The Confession [12]

the sniper's car, Larufa was ambushed. It's pretty amazing that you go from just an ordinary routine to all of a sudden, you're part of this crazy thing that happened. That's one of the largest man hunts in history. At the end of a long, busy day, he closed down his family restaurant with a couple of friends. He put the day's earnings in a bank bag and wished his friends good night. I locked up the restaurants at the alarm,

We all to our cars. I got in the driver's side, shut the door, and before I could do anything, the window to my left exploded. SID Emergency nine one one center shooting. Now it doesn't know a lot. You're the one at that time, No, man, it was the owner. I think you guys shot robbed. I heard the guests. I thought, who was the robbery? And a shooting? Okay, that the dulance from the police officer on the way.

Who did them? I have no idea. I couldn't tell it from the back the black jacket, black backpack, and the black pap What type of weapon would is? However? Was gun shot? I don't know if you've heard of football. Five shots came in the window. They all hit me. It went from a tremendous sound that deafened my left ear, then within seconds it became incredibly quiet. I didn't have time to blink, let alone see anything. All I saw

was a flash of light and that was it. I was bleeding out of my chest and my upper back, lower neck because one of the shots hit me from that angle. So I leaned on the horn to just attract anybody who would be around, and leaned on it, leaned on it, and then I opened the door. I was able to get out of the car and stand up, and one of the guys that I left with was walking towards me. He was dialing his cell phone moment. I'm at Mark Delanez on Stewart Lane in curt Maryland.

I need an ambulance right here. Uh. Guy came out for behind the store and uh and shop Paul Arupa and us leading. Uh. The person that you're talking to or they in a car. I know he was in the car and he's standing, but he's outside the car. Job. I don't haven't stand. Try to get him to sit down and not move around. Can you sit in the car to sit down and not move around? All right? But I don't want to sign here. The pressure of the blood inside me was collapsing my lungs. I didn't

know that's what was happening. All I know is that I was suffocating. They said they were going to get a helicopter, but then the helicopter was too far away, so they were just sending regular E M t s. And they did. They got there, got me into the ambulance. I was really having trouble breathing, and I just had the feeling we weren't going that quickly. So I would say how much longer? How much longer? And they said, not not that much longer. If I lead, we got

to the hospital and there was a team. They're ready, and they rolled me into the emergency room and just basically did exactly how you see it on TV. There were four or five six people around me just doing what they had to do to save my life. They got me into surgery and for six or seven hours picked out as many as the bullet fragments as they could and and sewed me up and and saved my life. So that's what happened the first night. And then I

spent just about another week in the hospital. I was three days on a breathing machine in intensive care, uh, because I couldn't breathe. So after that they tested and took me off and it was still tough, but I could. I could breathe on my own. After about a week, I said I really wanted to go home, and they said okay, So I I left the hospital with a contraption from my left arm. The most lasting physical effect of one of the bullets was that it severed a

nerve in my arm. I could close my hand, but I wasn't able to open it again. So they had therapists that designed and made a brace type thing from my hand. It had rubber bands on it and it would spring back and pull my fingers apart and open my hand. I actually had that on about a year before the nerve drew back and gave me function in my left hand, and to this day it's not but anyway,

that was the lasting physical effect. Of course, I went through tremendous mental effect of it, starting with the first night I was in the hospital. I had flashbacks that were incredible. You literally relive it. If you've ever had a nightmare where you're scared or somebody's chasing you, it's that times ten, because you really relive it. You hear it, your ears, hear that sound, and you feel it, and it's just terrible. It's it's horrible. You can't turn it off,

you can't make it stop. It just happens. Happen every night. I was shot September five. They didn't catch them till October, So for at least that time and probably a little more, I had that flashback all the time. So that was hard, and then it began to wane and lessen, mostly I think because they were caught. After they were caught, they found my computer and they put the whole thing together more. Mom, it's ex wife lived right down the road from the restaurant.

There is a ruthless person on the loose. What unnerves this community the most is the randomness of the murders, ordinary people doing ordinary things. They killed the five people in one day and then went on the rampage for the next month. It is quite a mystery. The police say they have never had a crime quite like this. Be careful, these guys are using weapons that are going to go right straight through our bulletproof vest. From my Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, this is Monster d C Sniper.

