0:00

Welcome to Monster DC Sniper,

0:02

a production of I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot

0:05

TV. The views and opinions expressed

0:07

in this podcast are solely those of the podcast

0:10

author or individuals participating

0:12

in the podcast, and do not represent those

0:14

of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or

0:16

their employees. Listener discretion

0:19

is advised. It

0:22

is February

0:24

six, two thousand and two,

0:27

and my niece is gone. This

0:29

is Ice and Nichols, the former accountant

0:32

for John and MILDRAA Mohammed. She

0:34

came home from grocery shopping one day

0:36

to find that her niece, Keenya

0:38

Cook, had been shot dead

0:40

in her kitchen. I just went

0:43

into a cold state.

0:45

I was just on auto pilot. My body

0:47

had just shut down. They

0:50

started roping off the house and I

0:52

saw where King's head had laid. The

0:54

bullet case it was still there, and I just saw

0:57

blood the back of her

0:59

head that just been blown out. Now

1:02

my house is a crime scene. We

1:05

go through burying Kenya

1:07

and our family is grieving. It's

1:10

a cold case, and we don't hear anything,

1:13

and we're trying to go on with our lives.

1:16

I'm no longer in the house at this point.

1:18

For several months. But

1:21

when I do move back into my home. But

1:23

we're trying to get back into

1:26

some sense of normality,

1:28

if there's such a thing. With my

1:30

husband and I, we were just going

1:33

through the motions and

1:37

one day I was at Bible study. This

1:40

is like the end of October. My

1:43

page is going off. It

1:46

was my husband. I go and

1:48

I returned. The colony says, what are you doing.

1:50

I said, I'm at Bible studies Thursday.

1:53

He said, have you looked at the TV?

1:55

I said, I just said I was at Bible study.

1:57

He said, no, no, no, no, no, you

2:00

need to go home. Meet me at

2:02

the house. And I'm like, what

2:04

what's going on? Need to just meet me at the house. I get

2:06

to the house and I turned on the TV

2:09

and we had been hearing about

2:12

these shootings on the East Coast.

2:15

We're hearing just shots of people

2:17

pumping gas. A child

2:20

was shot at school. We're

2:22

hearing about a woman getting shot in the head coming

2:24

out of home depot. I think she was an FBI

2:27

analyst. So where everybody's

2:29

like, whoa, this ain't it time to be traveling

2:31

to the East Coast. I actually

2:34

had clients who canceled flight plans

2:36

because this what's going on. We're

2:38

listening to all this news and stuff on the

2:40

West coast, and then I was sudden the

2:42

backyard of a duplex here in Tacoma,

2:45

carefully marked off in a grid

2:47

up pops a tree trump

2:50

at a former client's house for

2:52

almost nine hours, a deliberate

2:54

search by hand investigators sifting

2:57

through dirt, then sawing down a tree

2:59

stump and hurting it off evidence

3:01

believed to have been used for target practice,

3:04

possibly containing bullet fragments. There's

3:06

these helicopters flying

3:09

all over the Tacoma community.

3:12

There's FBI agency,

3:15

a t F Why

3:17

is the investigation coming to Washington?

3:20

The DC sniper? They are

3:22

actually saying it's linked

3:24

to Tacoma. At

3:26

that point, in my soul, in

3:29

my heart, in my mind, I

3:33

knew I was connected. I'm

3:35

on the couch and fetal position. The

3:38

next thing, you know, my husband comes home and

3:41

he said, that's what I was trying to tell you. It's John.

3:44

It's John. There

3:47

is a ruthless person on the loose.

3:49

What un nerves this community the most

3:51

is the randomness of the murders, ordinary

3:54

people doing ordinary things. They

3:57

killed the five people in one day, and

3:59

then when on the rampage for the next

4:01

month. It is quite a mystery. The

4:03

police say they have never had a crime quite

4:06

like this. Be careful, these guys

4:08

are using weapons that are going to go right straight

4:10

through our bulletproof vest.

4:15

From my Heart radio and Tenderfoot TV,

4:18

this is Monster DC Sniper.

4:25

October two two

4:28

it had been nearly three weeks since the DC

4:30

sniper attacks began. The

4:32

investigation had become the largest man

4:34

hunt in the nation's history, which

4:36

meant that expenses for every police

4:38

agency involved were skyrocketing.

