John Allen Muhammad

Serial Killer

John Allen Muhammad and the Beltway Sniper Murders

Background

John Allen Muhammad was an American serial and spree killer best known as the older leader of the two-man team responsible for the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks. Working with 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad carried out a prolonged series of shootings that crossed several states before reaching its most terrifying stage in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. During three weeks in October 2002, the pair murdered 10 people and critically wounded three others in the Washington metropolitan area. Their victims were attacked without warning while performing ordinary activities such as shopping, pumping gasoline, mowing a lawn, cleaning a vehicle, walking through a parking lot, or waiting for transportation. Muhammad was born John Allen Williams on December 31, 1960, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He served for years in the Louisiana Army National Guard and the United States Army, eventually attaining the rank of sergeant. His military record included service during the Gulf War, and he qualified as an expert marksman with the M16 rifle. After leaving the Army in 1994, his personal life became increasingly unstable. He went through a bitter divorce and custody dispute with his former wife, Mildred Muhammad, and at one point took their children across the country without her permission.

Muhammad's Relationship with Lee Boyd Malvo

Muhammad met Lee Boyd Malvo, a Jamaican teenager, in the Caribbean and gradually assumed the role of a father figure in the boy's life. Malvo later described Muhammad as controlling and manipulative. According to evidence presented after their arrests, Muhammad trained the teenager in firearms, physical conditioning, obedience, and methods of avoiding detection. The relationship eventually developed into a criminal partnership in which the pair traveled through the United States, committed robberies, and shot people in several jurisdictions. The exact division of responsibility for every shooting has remained a complicated issue. Malvo admitted firing many of the shots, while prosecutors argued that Muhammad planned, directed, and controlled the campaign. Under Virginia law, Muhammad could be convicted of capital murder as the organizer of a coordinated terrorist-style killing operation even when prosecutors could not establish that he personally pulled the trigger in every attack. ...

Confirmed Victims: (10)

James Martin Age: (55), Date of Death: October 2, 2002

Suspected Victims:

Claudine Lee Parker Age: (55), Date of Death: September 21, 2002

Hong Ballenger , Date of Death: September 23, 2002

John Allen Muhammad - Wikipedia