Following Mohammed and Melvo's arrest on October, investigators wondered whether others were involved in planning the attacks, and they were also trying to solve one of the biggest mysteries in the case, what was the motivation? That question would become increasingly important as they prepare for the upcoming trials. Mohammed and Malvo had been brought to Montgomery County and interviewed. Mohammed initially talked, saying he was innocent, but then quickly

asked for his lawyer. Malvo refused to speak at all, so investigators turned to evidence from the Blue Caprice forensics from the Bushmaster they found in the car matched bullets from the shootings. They found Larufa's laptop which led them to his shooting, and they began retracing Mohammed and Malvo's steps using other evidence they found in the car, like receipts and phone cards, and investigators unraveled a whole new string of crimes. They didn't have a car. They had

come across country by buses and hitchhiking. What they did was they took the money that was in my bank bag. They got about thirty six hundred dollars in cash, which financed their whole operation. They went to Jersey and bought the car from Clinton, Maryland. Mohammed and Malvo traveled up to Trent and Jersey. D m V records showed that on September two thousand two, John Mohammed paid two hundred fifty dollars to purchase the blue Caprice from a dealership

called shore Shot Auto Sales. Reportedly, when Mohammed looked at it in the lot, he asked the dealer to open the trunk and then climbed inside and there was a strange incident the next day, on September eleven, two thou two, the first anniversary of the terror attacks. While Mohammed registered the car in Camden, the DMV building received a bomb threat. Mohammed finished the registration just a few minutes before the

building was evacuated. It's still unclear if Mohammed or Malvo were involved with the bomb thread or if it was just a strange coincidence. After buying and registering the car in New Jersey, Mohammed and Malvo head itself. Prepaid phone cards found in the caprice showed that by the next night, September twelve, they were in the DC area outside a Shopper's food warehouse in Alexandria, Virginia. They used one of

these phone cards to place a call to Antigua. Then, two nights later, on September in Montgomery County, Maryland, a liquor store employee, Repender Oberoi, was locking up the store when he heard a loud crack. Oberoy was shot. I'm calling again to report that someone that apparently has gotten shot in the Hill and Dale shopping Center. By safe way. Three ambulances had passed right by. One is across the street.

I've said it each time, and other people are calling to they're driving right by and this man has been laid on the sidewalk. Ultimately, ober Roy survived the attack. A witness nearby reported seeing an old car pull out of a parking space and drive away. The witness told police about it, but the officers were perplexed ober It hadn't been robbed and didn't seem to have any enemies. After arresting the snipers and retracing their movements, police now

suspect that the snipers had shot Oberoi. Investigators tried to analyze bullet fragments from the crime, but the pieces weren't large enough to make any comparisons, and without firearm forensics, it was hard to prove. The very next night, on September fift another attack took place at a liquor store, this one in Prince George's County, just miles from Paul

Larufa's restaurant and Mildred Mohammed's home. It was raining as Mohammed Rashied locked up the store, he heard a loud sound and saw two bullet holes appear in the glass store in front of him. He turned and saw a young man holding a pistol. The man fired a third shot, and he felt a bullet enter his abdomen. Rashid realized he was being robbed, so he made a split second decision to drop down and play dead. Sheet says the attacker rolled him over and rifled through his pockets. The

attacker grabbed his wallet and then walked away. Rashid waited anxiously until he thought the man was gone. Then he called nine one from his cell phone. Oh ma'am, I'm buying for one piece that was there for somebody, so fine to me. Have you been shut Yeah? Yeah, yeah, my bunny stoma. One piece that was one body. Oh, I'm gonna help you. Okay, you do shut you? No? No liab okay, somebody there with you? Nobody okay, Okay,