4:41

Law enforcement had limited resources and

4:43

limited time to catch the killers, so

4:46

they had to act fast. Three

4:49

days had passed since Jeffrey Hopper became

4:52

the snipers twelve victim at a Ponderosa

4:54

Steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia. Since

4:57

that time, investigators had connected

4:59

the d Sea shootings to a liquor store robbery

5:02

in Montgomery, Alabama. There,

5:05

police found a fingerprint on an armor

5:07

like gun catalog. Federal

5:09

authorities ran that fingerprint through the database

5:12

of the Immigration and Naturalization Service,

5:14

or i n S, and they got

5:17

a match. The fingerprint

5:19

belonged to Lee Boyd Malvo. As

5:22

soon as we found out that his name was

5:24

referenced in an I n S file. We

5:26

had them pull the file so we could see what

5:28

was in it, and the other name that

5:30

came up in that file was actually

5:33

John Mohammed. This

5:36

is Linda Hooper. She was a supervisory

5:38

special agent for the FBI during the

5:40

sniper investigation. Hooper

5:42

immediately started to learn everything

5:44

she could about Malvo and Mohammed, and

5:48

in doing research on John

5:50

Mohammed, we found out that he had

5:52

been in the army. He certainly

5:54

knew weapons. The more

5:56

we dug into his background

5:58

and who he was, there was more and

6:01

more information on his

6:03

interest in weapons, his shooting

6:06

practice, shooting, target shooting, his

6:09

involvement with this young

6:11

boy, seventeen year old Malbow.

6:14

They weren't related, but Malvo

6:17

lived with him. He had a

6:19

very rough, to say the

6:21

least, early childhood and

6:23

not a good situation with his mother,

6:26

and he was kind of taken

6:28

in by John Mohammed. Much

6:31

of this information came from a man in Tacoma,

6:33

Washington named Robert Holmes. He

6:36

had called the Sniper Task Force with a tip

6:40

and he had said that he had had a friend that had left

6:42

the area that was a very

6:45

militant person, very upset

6:47

person. This is Michael

6:49

Myrick, a former lieutenant for the Montgomery,

6:51

Alabama Police. Myrick

6:54

says the tipster, Robert Holmes, was

6:56

a former friend of Mohammed's and

6:59

he had served in the Mill of Terry alongside

7:01

Mohammed. He described as just being

7:03

very unhappy with life. The guy

7:05

was very dangerous, and he said it

7:07

just bothers me that all this is happening. His

7:10

ex wife lives in the DC area,

7:13

and he said, uh. He left with an a R

7:15

fifteen Bushmaster rifle. He says, nothing

7:17

for nothing, But I'm just gonna let y'all know. Don't want

7:19

to sit on this information. And

7:22

he had a son named Lee. The

7:24

friend thought this was his son, at least step son, and

7:27

he said son was a very very good shot,

7:29

and they talked about snipers and they played

7:31

sniper games. I and

7:33

Nichols actually knew Robert Holmes,

7:35

the man in Tacoma who called in the tip about

7:37

John Mohammed, Well, John stayed

7:40

with him. He was a good friend John. They both were

7:42

in Fort Louis together in the military,

7:45

both of them former Army vets.

7:48

Holmes said that a few months before the shooting

7:50

started in d C. Mohammed stopped

7:53

by his house. He wanted to

7:55

test out a homemade silence or for a rifle,

7:58

and in order to see if it worked,

8:01

he had target practice in his backyard

8:03

in one of the trees. And

8:05

so that's why they were here getting the tree

8:08

trump and how the investigation

8:10

came here. The tip from Robert

8:13

Holmes effectively connected Washington

8:15

State to the DC sniper attacks. So

8:18

the Sniper task Force went to Tacoma.

8:21

They took the tree stump that Mohammed and Malbo

8:23

had supposedly used as target practice

8:25

for evidence. Following the bullet

8:27

trail, FBI agents are now focused

8:29

on this woodpilot in Olympia pieces of

8:31

potential evidence. The wood cut down

8:34

months ago from the backyard of this Tacoma

8:36

duplex. It's where John Alan Mohammed

8:38

once lived, and it's said to have used the tree

8:40

for target practice. Authorities

8:43

mapped a grid in the backyard and carefully

8:45

scammed for bullet fragments and shellcases,

8:47

then removed the stump from that tree sent

8:50

to the woodpile. NBC News

8:52

has learned evidence recovered here, including

8:54

the tree stump, has been analyzed that the

8:56

a t F lab in Maryland, and already

8:58

the evidence has been described just having quote

9:00

potential value. Again,

9:03

all this is happening not in days, it's

9:05

happening in hours. Now we had

9:07

a very very clear suspect to pursue

9:09

my name. Police

9:11

had quickly learned a lot about the pair, but

9:14

they weren't ready yet to name them the snipers.

