The plan was to create an army of black "super children"—seventy boys and seventy girls—who would flood into the U.S. from a secret Canadian compound to fight racial injustice and rebuild society. Lee Boyd Malvo, a seventeen-year-old immigrant from Kingston, Jamaica, was "very confident this could be done," according to his court-appointed psychologist.

John Allen Muhammad enlisted in the Louisiana Army National Guard in 1978 and later in the Army, reaching the rank of sergeant by his honorable discharge nine years later. While most of his medals were for attendance, he earned an Army Achievement Medal and excelled in marksmanship, hitting 36 out of 40 targets at distances up to 300 meters. He was also a hand-grenade specialist.

Muhammad put Malvo through intense training: leopard-crawls, calisthenics, revolutionary literature, and military drills. Each night, Malvo memorized passages from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. They often drove deep into the woods to practice shooting, using paper plates as makeshift targets.

On October 9 at 8:18 p.m., 53-year-old civil engineer Dean Harold Meyers was shot and killed while pumping gas at a Sunoco station on Sudley Road in Prince William County, Virginia, near Manassas.

As the seemingly random shootings continued, public fear escalated, particularly at gas stations and large store parking lots where many attacks had taken place. People fueling their cars would keep moving in an effort to be less of a target. Lisa Notgrass from Lake Jackson, Texas, suggested gas stations put up tarps around fuel pump awnings to make customers feel safer. Many with access chose to fill up at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, believing the security inside the fenced compound offered more protection.

Security also tightened at government buildings like the White House, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, and the National Mall's memorials. U.S. Senate pages were given police escorts to and from the Capitol daily and were restricted from leaving their residence hall except for work. Drivers of white vans and box trucks were particularly scrutinized by other motorists after early media reports suggested the shooter might be using such a vehicle.

On February 16, 2002, a 21-year-old young woman was shot and killed by Lee Malvo at the front door of her aunt's home in Tacoma, Washington. Her aunt had been good friends with John Allen Muhammad's ex-wife Mildred and had encouraged her to seek a divorce.

Police searched a nearby yard with metal detectors for bullets, shell casings, or other evidence that might provide a link to the shooters. A tree stump believed to have been used for target practice was seized.

After several killings, Muhammad and Malvo began to taunt the police. They left a note on a tarot card that read: "Mister policeman, I am God" after one shooting.

The patrons of the YMCA of Silver Spring, MD may have shared facilities with suspects Muhammad and Malvo, unaware that they were using the same showers and gym equiptment with the active DC snipers.

During the three weeks of attacks, one member recalled how the pair frequently asked about the sniper shootings, but their questions didn’t seem out of the ordinary at the time. With everyone discussing the latest news about the snipers, their inquiries blended in and didn’t raise any suspicion.

The misleading profile of the killers, which had been widely circulated before their arrest, also helped Muhammad and Malvo stay under the radar. They presented themselves as father and son, with the older man often mentioning he would be waiting in the car for his "son." Both carried IDs with the same last name, further reinforcing the illusion. Since the public was expecting a white sniper, no one gave a second thought to what appeared to be a black father and son, allowing them to remain unnoticed.

Muhammad and Malvo carried out the attacks using a stolen Bushmaster XM-15 semi-automatic .223-caliber rifle, equipped with a Bushnell holographic weapon sight for precision aiming at distances of up to 300 meters (1,000 feet). The rifle, along with a scope and tripod for stabilizing shots, was later found in their vehicle.

The 1990 Chevy Caprice was transformed into a "rolling sniper's nest" by Muhammad, following instructions from an old Irish Republican Army manual. He placed a mattress in the back and cut a hole in the trunk near the license plate, allowing the sniper to lie down and fire shots through the opening. The backseat was further modified by removing the sheet metal between the passenger compartment and the trunk, enabling easy access to the trunk from inside the car.

A real break in the case came from phone calls to a tip line and two priests from someone claiming to be the sniper. He directed them to an earlier shooting in Alabama. At that crime scene, Malvo had dropped a brochure with one of his fingerprints on it. That fingerprint was matched with immigration records, giving the authorities their first suspect.

The key breakthrough in the case came from the snipers themselves. In an attempt to lend credibility to a phoned-in ransom demand, Malvo referenced a previous murder in Montgomery, Alabama.

"Don't say anything, just listen. We're the people who are causing the killing," Malvo chillingly said in the recorded call to Rockville City Police.

At the Alabama murder scene, investigators had recovered a fingerprint. Rushed by an FBI agent to Washington, D.C., the print matched Malvo, who had been fingerprinted after a prior arrest in Washington state. That arrest record also mentioned Muhammad, triggering a records search.

The search revealed that Muhammad had registered a blue Chevy Caprice in New Jersey with the license plate NDA-21Z. Police shared the car’s description with the media, and later that night, a sharp-eyed driver spotted the Caprice at a rest stop in Frederick County.

After Muhammad and Malvo were arrested, investigators conducted a thorough search of the Caprice. They found:

• A Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle used in all the shootings;

• A rifle scope for aiming and a tripod to steady the shots;

• The modified backseat allowing access to the trunk;

• The Caprice owner’s manual, which the FBI later discovered had impressions of one of the extortion notes;

• A digital voice recorder, used by both Malvo and Muhammad to make extortion demands;

• A laptop stolen from one of the victims, containing maps of the shooting sites and escape routes;

• Maps, walkie-talkies, and several other items connected to the crimes.

A laptop stolen from one of the victims, found in the Caprice, contained drafts of notes with language similar to that in the correspondence left at three sniper shooting scenes—words the jurors had heard in testimony over the previous three weeks. Testimony also revealed that three weeks after the laptop was stolen, mapping software was downloaded using the domain name "Muhammad."

The software served as a virtual guide to the sniper attacks, showing electronic directions to the locations of several shootings, some ominously marked by a skull and crossbones.