Now I want to just sit down. I want to take your shirt on and put it tightly into the stomach where you were shot. Okay, I want the morning with you. What's today day? I'm gonna stay in a line. We got somebody going to you right now. Did somebody rob you? Why are you? Who are you outside? Okay, we're gonna help you with your cell phone. Never hommed, I'm not the one going out. We've already got an ambulance going to you. I'm here with you. Okay, Oh letten me take deep breath and try to say as

quiet as you can't. Okay, I'm right here with you. I'm not going to go anywhere. Oh my Gogmed Mohammed the person to shot you, white or black? I'm glad that how old then something? And I need to put the look at We're already coming to you. How old is he? By? You're doing great? And what was he wearing? Mohammed? Like, you can do it, We'll come assurance. I'm kind of Buston's movie. Okay, great shirt and he had a gun? Why you haven't which way did he run? You were

behind the door. Okay? If I know they're coming to you now, but it's staying. Did they get to Mohammed? Rashid was treated and survived. Surgeons recovered the bullet from his abdomen and gave it to police. Investigators tested the round. It came back as being from the same pistol used in the larofa shooting, the silver revolver that investigators would later find in Alabama following the liquor store shooting there

on September eighth, three days after shooting Rashid. The snipers used a phone card to make a call from outside the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia, the very same restaurant where they would later shoot Jeffrey Hopper as he walked through the parking lot with his wife. Then another three days later, just after midnight on September twenty one, Malvo and Mohammed were likely five hundred miles southwest and the parking lot of a liquor store in Atlanta, Georgia. It

was twelve sixteen a m an. Inside were two employees, Mimi Tadisi, a million walled Amerium, both Ethiopian immigrants. The store was closed, so they wondered why a car was idling in the parking lot. Reportedly, Wallda Mariam wanted to investigate to d C was worried and told him not to go outside, but he did anyway. Seconds after wald Merriam walked outside, to d C heard three gun shots. Wald de Merriam had been shot twice in the upper back and once in the back of the head. He

died in the hospital. It's unclear if the bullets from this shooting were ever analyzed forensically, not even Twenty four hours later, Mohammed and Malvo were one hundred fifty miles southwest in Montgomery, Alabama, robbing the ABC Liquor store, where they shot and killed Claudine Parker and wounded Kelly Adams. Two days after the Alabama shootings, phone card records and

receipts put the snipers in Mohammed's hometown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, at six forty pm, Hong M. Ballinger had just finished closing up the beauty shop where she worked. Ballinger had just reached her car when she was shot in the head. She died almost instantly. Another employee who was also leaving, saw a large, dark car pull out of a vacant lot and pick up a black man who had grabbed Ballinger's purse. Police found a bullet fragment embedded and Ballinger's

side view mirror. It appeared to have come from a two to three rifle, but the case went cold after the sniper's arrest. Investigators reanalyze the bullet fragment from the shooting and they matched it to the snipers Bushmaster rifle. Ballinger was a victim of the snipers, likely the last one before the snipers returned to Maryland and began their DC attacks. They'd likely killed three and injured four more in a span of eighteen days, all before the spree

in d C even started. But why did the snipers then switch from this pattern of parking lot robberies to see me only random killings in d C. Although investigators were learning more about the scope of the snipers attacks, their motive still remained a mystery. The only people who could really answer the question of why we're Lee Boyd Malvo and John Mohammed investigators needed one of them to

crack under questioning. Immediately after the sniper's arrest, a battle began brewing in the DC area, with attorneys fighting over where the snipers should be tried. On October two, just the day after the snipers were arrested, Montgomery County Prosecutor Doug Gansler held the news conference before he even learned

Malbo's age or last name. The Montgomery County Police Department will attain an arrest warrant for the arrest of John Muhammad, aged forty one, and Lee Salvo, aged nineteen, for six counts a first degree murder. The decision to charge these cases in Montgomery County, Maryland, was reached after in depth consultation with local, state, and federal law enforcement officials. Montgomery County was the community most affected and most impacted by

the sniper shootings. The investigation began, ended, and was centered here in Montgomery County. The Feds were furious, sources say, as local prosecutor Doug Ganceler walked to the microphones late today to announce that Montgomery County is fighting the first charges in the sniper case. Federal prosecutors privately accused Canceler of breaking in agreements not to file charges until the Feds decide if they want to take over the case.

