Later this evening, John Mohammad, the man sentenced to death for his part in the DC sniper serial murders will most likely no longer be alive.
I've thought about it a bit; it must be strange, no macabre I guess, to wake this morning to know this will be the last time to greet a new morning. It almost begs the point, 'Why bother?'
But he's got it easy; the people whose deaths he is responsible for had no inkling when they woke on their fateful day that the hours they would remain alive on this earth were finite. And like 9/11, its hard to explain, perhaps it is unexplainable for those who weren't there to appreciate the enormity of his crime.
Until they were apprehended, he and his accomplice held the greater DC metro area in terror and in thrall in a way that touched all. Personally a couple of things stand out for me as markers of that time. One was a Saturday morning perhaps in the middle of the murder spree (I don't call it anything else; it is what it is), I was out on an errand and noticed just how light the traffic was. People, out of terror just stayed home. Likewise at a gas station very near home, after one shooting farther south at a gas station, the owner of this station put up a tarp the shield customers. This is a photo of that gas station.
And then there was the day we were out on the road and on the radio there was a report of a shooting farther south and further to the report (erroneous) of a white van. Shortly afterwards we saw a white van pulled over, its driver with hands on head, scared, bewildered, the mob of police officers surrounding him and his vehicle -deadly serious.
And of the victims, two stand out. One a man whose wife was killed in a nearby Home Depot, right before his eyes, and a young boy, who nearly died had it not been for he was with an aunt, a trained ER nurse and got him the immediate medical attention which saved his live.
So am I lusting for blood? Depends on your point of view. I don't see myself as such. His crimes are what they are, cold and calculated. He made his choices and the consequences are what he will face tonight.
Inaformerlifeanexpat's Blog 