Charles Moose: Police Chief who led ‘DC Sniper’ investigation dead at 68
On November 26, the Montgomery County Police Department announced that their exalted former Chief of Police, Charles Moose, died at the age of 68. Chief Moose gained national notoriety when he was overseeing the DC Sniper’s investigation back in 2002.
According to his wife, the former Chief died at his home on Thanksgiving Day.
“We are extremely saddened by the news announcing the passing of former Chief Charles Moose,” said Chief Marcus Jones. “He was a great leader and led our department through the DC Sniper investigation, one of the most difficult crime sprees in our country’s history. We send condolences to his wife Sandy and all of his family and friends.”
Chief Moose served Montgomery County from 1999-2003.
Moose died “while watching football and sitting in his recliner,” Sandy Moose said in a Facebook post published by CNN affiliate WJLA.
“He called my name, and I came running but it was too late. His body was shutting down,” his wife wrote. “It seems so trite to give first notice this way. Right now, I can’t think much beyond I need a plan to celebrate this man: my best friend since 1982. He meant so much to so many, I’m at a loss … Godspeed Charles.” ~ CNN
The DC Sniper attacks terrorized the Baltimore Beltway, the Washington D.C. area and the I-95 corridor in Virginia during October 2002. Those deadly shooting attacks, carried out by John Allen Muhammad, 41, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, actually began in February 2002 with a series of murders and robberies as the duo traveled throughout Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, and Washington, DC,
Between February and October of that year, the two were responsible for 17 murders and the wounding of 10 more.
At 3:19 in the morning on October 24, 2002, the FBI closed in on the snipers while they slept in their 1990 Chevy Caprice.
During that month, 10 people had been randomly gunned down and three critically injured while going about their everyday lives – mowing the lawn, pumping gas, shopping, reading a book. Among the victims was one of our own – FBI intelligence analyst Linda Franklin, who was felled by a single bullet while leaving a home improvement store in Virginia with her husband.
The massive investigation into the sniper attacks was led by the Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Department, headed by Chief Charles Moose, with the FBI and many other law enforcement agencies playing a supporting role.
That morning, the hunt for the snipers came to an end when a team of Maryland State Police, Montgomery County SWAT officers, and agents from our Hostage Rescue Team arrested the sleeping John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo without a struggle.
Just a few hours earlier, at approximately 11:45 p.m., their dark blue 1990 Chevy Caprice – bearing the New Jersey license plate NDA-21Z, which had been widely publicized on the news only hours earlier – had been spotted at a rest stop parking lot off I-70 in Maryland. Within the hour, law enforcement swarmed the scene, setting up a perimeter to check out any movements and make sure there’d be no escape.
What evidence experts from the FBI and other police forces found there was both revealing and shocking. The car had a hole cut in the trunk near the license plate so that shots could be fired from within the vehicle. It was, in effect, a rolling sniper’s nest.
Also found in the car were:
- The Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle that had been used in each attack;
- A rifle’s scope for taking aim and a tripod to steady the shots;
- A backseat that had the sheet metal removed between the passenger compartment and the trunk, enabling the shooter to get into the trunk from inside the car;
- The Chevy Caprice owner’s manual with – the FBI Laboratory later detected – written impressions of the one of the demand notes;
- The 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 getaway routes from some of the crime scenes; and maps, walkie-talkies, and many more items.
Both Malvo and Muhammad were convicted at trial or pled guilty in multiple court cases in Maryland and Virginia. Both were sentenced to life without parole; Muhammad also received the death penalty in Virginia.
In September 2003, Muhammad was sentenced to death; and in October, Malvo, a juvenile, was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without parole. In November 2009, Muhammad was put to death by lethal injection.
(Source: FBI)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