In unusually harsh language. One federal official accused Canceler of quotes exploiting this tragedy for political purposes. So how did the sniper case cracked only yesterday up to now a model of cooperation between Chief Moose, the FBI, and a t F How did it unravel so fast with prosecutors engaged in and unseemly fights over who gets the first crack at convicting them. Two weeks later, on November seven, U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced where Malbo and Mohammed would

first be tried for twenty three days in October. Our communities lived in fear. Innocent victims from Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Alabama, and Louisiana have paid the ultimate price. It is appropriate, it is imperative that the ultimate sanction be available. I have instructed the U. S. Marshals Service to transfer custody of John Alan Mohammed to Prince William County, Virginia. I have also instructed the marshals to transfer custody of

a juvenile to Fairfax County, Virginia. Right after his arrest, Mohammed had talked briefly with detectives, then clammed up and asked for his lawyer. Now, with federal charges dropped and stay charges pending, two new investigators took their turn at trying to get Mohammed to talk. I want to take the handcuff, so to me. Okay, salad with tomatoes and what else, Sir John Loup. We're not here to jam you up anything like that, but certainly you know we

want to talk to him too. Beans or potatoes, beans and russ and the partiular kind of potatoes. How you want to picture or anything like I was telling you much, Mohammed. I understand that you've talked to attorneys and that they've told you not to say anything. There's been a lot of people who said that this was meaningless and since us, but it had me. I believe it had meaning to you, and this may be your only tunity to tell your story.

Your lawyers are not going to put you on the stand, because when your lawyer gets done asking any questions, they're going to be subject across examination. They're not going to put you on the stand. You need to say what you can say, and ladies behalf now, John, aside from his requests for food, John Mohammed just sat stone faced

in the interrogation room. Detectives knew that Mohammed and Lee boyd novel weren't biologically related, but that he had often introduced the lead to friends as his son, so the detectives tried to use John's relationship with Lee to get him to talk. I would assume that since y'all were taken into customy did you not talk to him? And I would imagine that's very difficult for you. He's a

long he's afraid, but as a father myself. I know fame that must cause you also not being able to reach him in his time and trouble when he needs your love more than he needs anything else. So if you don't do anything else here for yourself, do this for your son. Tell us the truth, tell us what the meaning is behind this. Let's do some damage control here and in some way try and spare his life. Did Lee pull the trigger? Did le do any of

the shootings? Now? I can tell you what Leaves gonna do, just based on what I know about kids and what I know about their love to their parents. To save his own life, that boy's not gonna say it was all my daddy, It wasn't me. You know that in your heart there's only one person that has any hope of saving his life, and that's going to be you, because if you don't say anything, he's not going to say anything at least and lose his life over this John.

They're going to make an assumption that made pull of the trader. They'renvasing on the fact that that was a small area back there, and that in all likelihood you were driving. Being more mature, you would be able to drive with more calm than Kimp All we want to know is the truth. And I don't want to see a seventeen year old kid put it down namelessly. At seventeen, he is not a man. He's a kid, and he's afraid and he has alone, But the court's going to

treat him like a man. There was one person, seemingly, and you know better than I do, because you know he intimate details. There was one person who really seemed to care about him. And here you are, and he's not strong without you, and you know what he might do. He might say I shot him out. He might say by daddy drove, and I shot because I was the smallest and I could sit back there. And what would happen if he says that is he most assuredly will

be sentenced to death. But I can tell you something. You can take the kid who's shot people and the head or maybe he has watched people get shot for no reason. You can take the kid and teach you all of those tough, hard things, and he can do it just like you wore. He can kill men, he can cut the throats and not lose a wink of sleep about it. But when it comes time to die, when he's wounded on the battlefield. When the game is over and he's facing death, he demonstrates loud and clear

that he's a boy play in a man's game. You know why, John, because that's when they cry, and that's when they call for the mamas for their daddy. When he's in a man's prison, it's you he's gonna want. When he lies on that wreck at night crying, it's you he's going to think about. He played a man's game, but he's a boy, and he's your boy that's gotten to touch you in your heart. He wouldn't win his mom or whoever his biological father was. He was with you.

