D.C. sniper attacks begin as Maryland man, 55, is shot dead in grocery store parking lot in Wheaton 20 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Oct 2 2002)


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(Wednesday, October 2, 2002, 6:30 p.m. EDT) — The D.C. sniper attacks, a series of coordinated shootings that occurred over three weeks in October 2002 in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, began today when James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst at NOAA, was shot and killed at 2201 Randolph Road in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store, located in Wheaton.

Ten people would be killed and three other victims critically injured before John Allen Muhammad, 41, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, were finally arrested on Oct. 24, 2002.


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The pair’s crime spree had actually begun ten months earlier in February 2002, which included murders and robberies in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia and in Washington, D.C., which resulted in 7 deaths and 7 wounded.

Overall, Muhammad and Malvo killed 17 people and wounded 10 others

Convicted of capital murder for the killings, Muhammad would be executed on Nov. 10, 2009; Malvo would be sentenced to life in prison.