9:17

Still, it fell to investigators

9:20

like they were finally zeroing in on their

9:22

targets. Meanwhile, I

9:25

said, Nichols was getting some answers about

9:27

the murder of her niece Keenya Cook.

9:31

Next thing I know, I get a knock at the door. It's the FBI

9:33

agent. Well, he confirms that

9:36

Lee and John were

9:38

in Tacoma during the time my niece

9:40

was murdered. And that's all I needed

9:42

to hear. That said to me

9:45

that they killed my niece. She

9:48

took a bullet mit for me. Nobody knew she was

9:50

leaving with me. She opens

9:52

the door and he lodges off his

9:55

weapon. I didn't realize

9:58

how he the caame

10:01

this diabolical evil

10:04

person. But Mohammed

10:07

and Malvo weren't done yet. While

10:09

the task force was making the connection to Washington

10:12

State, Mohammed and Malvo were

10:14

in Montgomery County, Maryland, and

10:17

they were planning their next attack. October

10:39

two. Aspen

10:41

Hill, Maryland. In Montgomery County,

10:44

it's early in the morning, so early

10:46

that it's still dark out. In

10:49

a dense wooded area, someone

10:51

is walking up a hill. They're

10:53

carrying a duffel bag with a sniper

10:56

rifle inside. Once

10:58

they reached the edge of the wood area, they

11:01

stopped at the opening.

11:04

They see an empty playground with rusty

11:06

slides, still swings and

11:09

old park benches, and

11:11

on the other side of the playground sits an

11:13

idle bus. Inside

11:16

the bus driver is waiting to start his morning

11:18

route. The person

11:21

in the woods crouches. They

11:23

pull a paper note out of the duffel bag

11:25

and attach it to a nearby tree branch. Then

11:30

they go back to the duffel bag and

11:32

pull out the sniper rifle. They

11:34

get low to the ground and lay flat

11:37

on their stomach. They set

11:39

up the rifle on the cold, leafy floor

11:43

and set their aim towards the driver

11:45

of the bus. So

11:50

now we get to the morning of October,

11:53

which is day number in

11:57

the morning, this has retired

11:59

Maryland State at least Lieutenant David Reichenball.

12:02

He says that a Jamaican American bus driver

12:04

named Conrad Johnson was training a

12:06

new female driver. Johnson

12:09

was standing up just inside the entrance

12:11

of the bus, on the other side

12:13

of the meter where riders pay. He

12:15

was talking to the trainee and getting

12:17

ready to start his day. As he was

12:19

prepping his bus, he was shot

12:22

and killed. The

12:25

shot came from a wooded

12:27

area. This bus

12:29

stop shooting would be the thirteenth

12:32

attacks since October two. I

12:34

visited the spot and was joined by Nick

12:36

to Carlo, a retired Montgomery

12:38

County detective sergeant who responded

12:41

to the shooting that morning. I

12:43

learned from officers on the scene what

12:46

happened, who the victim is, and

12:48

where he's been transported. And we

12:50

have one witness. I have one of my investigators

12:53

take a statement from that witness that would

12:55

have been the woman, the trainee

12:57

who was on the bus with Conrad Onto

13:00

One of the keys at this point in time

13:03

in the task force was the

13:05

as you know, the involvement of federal agencies,

13:08

one of those agencies being the a t F. Once

13:11

we had a t F come on the scene, they

13:13

used their laser technology

13:16

to give us a trajectory show

13:18

us exactly where the shot came from.

13:21

That led us to the edge of the woods. Here I

13:24

orchestrated and conducted a line search

13:26

of probably about twenty to thirty

13:29

officers agents along this wood

13:31

line, and so

13:33

we went I'm gonna say

13:36

thirty yards into the woods,

13:39

where we found a note stuck

13:42

on a tree limb, and we also found a discarded

13:44

duffel bag, which would

13:46

have been useful in carrying

13:49

a long gun. To Carlo

13:51

remembers that this shooting felt like coming

13:54

full circle. The bus

13:56

stop was only a mile down the road from

13:58

the very first shooting where James

14:00

Martin was killed at the Shopper's food warehouse.