And you know something, John, This is harsh, but this is important. If you two are sentenced to death, I pray to God that they execute you before they execute him, because I'm gonna take something, John, And they could be executed, and you could receive a stake for whatever reason, and then you would sit and pray and for the rest of your life with him going on ahead of you. And you know what, that might not be his man. He's seventeen years old, him spending the rest of his

natural life in prison. After you've made your peace with God, that could be the real hell for him. If you love him the way I think you love him, if you love him the way I love my children, it will tear your soul away from you. You will live hell on Earth. Save his life if you don't do anything else, do the right thing, fix this thing. If you were on a sinken ship and there was one life jacket, I have no doubt in my mind that you would give it to late. You're on a sinking ship.

Now give that kid a life jacket. Give him an opportunity to save himself, because he's not going to do it unless you give him permission to do it. Because if it were me and now, I wouldn't do it unless he gave me permission and forced me to take that my jacket. You can force him to save hisself and then saving him save herself from the potential of hell on earth. Let's just John Mohammed refused to talk, but one county to the north, in Fairfax, investigators were

having better luck with Malva. Malvo was brought to Fairfax County Homicide at that point, which I was working with on the Lenda Franklin case. My name is Brad Garrett i'mber retired FBI agent currently a crime and terrorism analyst. It certainly didn't have the flavor to me or many others that this was some terrorist of it. Nobody was taking credit. There didn't seem to be any significance to the people that got shot. It seemed like they were just in the raw place at the wrong time, mowing

their yard, pumping gas. So it was hard to sort of imagine what the real motivation might be. You know, many shootings can be attributed to revenge, which may not actually be towards the people they are shooting. Some people call it displaced violence. So is that going on here? When Malvo was brought to Fairfax County Homicide, myself and a homicide detective by the name of June Boyle interviewed him roughly starting at four o'clock in the afternoon until

about midnight. Courts are closing at four. It really set up nicely for them. My name is Tom Walsh, partner Petrovitch and Walsh. My name is Mark Petrovich, also a partner at Petrovitch and Walsh. Tom and I were two of the members of the team that represented Lee Malvo in the DC sniper case. At the time in Maryland, you wouldn't execute juveniles for the crimes they committed, but you could in Virginia. So they took him out of federal custody up in Maryland and transferred him over to

Fairfax County. In the course of transferring him over, he did get an attorney appointed to him because he was a juvenile. Was actually outside the building banging on the doors trying to get in to meet with Lee before the police interrogated him, but he wasn't allowed in and the interrogation took place. They knew they were dealing with a young kid that was indoctrinated. They were going to be able to get him the spill of beans, and they were going to take advantage of it. This is

FBI agent Brad Garrett again. June and I walk into basically an office, but everything has been removed except a desk and a couple of chairs. Malbo's smiling and it's almost like he doesn't have a care in the world, you know, which told me that he felt like he's in control, that he has all of the information and he has the power to share it with us or not. June said to his right, and I sat in front

of him. I don't like talking to people from an angle because one of the keys and getting people to talk is being able to get them to look at you and communicate with you. Because despite the artificiality of interviewing somebody that's potentially committed multiple murders, you still have to develop a relationship with them. And so the first thing you typically always ask people is how do they feel? How much has they slept? Do they need anything, food, water,

something to drink, et cetera. So we started talking a little bit about where he was raised and you know, how did he end up in Antigua? And he gradually gave us pieces of information, but not a lot. And so I'm sort of racking my brain is too, how can I really get him to talk about something that he may care about or have an interest in. I'm not sure what got me to this point, but I

started talking about movies. Two thousand two, there was a movie that have been out for a while called The Matrix, and I knew a lot of kids his age like that movie. So I said, have you watched the movie The Matrix? And up to this point he has not made eye contact. He sort of looked over me or around me, even though I was in front of him, and it was the first time he looked me in the eyes, and I thought to myself, well, at least I can maybe get him to connect with me at

this point. We'll see how far this goes. So we started talking about the matrix and what the matrix meant. Do you want to know what it is? The matrix is everywhere, It is all around us. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. After that discussion, June and I decided that we would sort of go, do you know why you're here? We really like to talk to you

