Editing D.C. sniper attacks (section)

==Investigation==
[[File:Charles Moose.jpg|thumb|[[Charles Moose]], Chief of the [[Montgomery County Police Department|Montgomery County Department of Police]]]]
The investigation was publicly headed by the [[Montgomery County Police Department]] (MCPD) and its chief, [[Charles Moose]]. The [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives]] (ATF), the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], the [[United States Secret Service|U.S. Secret Service]], the [[Virginia Department of Transportation]], and police departments in other jurisdictions where shootings took place provided assistance in the investigation.<ref name="chicago-20021004">{{cite news |title=Sniper killings grip Maryland; Police suspect link after 5 slain |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=October 4, 2002 |author=Kantor, Shira}}</ref>

Police responded within minutes to reports of attacks during the three weeks of the sniper attacks, cordoning off nearby roads and highways and inspecting all drivers, thereby grinding traffic to a halt for hours at a time. Police canvassed the area, talking to people, and collected [[surveillance]] tapes.<ref name="chicago-20021004"/>

By Friday night, October 4, the five shootings on October 3 and two on October 2 were forensically linked to the same gun.<ref name="nytimes-20021005">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/05/us/widening-fears-few-clues-as-6th-death-is-tied-to-sniper-226998.html|title=Widening Fears, Few Clues As 6th Death Is Tied to Sniper |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 5, 2002 |author=Clines, Francis X.}}</ref>

Eyewitness accounts of the attacks were mostly confused and spotty. Hotlines set up for the investigation were flooded with tips. Early tips from eyewitnesses included reports of a white [[box truck]] with dark lettering on the outside and two men inside speeding away from the Leisure World shopping center. Police across the area and the state of [[Maryland]] were pulling over white vans and trucks.<ref name="baltimore-20021004">{{cite news |title=Random shootings target victims in Montgomery during a 16-hour period |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |date=October 4, 2002 |author=MacGillis, Alec |author2=Del Quentin Wilber |author3=Jeff Barker |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> A gray car was spotted speeding away after the October 4 shooting in Spotsylvania.<ref name="nytimes-20021005" />

The shooter attempted to engage the police in a dialogue, compelling Moose to tell the media cryptic messages intended for the sniper. At several scenes of shootings, [[Tarot]] cards were left as [[Calling card (crime)|calling cards]], including one [[Death (Tarot card)|Death card]] upon which was written "Call me God" on the front and on the back, on three separate lines, the words "For you mr. Police." "Code: 'Call me God'." "Do not release to the press."<ref name="Inside_the_Hunt"/> This information was leaked to the press and misquoted often as "I am God" or similar misquotes of the actual words on the tarot card.<ref name="Inside_the_Hunt">{{cite book|last1=Horwitz|first1=Sari|last2=Ruane|first2=Michael E.|title=Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation|year=2004|publisher=Ballantine Books|isbn=978-0345476623|page=[https://archive.org/details/sniper00sari/page/120 120]|url=https://archive.org/details/sniper00sari/page/120}}</ref> At later scenes of crimes the shooter left long, handwritten notes sealed inside plastic bags, including a rambling one that demanded $10,000,000 and threatened the lives of children in the area.

A telephone call from the shooter(s) was traced to a pay telephone at a gasoline station in [[Henrico County, Virginia]]. Police missed the suspects by a matter of a few minutes and initially detained occupants of a van at another pay telephone at the same intersection.

[[File:John Allen Muhammad.png|thumb|[[John Allen Muhammad]] during his time in the military.]]

On the phone call, the sniper, boasting of his cleverness, mentioned a previous unsolved murder in "Montgomery".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.altereddimensions.net/crime/WashingtonSniper.aspx |title=Washington Area (Tarot Card) Sniper – serial killer in Washington, Maryland, Virginia area taunts the police |publisher=Altereddimensions.net |access-date=August 16, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091101135127/http://www.altereddimensions.net/crime/WashingtonSniper.aspx |archive-date=November 1, 2009 }}</ref> This was identified as the September 21 shooting at a liquor store in [[Montgomery, Alabama]]. On October 17 authorities said they matched Malvo's fingerprint found at the Benjamin Tasker Middle School site with one lifted from the Montgomery liquor store scene.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/South/10/24/alabama.connection/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050504003349/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/South/10/24/alabama.connection/|archive-date=May 4, 2005 |url-status=dead |title= Print from Alabama killing matches suspect |date= October 24, 2002 |work=CNN}}</ref> After confirming the link between these two crime scenes, the FBI was able to link these fingerprints to Malvo due to his fingerprinting during a previous arrest in Washington state.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Beltway Snipers |url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/beltway-snipers |access-date=March 27, 2023 |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |language=en-us |archive-date=September 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923235659/https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/beltway-snipers |url-status=live }}</ref> After further research into Malvo's background, the police found he had close ties to [[John Allen Muhammad]].

