I was in DC while the Beltway Sniper fired on Innocents!

No Compromise Media ^ | november 10, 2009 | No Compromise

[freespeechzones]

I was in DC with my 10 year old daughter, during this rampage. To say that DC residents were scared doesn’t quite describe the climate. . . .

[RexBeach]

I live in northern Virginia. I had cousins call me from the midwest to see if they should let their kids come to DC on a school trip. I told them the correct answer was the one that made them(the parents) most comfortable.

The kids remained at home.

[iceskater]

The tension here in Richmond was palpable as well. One of the victims was shot right outside Richmond. I remember going to the gas station and looking around, wondering if he was out there.

Justice will be served tonight.

[synbad600]

I was in FL, out one pre-dawn morning, walking the bridge as usual. In the park at the base of the bridge was a man lying in the grass, not moving. Another woman and I didn't know what to do, so we saw two buff guys in the area and relayed our concerns. They told us, "Great, we just came from the D.C. area where the sniper is and here's a dead-looking guy right in front of us."

(He wasn't dead, just passed out drunk from the night before.)

[PLMerite]

“Wow! Given that the metro area has about 8,000,000 residents, you must feel lucky to have survived!”

I remember driving down US Rt 1 in Laurel when the news on the radio said the sniper was believed to be driving a white delivery-type box truck. I looked around and discovered that I had one on each side and in front of me.

Very unsettling. I hope they carry out the execution tonight as scheduled.

[piperpilot]

I drive in to the District via Georgia Ave. to Connecticut Ave. At least two of the shootings were on that route. In fact, about 10 police cars went screaming past me as I was driving in one day. I later learned that they were responding to another shooting in Aspen Hill. That was the very last shooting, I believe. It was a very frightening time. No one wanted to stop for gas. No one really wanted to travel along any of the routes where there had been a shooting.

[Hazwaste]

Wow! Given that the metro area has about 8,000,000 residents, you must feel lucky to have survived!

I know you're trying to be funny here, but it's always interested me how fear is so difficult to conquer via rational thought.

[LeftIsSinister]

Wow! Given that the metro area has about 8,000,000 residents, you must feel lucky to have survived!

Yeah yeah. Were you there? Sure, I was telling myself that I had about as much chance at being shot as I did winning the lottery, but it didn't help much. It's not like the victims had any clue they were about to die. It also didn't help getting stuck on the beltway for hours one morning while the police searched white vans. They didn't just murder a few innocent people, they terrorized the metro area.

[Fishtalk]

I was managing a shopping center in Upper Marlboro Merryland at the time.

I had to go to the shopping center and get out of my car to go to the various stores, collect rent, deal with management problems...that sort of thing.

It was widely published that if exposed for any length of time best to zig-zag and move quickly. So that’s how I crossed that big parking lot, zig-zagging, ducking behind and around parked cars, running.

it was an awful way to live. I couldn’t believe my country had come to this. I’m bitter cause I lived through that entire terror period, doing my job and scared out of my mind.

May the fine, fine Mohammad have himself a real purty last meal. May the needle go in gently. May the devil greet him merrily.

I shall smile.

[PLMerite]

“It was widely published that if exposed for any length of time best to zig-zag and move quickly. So that’s how I crossed that big parking lot, zig-zagging, ducking behind and around parked cars, running.”

I did it, too. Hunkered down next to the truck when refueling, etc.

[They'reGone2000]

Peace be with you.

[tanknetter]

Yeah yeah. Were you there? Sure, I was telling myself that I had about as much chance at being shot as I did winning the lottery, but it didn't help much. It's not like the victims had any clue they were about to die. It also didn't help getting stuck on the beltway for hours one morning while the police searched white vans. They didn't just murder a few innocent people, they terrorized the metro area.

That's it exactly. The snipers were all over the area, capping people who were doing fairly necessary things like filling up their cars at gas stations.

I mentioned on another thread that I was going to go to the Fall Church Home Depot center that evening (not to the Home Depot but the B&N that's a couple doors down). Got delayed, decided to go home instead. Would have been there when the sniper opened up. Given the area the snipers were covering, just about everyone knew *someone* who was in the vicinity of at least one of the shootings.

[rabidralph]

I lived near Bowie and you can’t imagine how stupid and scared we all felt while filling up our cars in the morning with our doors open to shield us.

[sjm_888]

I believe after the attack on the bus driver, a local radio station whose play list is programmed weeks in advanced, played Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust. Talk about timing!?!

[ctdonath2]

Exactly. Always amazes me how people get so wound up about danger X, then think nothing of driving to work. Surely more people died in that area from car wrecks during that period than from this creep - and still do, day after day, and nobody is concerned.

[ErnBatavia]

I hope he’s served pork loin for his last meal....

[editor-surveyor]

No surprise here that you two manage to find some way to side up with the miscreants!

Batting 1000.

[ottbmare]

Wow, you were actually VISITING in DC during the sniper episode? Some of us live here. Some of us live, work, shop, and go to school in the area he was hitting. Methinks you self-dramatize too much. We looked around carefully but we did not have hysterics.

That said, one of my fondest recollections of my daughter, then a middle-schooler, was of one afternoon during the shootings when her school was closed and I had to pick her up in the middle of the afternoon. She said dryly, “Mom, I’ll bet you five bucks that when they catch this guy, one of his names is Mohammed.” I declined to take the bet.