about these shootings. And so what he basically did was he sort of just talked about pieces of information that occurred at these Saints. Here are Melbo's lawyers, Mark Petrovitch and Tom Walsh. They got him talking, he admitted to some things, and then they read him as Miranda rights with everything right. The Reggi rights, You're fine to talk to us without an you still want to talk to us, You don't mind talking to us. They can no longer

do that. It's now unconstitutional to conduct an interrogation that way. But at the time, it wasn't. It's what they called it legally, the cat out of the bag. And that was kind of a point. What to do is to get you talking and then after you say statements, they read your rights and then they go back and confirm what you said before. To now say oh, well you've had your rights, and that he confirmed these things. You would get you earlier that the gentleman that the nassas,

I'm spright and used it. It wasn't illegal, and if you could see me, I guess I would air quote that the way it was conducted wasn't illegal. But had Todd Pett had been able to get in, he would of advised Lee not to speak and they would not have gotten the interrogation. But there was none of that, and the statement came out it was It was damning. The audio from the interview can be difficult to understand, and throughout it Malbo laughed, made sound effects and responded

to questions with short, abrupt answers. You were all playing a lot of year time, so you knew each start you were going to hit in the gund of gun that first day, slight in the morning, that was longbore Son down. You say people will value you go up in the bushes. He become a part of the bushes. He caught in grass and then become a part of grass. Fifty yard fense. Uh, I'm over in two seconds after you shoot, you run the cargover fence. How can you

run with the gunman? Now? So easy to break down because you have shot and broke it down right after shooting, and you know we sees you and then we put it in the bag or pull in the bag. All right, can welcome you out of my hand? It's this deception. Yeah, snipers a doin their weapons. This is what keeps me alive. It's one man going out in facing army. Did you see the trooper? I told you I'm goin a shot

the trooper. Why wouldn't because it wasn't a kisy And you're going to keep carrying until you got the money, until you listen to but at some point you know that we have to give you the ten million O. Yes, you could try to catch me until you mean that shooting all these people was gonna affect the calling me and let move at the same Chamelion. It's all planet.

You have to fit something, You have to fit the environment, and you have to fictality live which is money and you flick that this is all he's asking for and get it, give it talk. But did you tie it's manner whether it was male, female or you know nature, nobody just to look get into that sidekick who was just going out there shooting deep. I can't feel bad about any certain one. You don't know if you have to do when you do the same thing. Huh yeah.

If we didn't, they have caught you get still redoing it. We had your resources to keep going. You did when we need in cash money you plan for war before war? Was it your money or John Burney was all the money and working be seated? This unity does not hate. That's dancing is a failure. Everyone has to be online pop and there's something that you well that's something like business.

I think do you think them nothing? It doesn't him Okay, shocking, it's just the last two minutes five two minutes he did. So we went through that. It got some pretty incriminating information. He did not give us all of the crimes that they committed, which you know clearly involved crimes and Louisiana and some other jurisdictions that we ultimately put together. But you know, we felt like that we at least had

success because he got him to talk. Malvo didn't tell investigators about all of the shootings leading up to this bri in DC, but of the shootings they discussed, he said that he had been the gunmen for all of them and that Mohammed hadn't shot anyone. Here's Malvo's lawyer, Tom Walsh. Again. He still brainwash at that time, so he was taking blame for all the shootings. He was basically trying to take everything on as a juvenile and

save his leader, Mohammed. He was clearly protective of Mohammed, was trying to implicate Mohammed in a very minimal fashion, so you could tell that there was some sort of close bond between the two of them. At the end of this interview, I said, what was the motivation? Why did you guys do this? And he looked at me and he says, well, it's all about the matrix. Two

understand mother Max, And I said, well, what does that mean? Answering, I mean, that doesn't mean anything unless I know, what do you think the matrix the movie means that he just smiled part of Mohammed's indoctrination was to decessitize lee to violence two shootings, to the consequences of what happened The Matrix and things of that nature were part of the indoctrination and as a factors that needed to be explored.