14:04

De Carlo had also been on that scene

14:06

three weeks prior. He says,

14:08

police had learned a lot of lessons between

14:10

then and now. A homicide

14:12

involving a rifle in the outdoors

14:15

very unusual, But when

14:17

you use a high powered weapon like that, your

14:20

crime scene has to expand. If you

14:22

know that's what you're dealing with, the scope of

14:24

your crime scene grows immensely

14:27

now that we knew what we were dealing with. Fast

14:30

forward to Mr Johnson

14:32

and this scene. We knew we were

14:34

dealing with a large area that had to

14:36

be closed off in a number

14:38

of different directions, and a lot

14:41

further than you typically would do at a homicide.

14:47

By the time they had finished searching the scene,

14:50

they had found a duffel bag, a single

14:52

glove, and another note attached

14:55

to a treat in the woods. Here's

14:57

David reichenba again again

15:00

a notice found. This time it's an angry

15:02

note for you, Mr Police,

15:05

call me God, do not release

15:07

to the press. You did not

15:10

respond to the message. You departed

15:12

from what we told you to say, and

15:14

you departed from the time. Your

15:16

incompetence has cost you another life.

15:19

You haven't toiled nine am to deliver the

15:21

money and until eight a m. To

15:23

deliver this response to let us know

15:25

that you have our demands. Quote,

15:28

we have caught the sniper like a duck

15:31

in a noose. The same

15:33

red sticky stars on top of the note

15:36

claiming that you know we we screwed

15:38

him over and we weren't

15:40

talking to them, and the

15:42

body counts from then on was on us,

15:45

not on them. The notes

15:47

had new deadlines for a phone call

15:49

and for money, but by the time police

15:51

had secured and read the note, they'd

15:54

missed the deadline. The note also

15:56

told police to send a false message

15:58

to the public that police had caught

16:01

the snipers like a duck in a

16:03

noose. That's where the

16:05

media comes back in, because now we send

16:08

Chief Moose back out giving

16:10

them some phrases that they put

16:12

on the note so that they know we were serious.

16:15

One of the phrases that the chief used, and

16:17

I'm sure the media was maybe

16:20

a little astonished by it, was you

16:23

asked us to say, quote, we

16:25

have called the sniper like a

16:27

duck in a noose. End quote. We

16:30

understand that hearing us say this is

16:32

important to you. However, we

16:35

want you to know how difficult it has been

16:37

to understand what you want because

16:40

you have chosen to use only notes, indirect

16:43

messages, and calls to other

16:45

jurisdictions. The solution remains

16:48

to call us and get a private toll

16:50

free number established just for you.

16:53

If you are reluctant to contact us, be

16:55

assured that we main ready to talk directly

16:58

with you. Our word is

17:01

out bind let's talk directly.

17:04

We're waiting for you to contact us, sort

17:08

of giving them Okay, now we

17:10

give we know you're in charge. We're

17:12

gonna do whatever it is you want

17:14

us to do, but we need you to call

17:17

us, so reach out to us.

17:19

We'll make it work. Basically,

17:22

what the chief was trying to do was

17:24

bide some more time for

17:27

us to track these guys down

17:29

because the chief knew that, you know, all

17:31

the leadership knew that we were starting to focus. We

17:33

now knew their names, so we were

17:35

trying to communicate through the

17:37

media back to the snipers to have them reach

17:40

out to us. That was a role

17:42

that the news media willingly but cautiously

17:44

took on. Here's Channel nine

17:47

reporter Dave Stanner, A lot

17:49

of information was being transmitted through

17:51

the news media. We didn't know if

17:53

the snipers were paying attention to us

17:56

in the news, but it was clear that

17:58

we were getting information out there that could

18:00

be going to the snipers specifically. We

18:03

knew we had a responsibility to be as accurate

18:05

as we can be, as we always are. But

18:07

Statter says local journalists don't want

18:09

to just regurgitate what police were

18:12

telling them. He says, sometimes police

18:14

have an agenda and they put out false

18:16

information as a means to an end, and

18:19

so the media has to be careful if

18:21

they were to broadcast false information

18:24

it would blow back on them and

18:26

not law enforcement. When you are the

18:28

news media and you're a reporter, you

18:30

don't want to become the news and that's for sure.

18:34

Still Channel nine and other

18:36

local stations aired nearly every

18:39

press conference by Montgomery County

18:41

Police. In another press

18:43

conference that day on October, Chief

18:46

Moose revealed the contents of the previous

18:49

letter found up the ponder Rosa steakhouse

18:51

shooting in Ashlyn, Virginia. There

18:54

continues to be a great deal of speculation

18:56

as to a reference a threat

18:59

in the usage previously received.

