DC Sniper – 2002 – Looking Back, Looking Ahead

I was living in the DC area then.  I remember the fear on people’s faces as they were gassing up their cars, or walking through parking lots.  I remember driving home from a friend’s home one night and being stopped at a road block and thinking…someone else just lost their life.  If you were here, you know.  If not, you shared the horror as it was spread across the nightly news. 

Now, Lee Boyd Malvo, the young man who was half of the shooting duo (the elder, John Allen Muhammad was executed for his crimes in 2009) is claiming sexual abuse from the age of 15 and appears to be using that as at least a partial defense for his actions.  In an interview with Matt Lauer, http://todaynews.today.com/_news/2012/10/24/14680073-dc-sniper-lee-boyd-malvo-i-was-sexually-abused-by-my-accomplice?lite, he spoke out about the abuse by John Muhammad.  

Many people are abused, it doesn’t turn them into serial killers.  This young man, at 15, was old enough to know that you don’t shoot people for the thrill.  He went on to claim that there were other victims of their spree, in other states, that people aren’t aware of.  I’m sorry, this made me sick to my stomach.

If you read my blog, you know I try to focus on shooting tips and the occasional product review, but this article really upset me.  Maybe because I was here, maybe because I was only a few miles away when one victim was gunned down for no good reason other than being randomly selected by a pair of murders. 

Mr. Malvo is serving six life sentences, and likely will never again walk as a free man.  But that is still better than the his victims or their families.  The simple fact that he has been getting press attention and was interviewed bothers me.  He participated in cold, calculated and merciless killings, in a very cowardly way, from a distance, secreted in the trunk of a car.  Ordinary people, going about their lives, doing ordinary things like getting gas or going to school…they are the victims.  Mr. Malvo earned his place in a cell and I have to leave the rest to God because I cannot find empathy or sympathy for him.