Because of the lack of connection between the shooting attacks that were to come and the previous crimes committed by Muhammad and Malvo, the “Beltway Sniper Attacks” began, almost without notice, on October 2, 2002 at 5:20pm with the attempted shooting of a person at a Michael’s craft store. The bullet missed and since no one was injured, no alarms were raised. Just about an hour later James Martin, 55, was killed in in the parking lot of a grocery store.
Then on the morning of October 3rd four people were killed in the span of two hours with the shootings taking place in Rockville, Aspen Hill, and Norbeck, Maryland. A fifth person was later killed in Silver Spring, MD. In each of the shootings the victims were killed by a single bullet fired from a distance and in each case the shooters fired and then promptly left the scene. This pattern was not detected until after the shootings that occurred on October 3rd. Initial reports had a white box truck placed at the scene of the crime but after the Silver Spring shooting it was reported that the vehicle was a blue Chevy Caprice. At this point the...
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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