19:02

As stated earlier, everyone knows that

19:04

all of our citizens are and have been

19:07

at risk. We recognize

19:09

the concerns of the community, and therefore

19:13

are going to provide the exact language in

19:15

the message that pertains to the

19:17

threat. Your children

19:20

are not safe anywhere at

19:22

any time. My

19:24

impression of why Charles Moose went out with that

19:26

information was one he likely

19:29

knew it was going to leak out to the press, and in fact

19:31

it already had started leaking out to the

19:33

press, including me. Also,

19:35

they knew if there's a specific threat to children,

19:38

and they didn't let the public know there's a specific

19:40

threat to children, that this could

19:42

be a problem for them down the road. Chief

19:45

Moose also indirectly referenced

19:47

the demand from the ponderous a letter that

19:49

money be deposited into a credit card

19:51

the snipers were supposedly carrying. The

19:54

sniper's request for ten million dollars

19:56

had not been made public, but Statter

19:59

says it had leaked to the media. It

20:01

seemed bizarre to us as reporters.

20:04

Suddenly there's a request for a

20:06

large amount of money, ten million dollars,

20:09

and we can't make sense of it.

20:12

We know that to get that money, you're going

20:14

to have to somehow show yourself clearly

20:17

you don't want to be caught from what you're doing. Now,

20:20

all of it's not making a lot of sense to us.

20:23

What's the motive behind this? Was

20:25

it really money? But police

20:27

we didn't know at the time. We're actually

20:29

getting a little bit closer and what this

20:31

was about. The

20:34

media didn't know it yet, but police

20:36

had made significant progress on tracking

20:38

down the snipers, now believed

20:40

to be John Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malbo.

20:43

Here's former FBI agent Linda Hooper.

20:45

Again, it certainly looked like

20:48

they were two viable suspects

20:51

in this case. But we

20:53

had no information that they

20:55

were in Maryland, Virginia, or

20:57

Washington, DC area at all. What

21:00

they did is they were

21:02

looking for that name, John Mohammed.

21:05

Had that name ever been

21:07

queried by any law enforcement

21:10

in our area? And

21:12

it's called an offline search. And

21:14

based on that offline search, they

21:17

got information that in Silver

21:19

Spring, Maryland, day queried

21:22

John Mohammed October

21:41

two, early in

21:43

the morning, U. S. Marshall Billy

21:45

Serrucas asked the FBI to

21:47

find out if John Mohammed where Lee

21:49

Boyd Malvo had any interactions

21:52

with law enforcement in the DC area.

21:55

So the FBI went to n c i C, the

21:57

National Crime and Information Center in

22:00

c i C has one of the most extensive

22:02

crime related databases in the country.

22:05

Police use this database to get information

22:07

on a driver when they run a tag, that

22:10

information comes back, who the owner

22:12

of the car is, information

22:14

on that person in criminal history, that sort

22:16

of thing. We didn't have any of that. This

22:19

is former FBI agent Linda Hooper.

22:22

She says that because they didn't have a tag

22:24

number to run, and they couldn't access

22:26

Mohammed's vehicle history, but

22:28

they could do an offline search or

22:31

reverse in c I S to see

22:33

if John Mohammed's name had come up in

22:35

any local police reports, and

22:37

they're able to get information

22:41

that you couldn't get through

22:43

running it through your dispatcher. As

22:46

a result of the offline search, the

22:48

FBI discovered that John Mohammed

22:50

had been pulled over in Silver Spring, Maryland,

22:53

as well as in multiple other nearby

22:55

locations in the last month. Here's

22:58

retired Montgomery County pol He's commander Drew

23:00

Tracy, and one of the most

23:02

important traffic stops was in Baltimore,

23:04

Maryland, where John Mohammed

23:07

was stopped by a patrol officer and

23:10

he ran him and I find very correctly.