===Difficult progress===

Despite an apparent lack of progress publicly, federal authorities were making significant headway in their investigation and developed leads in Washington state, Alabama, and New Jersey. They learned that Muhammad's ex-wife, who had obtained a protective order against him, lived near the Capital Beltway in [[Clinton, Maryland|Clinton]], an unincorporated community in suburban [[Prince George's County, Maryland]], adjacent to Montgomery County. Information was also developed about an automobile purchased in New Jersey by Muhammad.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Webster |first=Donovan |date=September 2, 2004 |title=The Story of John Muhammad's Partner in the D.C. Sniper Murders |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/10/beltway-snipers-200410 |access-date=March 27, 2023 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US |archive-date=August 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809025039/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/10/beltway-snipers-200410 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Police discovered that the [[New Jersey]] license plate number issued for Muhammad's 1990 [[Chevrolet Caprice]] had been checked by radio patrol cars several times near shooting locations in various jurisdictions in several states, but the car had not been stopped because law enforcement computer networks did not indicate that it was connected to any criminal activity and they were focused exclusively on the "white van".{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

On October 3, 2002, police in Washington, D.C., stopped the Caprice for a "minor traffic infraction" two hours prior to the shooting of Pascal Charlot.{{Quote without source|date=June 2022}} Witnesses later reported seeing a Caprice near the scene of his shooting.

On October 8, 2002, [[Baltimore Police Department]] investigated a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice parked near the [[Jones Falls Expressway]] at 28th Street in Baltimore with a person sleeping inside it. The officers were concerned that the driver's license was from Washington state while the vehicle was registered in New Jersey. Although the vehicle was suspicious enough for them to investigate, and it fit the description of a vehicle associated with the shooting in Washington, D.C. five days earlier, the officers did not question the occupants extensively, nor did they search the vehicle.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Authorities were quick to issue a media alert to the public to be on the lookout for a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice sedan. For the public, as well as for law enforcement agencies throughout the region, this was a major change from the mysterious "white box truck" earlier sought based upon reported sightings.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

The Chevrolet Caprice was later discovered to have formerly been used as an undercover police car in [[Bordentown, New Jersey]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Robert |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/25/us/the-hunt-for-a-sniper-the-vehicle-fbi-asks-co-owner-of-car-to-come-forward.html |title=The Hunt for a Sniper: The Vehicle; F.B.I. Asks Co-owner of Car to Come Forward  |newspaper=New York Times |date=October 25, 2002 |access-date=August 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091113120001/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/25/us/the-hunt-for-a-sniper-the-vehicle-fbi-asks-co-owner-of-car-to-come-forward.html |archive-date=November 13, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Arrest===
[[File:D.C. Sniper Rest Area Aerial View.png|thumb|The rest area in which Muhammad and Malvo were captured; the blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice driven by them is at the upper left with its doors open.]]
[[File:D.C. Sniper Rest Stop Area Aerial View.png|thumb|A second aerial view of the rest stop.]]
[[File:D.C. Sniper 1990 Chevrolet Caprice.png|thumb|The blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice driven by Muhammad and Malvo, at the rest area where they were captured. Glass shards on the ground are a result of the shattering of the car's windows during the arrest.]]

The crime spree came to a close at 3:15&nbsp;a.m. on October 24, 2002, when Muhammad and Malvo were found sleeping in their car at a [[Rest area|rest stop]] off [[Interstate 70 in Maryland|Interstate 70]] near [[Myersville, Maryland]], and were arrested on federal weapons charges. Police were tipped off by two 911 calls from refrigerator mechanic Whitney Donahue at the rest stop.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The Bellingham Herald | location=Bellingham, Washington | date=December 2, 2002 | page=6 | title=Public pressure rises to award sniper reward | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108445538/dc-sniper-lantz/ | access-date=August 28, 2022 | archive-date=August 28, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828001504/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108445538/dc-sniper-lantz/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Four hours earlier, Montgomery County police chief [[Charles Moose]] had relayed this cryptic message to the sniper: "You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things.  You have asked us to say, 'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.' We understand that hearing us say this is important to you". Moose asked the media "to carry the message accurately and often."<ref name=Moose>{{cite news|title=Text of Chief Moose's Statement |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/oct02/1024moose.htm|access-date=July 28, 2019|newspaper=Washington Post|date=October 24, 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022204305/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/oct02/1024moose.htm|archive-date=October 22, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> This statement may refer to a [[Cherokee]] fable.<ref>{{cite news|title=The 'Duck in a Noose' Fable Explained|date=October 25, 2002|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-oct-25-na-duck25-story.html|access-date=February 9, 2022|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|archive-date=February 9, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209083931/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-oct-25-na-duck25-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Trooper First Class D. Wayne Smith of the [[Maryland State Police]] was the first to arrive at the scene and immediately used his light blue unmarked police vehicle to block off the exit by positioning the car sideways between two parked tractor-trailers. As more troopers arrived, they effectively sealed off the rest area at both the entrance and exit ramps without the suspects being aware of the rapidly growing police presence. Later, as truck driver Ron Lantz was attempting to exit the rest area, his tractor-trailer was [[Commandeering|commandeered]] by troopers who used the truck, in place of the police car, to complete the roadblock at the exit. With the suspects' escape route sealed off, the [[SWAT]] officers moved in to arrest them.<ref name="porteus"/>

A stolen [[Bushmaster Firearms International|Bushmaster]] [[.223 Remington|.223-caliber]] weapon and [[bipod]] were found in a bag in Muhammad's car. Ballistics tests later conclusively linked the seized rifle to 11 of the 14 shootings, including one in which no one was hurt.<ref name="porteus">{{cite news |last=Porteus |first=Liza |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,66630,00.html |title=Timeline: Tracking the Sniper's Trail – U.S. & World |publisher=FoxNews.com |date=October 29, 2002 |access-date=August 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091019091620/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,66630,00.html |archive-date=October 19, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>