John Allen Muhammad, otherwise known as the beltway sniper or DC sniper, was put to death last night in Virginia. The 48-year-old mastermind of the DC sniper attacks was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m.
In a tense 3 weeks in 2002 that terrorized the residents of Virginia and Maryland, Muhammad and his teenage sidekick Lee Boyd Malvo, then 17, went on a shooting spree killing 10 and wounding 6.
Muhammad would later admit that the sniper attacks was a plot to kill his ex-wife and end a bitter legal struggle for custody of their 3 children.
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine refused to intervene in the final hours after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected the sniper’s final legal appeal.
Muhammad’s family members and relatives of the victims gathered to watch the execution. He had no last words before the lethal mixture of sedatives, muscle relaxer and potassium stopped his heart and respirations at 9:06 p.m.
Muhammad was sentenced to death following his capital murder conviction in the slaying of Dean H. Meyers, 53, at a Prince William County gas station on Oct. 9, 2002. His accomplice, Malvo, now 24, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2003.
Iran Brown was 13 when he was shot on October 7, 2002 outside Benjamin Trasker Middle School by Lee Boyd Malvo who fired an assault rifle from the modified trunk of a Ford Crowne Victoria driven by John Allen Muhammad.
