing for the morning commuter run when the killer added him to his rap sheet conrad johnson just 35 was a father of two the cold-hearted killer tacked a new message to a tree that read your incompetence has cost you another life as infuriating as the message was the police channeled it into their search efforts they had a confirmed fingerprint
they had a picture that all linked to the teenager lee boyd malvo the fbi came with some in-depth info concerning the kit aside from his immigration status it was also revealed that there had been a custody battle between malvo’s mother and an african-american named john muhammad muhammad had helped malvo and his mom illegally cross from the caribbean into the u.
s and since then lee malvo and john muhammed had passed off as father and son the fbi were also able to filter through the tips and uncover the tip of robert holmes muhammad’s friend his tip literally tied up all the ends john muhammed was robert holmes longtime friend from the army they were very close when robert heard the voice of the serial killer he immediately recognized him to be lee malvo a kid that had been hanging out with muhammad to tie things up neatly holmes also gave the police a possible motive he said that jon had lost custody of his kids to his ex-wife
mildred who had relocated the kids to washington to avoid as much of john’s eccentricities as she could days and weeks of dead ends disappeared in an instant the police were able to get comprehensive details of both suspects including their vehicle that was registered to john muhammad a blue chevy caprice the police immediately put out the word citizens should watch out for a blue chevy caprice a day after the police put out the call on the 24th of october whitney donahue was working late when he was too tired
to continue and decided to go home the time was 11 39 pm and the home was still hours ahead so he decided to turn on the radio to help him stay awake while driving this is when he heard the announcement the police were looking for a blue chevy caprice whitney had owned a chevy caprice in the past so he knew what it would look like if he saw one subconsciously he started checking out the cars as he went in toward the beltway and when he got on route 70 he decided to stop at the rest area on south mountain that was when he saw it a dark blue
chevy caprice it perfectly fits the description so he pulled up in front of the vehicle picked up his cell phone and called 911. lee malvo and john muhammad were asleep in the vehicle when the full force of the police descended upon them 21 days of senseless terror had finally come to an end [Music] lee malvo was just a 17 year old teenager at the time and john allen muhammad was a 40 year old man it was found that jon had trained him for weeks to execute the crimes also before the shootings in october muhammad and malvo
had also shot six people between february to around october the shootings were so few and far in between when compared to the october serial shootings that the killers were able to slip under the radar undetected through the october killings they had drilled a hole in the trunk of the caprice that allowed for lee malvo to contort himself as john muhammed took the wheels during interrogations malvo refused to talk at first however when he began talking he would begin to brag he talked about how he would fast before each killing
because it improved his aim he also spoke about how they planned to execute five killings in one day in an effort to overwhelm the police then he began speaking about his relationship with john allen muhammad sometimes he would call him father and other times he would call him his best friend he said that muhammad taught him everything he knew the investigators believed the killing spree was a twisted plot by john muhammad to kill his ex-wife and get his children back their first victim in february was the niece
of a friend of his ex-wife who had convinced her to relocate to washington his plan must have been to include her as one of the random victims thereby giving him a path toward reclaiming his kids muhammad neither confirmed or denied this theory and it fell through the court because there was not enough evidence to back up the claim however john tried representing himself but that turned out to be a crucial nail in his almost certain coffin in 2004 john allen was later sentenced to death by a virginia court and on the 10th of
november he was executed by lethal injection [Music] on the other hand lee malvo continued to spill in his testimony he spoke about muhammad’s multi-phase plan phase one consisted of meticulous planning they were supposed to kill six white people a day for 30 days but that didn’t work out because several logistical issues like heavy traffic a clear line of shot and an escape route at their kill spots they ended up resorting to the equally devastating mayhem of october then there was also phase two that was supposed to
happen after the events of october in baltimore maryland these sick and twisted individuals plan to kill a pregnant woman by shooting her in the stomach then they would shoot a baltimore police officer after which they would plant and detonate the funeral service which would have several other officers present the third and last phase was where the 10 million would come in handy they were going to extort millions from the u.
s government then travel north to canada somewhere along the way they would stop at an orphanage or ymca and recruit impressionable young black boys which jon would then brainwash as he did for malvo after which they would go all the way to canada train in weapons and stealth then unleash unprecedented chaos in many different cities in america thankfully none of that happened the seventeen-year-old lee boyd malvo received a life sentence two years later a maryland court sentenced him to six consecutive life terms and the carnage
of october 2002 was filed into the annals of history thanks for tuning in to twisted minds that was the case of the dc sniper and why don’t you go ahead and click on one of the two videos on your screen for another amazing video