Editing D.C. sniper attacks (section)

===Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland===
[[File:D.C. Sniper 1990 Chevrolet Caprice Trunk.png|thumb|A hole was cut at the rear of the blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice driven by Muhammad and Malvo, as a firing port to be used during their attacks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0310/20/lad.11.html|date=October 20, 2003|work=CNN|publisher=Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.|title=Sniper Trial in Virginia Beach, Virginia Opens|last=Meserve|first=Jeanne|access-date=April 18, 2013|quote=The strongest piece of evidence in this case, the Bushmaster rifle, found with Muhammad and Malvo at the time of their arrest and linked through ballistics testing like this with Meyers' murder and other D.C. sniper slayings. The Chevy Caprice in which they were found had a sniper perch and firing port in the trunk.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203075953/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0310/20/lad.11.html|archive-date=February 3, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> This allowed them to remain hidden and escape the scene following their attacks.<!--<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/08/politics/lapd-attacks-dc-sniper|date=February 8, 2013|title=L.A. manhunt reminiscent of D.C. sniper case|last=Abdullah|first=Halimah|work=CNN|access-date=April 18, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218020411/http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/08/politics/lapd-attacks-dc-sniper|archive-date=February 18, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>-->]]

At 5:20{{nbsp}}p.m. on Wednesday, October 2, 2002, a shot was fired through the window of a [[Michaels]] craft store in [[Aspen Hill, Maryland]]. The bullet narrowly missed Ann Chapman, a cashier at the store. Since no one was injured, the shot was assumed to be random, and no serious alarms were raised.<ref name="baltimore-20021004"/> However, approximately one hour later, at 6:30{{nbsp}}p.m., James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst at [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|NOAA]], was shot and killed at 2201 Randolph Road, in the parking lot of a [[Shoppers Food Warehouse]] grocery store located in [[Glenmont, Maryland|Wheaton]].<ref name="wp20021004">{{cite news |date=October 4, 2002 |title=Arbitrary Victims, Identical Fate; County's Growing Diversity Reflected in Those Gunned Down |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/10/04/arbitrary-victims-identical-fate/1a20c0f5-d4df-4e7d-885c-35d02e487f11/}}</ref>

On the morning of October 3, four people were shot dead within a span of approximately two hours in [[Aspen Hill, Maryland|Aspen Hill]] and other nearby areas in [[Montgomery County, Maryland|Montgomery County]]. Another was killed that evening in the [[Takoma (Washington, D.C.)|Takoma]] neighborhood of the [[District of Columbia]]:
* At 7:41{{nbsp}}a.m., James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper known as "Sonny", was shot dead at 11411 Rockville Pike, near [[Rockville, Maryland]]. Buchanan was shot while mowing the grass at the [[Fitzgerald Auto Malls]].
* At 8:12{{nbsp}}a.m., a 54-year-old part-time taxi driver, Prem Kumar Walekar, was killed in [[Aspen Hill, Maryland|Aspen Hill]] in Montgomery County, while pumping gasoline into his taxi at a [[Mobil]] station at Aspen Hill Road and Connecticut Avenue.
* At 8:37{{nbsp}}a.m., Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper, was killed at the Leisure World Shopping Center in [[Norbeck, Maryland|Norbeck]]. She had gotten off a bus at Connecticut Avenue and was seated on a bench reading a book at the time of her murder.<ref name="wp20021004"/>
* At 9:58{{nbsp}}a.m., 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was killed while vacuuming her [[Chrysler minivans (NS)|Plymouth Grand Voyager]] at the [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]] station at the intersection of Connecticut and Knowles Avenues in [[Kensington, Maryland]].
* The snipers waited until 9:20{{nbsp}}p.m. before shooting Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old retired carpenter, while he was walking on Georgia Avenue at Kalmia Road, in Washington, D.C. Charlot died less than an hour later.

In each shooting, the victims were killed by a single [[bullet]] fired from some distance, and, in each case, the killers struck and vanished. This pattern was not detected until after the October{{nbsp}}3 shootings occurred.<ref name="latimes-20021004">{{cite news |url=https://articles.latimes.com/2002/oct/04/nation/na-shootingsoct04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211133600/http://articles.latimes.com/2002/oct/04/nation/na-shootingsoct04 |archive-date=December 11, 2008|url-status=dead|title=5 Shot Dead in Suburban D.C. as Fear Spreads|newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=October 4, 2002 |author=Getter, Lisa |author2=Vicki Kemper |author3=Jonathan Peterson |name-list-style=amp}}</ref>

Fear quickly spread throughout the region as news of the shootings spread. At a press conference meeting, Chief of Police for Montgomery County, [[Charles Moose]], informed parents that schools were on a code blue alert, keeping children indoors. He said that the schools were safe. Many parents picked up their children early at school, not allowing them to take a [[school bus]] or walk home. [[Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland)|Montgomery County Public Schools]], [[District of Columbia Public Schools]], and private schools went into a [[lockdown]], with no [[Recess (break)|recess]] or outdoor physical education classes. Other school districts in the area also took precautionary measures, keeping students indoors.<ref>{{cite news |title=For Parents and Students, Safety First; Schools Lock Their Doors, and Some Keep Information Scarce in Fighting Fear |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 4, 2002}}</ref> During the course of the shootings, law enforcement agencies from neighboring states became embedded in the investigation through telephone tips.

Police had only a few pieces of evidence to work with. One initial report said that right after the Silver Spring attack{{clarify |date=August 2018 |reason= This is the first time that "Silver Spring" is mentioned in this article. Was there a specific attack that occurred in the city proper of Silver Springs, Maryland? Is there a specific attack that is now simply called "the Silver String attack"?  Has an editor used "Silver Spring" here as a synecdoche for Montgomery County, Maryland and the "Silver Spring Attack" is referring to the multiple attacks by Mavlo & Muhammad there?}} someone had reportedly heard a popping noise and had seen a white box truck hurriedly leaving the scene.<ref>Sari Horitz and Michael E. Ruane, "Truck Took Probe Down Wrong Road," Washington Post, October 5, 2003</ref> After the murder in Washington, D.C., witnesses began telling police that they had seen a blue Chevrolet Caprice rather than a white box truck. The police initially believed that all of the murders were carried out with a .223 caliber rifle.{{citation needed||date=November 2024}}