23:12

John Mohammed was saying, oh, he's out visiting

23:15

relatives and he was tired. He was sleeping

23:17

at the gas station. From that traffic

23:20

stop, we got information. Police

23:23

learned that John Mohammed had been pulled

23:25

over on October eight in Baltimore,

23:28

Maryland. Shortly after the

23:30

officers stopped John Mohammed, he

23:32

cued his dispatch microphone. Over

23:35

the radio, he announced the make and

23:37

model of the car, as well as

23:39

the license plate number. But

23:41

the recording of that dispatch call was

23:44

hidden. An hour's worth of tape Deputy

23:47

Marshall's listened to more than five hours of

23:49

police radio call tapes before they heard

23:51

the transmission. They were searching for an

23:53

officer reading off the license and description

23:56

of the car. Well,

23:58

the information that came back was this was

24:00

driving this blue Chevrolet Caprices

24:02

with new Jersey tags, and

24:05

they provided the tag number for it. The

24:10

snipers were driving a blue Chevrolet

24:13

Caprice with new Jersey

24:15

tags. Chevy Caprices

24:17

are long, boxy cars with big

24:19

trunks, and they were used by many

24:22

law enforcement agencies in the ninety nineties

24:24

as police cars. David

24:26

Reichenball says that even though the Caprice

24:29

was stopped multiple times during the sniper

24:31

investigation, police had no

24:33

reason to suspect that it was

24:35

involved in the shootings. There

24:37

were no warrants, no reason to stop the

24:39

vehicle, and after all, we're

24:42

all looking for white vans and white trucks.

24:44

We had stopped every white van in

24:46

three states at least three times. They're

24:49

not in a white van. Police

24:51

had spotted them either before or after

24:53

the shootings and just didn't

24:56

make the connection because we were so focused

24:59

on the white vans and the white trucks.

25:01

But by October law

25:04

enforcement had the snipers names, their

25:06

car, and their license plate number,

25:09

and although they couldn't directly connect Mohammed

25:11

to the crimes, they were able to secure

25:14

a warrant for his arrest. That

25:16

day was really spent putting everything

25:18

that we had together. By about

25:20

nine thirty ten o'clock at night, we

25:22

had it. We knew who we were looking

25:24

for, we knew what they were in. We

25:27

just didn't know where to find

25:29

them. So the next move was to

25:31

inform everyone involved in the investigation.

25:35

Here's former FBI agent Linda Hooper.

25:37

Again. They put a bolo

25:39

out beyond the lookout to

25:41

tell all law enforcements, and

25:43

not just in Maryland and Virginia,

25:46

but to tell all law enforcements. If

25:48

you see this blue Chevy Caprice with

25:50

these new jersey tags, you need

25:53

to pull it over and identify

25:55

it. There's a John Mohammed driving it,

25:57

and then there's an arrest forrant warm

26:01

so that it goes out so

26:03

everybody knows, and then like

26:05

at every briefing at every police department,

26:08

particularly in the area, okay,

26:10

this is what we're looking for. Tonight. As

26:13

I recall, we had over twenty three police agencies

26:16

involved the nets, local, state, county,

26:19

federal We had at

26:21

the height over a thousand

26:24

police officers working this

26:26

case. It was around the

26:28

clock because we knew

26:31

these people were going to continue to kill

26:33

people until they were

26:35

stopped. The cooperation

26:38

among the agencies were unprecedented.

26:42

I had FBI officials

26:44

working for me as a state trooper,

26:46

I had county folks working for me. I

26:49

had my troopers taking orders from FBI.

26:52

It didn't matter. It was a

26:54

joint effort in every

26:56

true sense of the word. Then

27:00

the egos start to click in a little bit

27:02

and there became a bonut contention. When

27:05

do we release the information about

27:07

the caprice to the media.

27:10

There's a lot of reasons pro and

27:12

con pro. Obviously,

27:15

hey, we've got the eyes of the public out

27:17

there helping us find this blue caprice.

27:20

That's obvious. Public has a right

27:22

to know now this is what we're looking for.

27:24

Help us find them. The downside

27:27

of it was, Hey, the snipers

27:29

don't know that we've got them yet. They

27:31

don't know that we have them pinpointed. So

27:34

if we keep it secret, we've got a chance to

27:36

maybe gain that element of surprise. That

27:39

was a tough decision to make, right

27:41

and Ball says he wanted to release the information

27:44

before anyone else got hurt. In

27:46

his mind, the sooner the info went

27:48

out, the sooner they would find and catch

27:50

the killers. But not everyone

27:52

agreed, including the federal authorities.

27:56

At a task force meeting that night, righting

27:58

Ball says, all the different agencies

28:00

were arguing about what to do. So

28:03

he stepped out of the meeting to call Dave Mitchell,

28:06

Superintendent of the Maryland's State Police. Briefed

28:09

him on what we had and he very quickly

28:11

made the decision for me. We

28:13

don't care about anybody else. We're releasing

28:15

it. We're releasing it to the

28:18

media. We need to find

28:21

these guys, and we need to do it now.

28:23

And I said, Colonel, I'm going to be in trouble

28:26

when I go in here and tell these guys

28:28

that they're all Feds. He said,

28:30

well, you tell them it's from the order

28:32

of the governor that trumps them.