What did Malvo mean when he said that the explanation for the shootings could be found in the movie The Matrix? Investigators wondered if Mohammed had been radicalized and was committing an act of terror out of hatred for America. And then there was the demand for ten million dollars to be deposited on a bankard. Could it really all be about money? A day after Malvo's interview with police, the Washington Post published an interview with John Mohammed's ex wife, Mildred.

She had her own theory about John's motivation for the crimes. Do you know why he came to the area. He went to a father's rights group, told them I kidnapped the children. They did a skip trace on me, found me in the DC area and told him. He went to his best friend Robert. He said, I found Mildred. She's in d C. I'm gonna go get her. His best friend asked them, are you going to hurt her?

He didn't say anything. The theory was he was killing innocent people to cover up my murder so he could come in as the grieving father, get custody of the children, and drive away. They probably would have named him Father of the Year for coming to get the children and raising them himself. That best friend called the FBI and said, I don't know anything about your case, but you may want to look at John Ali Mohammed. His ex wife is in the area and he may be there to

hurt her. And I talked to Robert. I said, I am calling you to thank you for saving my life. Say Mildred, let me tell you something, girl, John came there to kill you. I had to make a decision to call and report him or watch your name scroll under the TV that you've been killed. Say Mildred. I would pay anything to have a beer with John right now. That's my boy. But I had to call him. He said, So, don't get this twisted. Don't believe that ten million dollar madness.

He came there to kill you. Don't ever get it twisted. Mildred Mohammed thinks the random string of shootings was designed to disguise her murder. If John had just killed her, he would be the primary suspect, But if it looked like she was just another random sniper victim, maybe he would have gotten away with it. Mildred says that even though that plan sounds crazy, it's the sort of crazy

plan that John would have come up with. After all, this was the same John who was ready to run away with Lindberg, his son from his earlier marriage, the same John who kidnapped his kids from Mildred and took them all the way to antique it. Washington Post reporter Josh White says, while it's hard to ever definitively know the motivation for a crime, Mildred's theory makes sense. Mildred has talked about how she believed she was the target,

and I think that's plausible. All of those shootings create panic and get police occupied, and that it would have been very hard to connect her shooting to anything else, just like it was very hard to connect any of these other people together. It would have gotten him custody of the children, It would have gotten the problem he saw out of the way, but that didn't happen. Malvo has said that they parked outside where she was living.

October eleven, my coworker picked me up for work. She said, you know, there's a dark colored Caprisa and Pala outside your door, and I just get a bad feeling from that car. So girl, don't worry about let's just go to work. So we passed by the car. The driver looks at us, but the passenger has a newspaper and he puts it up to cover his face. And I said, did you see that? She said, yeah, I did. I said, give me your phone, let me call the police. So

I called the police. They said, okay, we'll send someone out there. Later they told me John sent Lee to your door pretending to be a salesperson, and his instructions were when you opened the door to shoot you in the face, ms Mohammed. You opened the door, and for whatever reason, he walked away. We don't know the repercussions

he suffered because he didn't kill you that day. Next time on Monster DC Sniper, you know, it's hard enough work in one murder to have these thirteen shootings just in our area, let alone what else went around the country. We knew it was going to be a monumental task. Part of Mohammed's indoctrination was to decessitize lee to violence to shootings. There's no amount of psychological coercion that would force somebody to, let's say, kill, if they didn't already

had some kind of predisposition. I remember feeling just basically shock and disbelief that he could have done this. He just looks so innocent, how shocking. One of the most alarming moments was when Mohammed stood to represent himself. We had never heard from Mohammed at that point talk about weird events in your life. I was being questioned by the guy who tried to kill me. Monster DC Sniper is a fifteen episode podcast hosted by Tony Harris and

produced by iHeart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive producers on behalf of I Heart Radio, alongside producers Trevor Young, Ben Kiebrick, and Josh Thain. Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV alongside producers Meredith Steadman and Christina Dana. Original music is by Makeup and Vanity Set. If you haven't already be sure to check out the first two seasons

at Lanta Monster and Monster the Zodiac Killer. If you have questions or comments, email us at monster at iHeartMedia dot com, or you can call us at one eight three three two eight five six six six seven. Thanks for listening.