28:34

We're doing it. Get from flyers,

28:37

and in his words, get the hell out of there. I

28:40

said, yes, sir. The

28:45

license plate info went out to the media

28:48

and news outlets. We're getting ready to make it

28:50

public. Here's Channel Night reporter

28:53

Dave Stanner. They're making

28:55

the connection, and one of our

28:57

reporters, the same reporter who came

28:59

up with the Carrol card, Stacy Cohen, is

29:01

the first to find this information out for us

29:04

at Channel nine. She's got

29:06

sources telling her that they're getting

29:08

close, that they have names, and that

29:10

they have a vehicle that they're looking for. So

29:13

we knew that they had very specific information

29:15

that would soon come out, and it did come out that

29:17

they were looking for two people and they

29:19

were looking for a vehicle, this blue

29:21

Chevrolet Caprice. I

29:24

was actually in a restaurant at that point

29:26

eating dinner when this started to break, and I'm

29:28

talking to Stacy on the phone and seeing

29:30

Fox News on the TV. Brian wilson't

29:33

start to break the information. I called

29:35

our assignment desk. I said, you know, there's

29:37

a lot of specific information out here. I think

29:39

this is going to break tonight. Just my gut.

29:41

I'll work overnight and see if

29:43

it turns up anything in the Washington area. Meanwhile,

29:47

Statter says they had other leads to follow

29:49

up on. One of the places we

29:51

went to around midnight was Clinton,

29:54

Maryland. We had learned that

29:56

these shooters had a connection, or at least

29:58

one shooter, John Maha mommed to

30:01

his ex wife who lived in Clinton, Maryland, a

30:03

woman I believe her name was Mildred Well.

30:05

When we were investigating John Mohammed,

30:08

we discovered that he was divorced

30:11

and his wife, Mildred Mohammed,

30:14

was living in the area, and

30:16

that she had a restraining order against

30:18

him. They had three children. Mildred's

30:20

restraining order against John meant

30:23

that he couldn't carry firearms. So

30:25

once police received the tip from Robert

30:27

Holmes that Mohammed was carrying

30:29

a rifle, police could arrest

30:32

him and they could detain Melvo

30:34

as a material witness. When

30:36

I found out that she was living nearby

30:39

where these shootings had taken place,

30:42

I thought that we needed to go over and

30:44

interview her and offer

30:47

to move her and her children out

30:49

of their house. October

30:54

FBI and E. T.

30:57

F knock on my door and

30:59

they say, is Mildre Mohammed here?

31:02

Na? She not here? I

31:06

was scared. I didn't know what they want. Say,

31:08

Na, she not here? I said, what,

31:10

we really need to talk to her because we

31:13

need to ask her some questions. I

31:16

said, Okay, that's me. So

31:19

when was the last time you've

31:22

seen John Alan Mohammed,

31:25

and my palms began sweating. I

31:27

said, why are you asking me questions about

31:30

John? They said, well, we

31:33

just want to know when's the last time you've seen him.

31:36

I said September two

31:38

thousand one at any emergency

31:40

custody hearing in Tacoma, Washington.

31:44

And he says, we're gonna name

31:46

your ex husband as the

31:48

sniper. I said, what

31:51

John. My head hit the table.

31:54

They said yes, but but do you think

31:56

he would do something like this? I raised my head

31:59

and looked in the warner of the room and said,

32:01

well yeah.

32:05

They said, well, why would you think that?

32:08

I said, because we were watching a movie and

32:11

I don't remember the name of it. But he said,

32:14

I could take a small city terrorize

32:17

it. They would think it would be a

32:19

group of people and it would only be

32:21

me. I asked him,

32:23

while he do something like that? And he changed

32:25

the subject so

32:28

well, Ms Mohammed, would

32:30

you like to go into protective custody?

32:32

I said, you gotta ask me that. Well,

32:35

yes, ma'am, because some people don't want to go. I said,

32:37

okay, have you caught him yet, no,

32:40

ma'am. Do you know where he is? No,

32:43

ma'am, And you still have

32:45

to ask me. She accepted

32:48

our offer. We moved her

32:50

and her children to a hotel. We

32:53

get out of the house into

32:56

the car, drive

32:58

away in the media,

33:01

A convoy is

33:04

coming up. They

33:06

perched themselves around the house.

33:09

My neighbor said that you would have thought it

33:11

was daylight. They

33:13

took us to a hotel where I still don't

33:16

know where it is. We run

33:18

at their hotel room and an undercover capacity,

33:20

so her name was an associated with it

33:22

at all. And we just kept

33:24

her there and told us was over. And

33:29

I turned on the TV. And that was the first time

33:31

they showed John's picture on TV.

33:35

And I went up to the TV and put my hand

33:37

on it and say, what happened to you? My

33:41

son crying on one bed, my daughters

33:43

crying on the other. I

33:45

pulled them together. They cried themselves

33:48

to sleep. I got a pillow,

33:51

went in the bathroom, turned

33:53

on the water in the bathtub, sat

33:56

on the floor and screamed

33:58

in the pillow because

34:00

I didn't know what to do and

34:03

I didn't know who to call back.

34:08

At Mildry Mohammed's house in Clinton, Maryland,

34:11

reporter Dave Statter was part of the media

34:13

convoy that had showed up that night. We

34:16

pulled way back when we saw police were already

34:18

in the area, and police

34:20

were there to see if John Mohammed showed

34:22

up. Different news outlets broadcasted

34:25

the blue Caprice info at various

34:27

points throughout the night, and now

34:29

that the license plate had gone public, police

34:32

hoped that someone would spot the car and

34:35

call it a tip. While we were

34:37

down there in the Clinton area,

34:39

we got a call from a

34:41

photographer who worked at a TV station

34:43

in Baltimore, Maryland, who was heading home and

34:46

said, police have I seventy

34:48

shut down in Frederick

34:50

County, Maryland, and he believes

34:53

it's connected to the sniper shootings. Frederick

34:56

County is just northwest of Montgomery

34:58

County and Washington, d C. It's

35:00

where Maryland State Police Lieutenant David

35:02

Reichenba lived and he

35:04

was heading home that night. I guess

35:06

it was probably eleven thirty. I

35:08

switched over to UH Frederick Barrick

35:11

channel and I called the bar because I'm required,

35:14

and I said car six six to Frederick, be

35:16

advised, I'm in the area. The

35:18

duty sergeant, Sergeant Hunter Mark comes

35:20

on and says copy that six six two.

35:23

Can you go to secure channel one and

35:25

I knew something was up. I

35:28

switched over to Channel one and I

35:30

got on the radio and start

35:32

says, be advised, we've

35:35

got the broadcast out there. We just

35:37

heard it on the local AM radio station

35:39

five minutes ago. And I just

35:42

got a phone call. The nice

35:45

blue caprix that you're looking

35:47

for sitting at the rest area

35:50

dropped seventy web bound South

35:53

Mountain. They're in Frederick.

35:56

The snipers are in the rest area Myers

35:59

and next

36:03

time on Monster d C Sniper.

36:06

They had surprised for twenty

36:09

one days. Now we

36:11

had surprise. I

36:14

wasn't anticipating this ending well. Once

36:17

they realized they were cornered, I

36:19

knew we were in for a shootout. I just

36:22

knew it. I'm in the woodline, I'm listening.

36:24

I'm praying that there's no shots fired. My

36:27

heart's running a mile a minute, and I hear

36:29

the breaking of windows. I

36:32

remember feeling this immense relief and

36:34

then just disbelief when the

36:36

information came out that it was an older guy and

36:38

a young guy. Like a young guy, A

36:41

young guy did this? Why

36:43

this kid just looked at me with that

36:46

dead shark guy look the pal I'd

36:48

kill you and everybody here if I had the chance.

36:54

No, I don't way. When

36:56

the snipers starting at randomly shooting

36:58

people, nobody's said, oh, you know, this

37:00

could be related to what happened to Paul. Nobody.

37:03

Nobody had reason to think that until

37:06

they found my computer. Monster

37:13

DC Sniper is a fifteen episode

37:15

podcast hosted by Tony Harris

37:18

and produced by iHeart Radio and Tenderfoot

37:20

TV. Matt Frederick and Alex

37:22

Williams are executive producers on behalf

37:24

of I Heart Radio, alongside producers

37:27

Trevor Young, ben Kiebrick, and Josh

37:29

Thine. Payne Lindsay and Donald

37:31

Albright are executive producers on behalf

37:33

of Tenderfoot TV alongside

37:36

producers Meredith Steadman and Christina

37:38

Dana. Original music

37:40

is by Makeup and Vanity Set. If

37:43

you haven't already, be sure to check out the

37:45

first two seasons at Lanta Monster and

37:47

Monster the Zodiac Killer. If

37:49

you have questions or comments, email us

37:52

at Monster at i heeart Media dot

37:54

com, or you can call us at

37:56

one eight three three to eight

37:58

five six six six seven. Thanks

38:02

for listening. H