Man Pleads Guilty to Buying Rifle for D.C. Snipers

AP ^ | 3/31/05

[Crackingham]

A man pleaded guilty Thursday to buying a rifle for the Washington, D.C.-area snipers - though not the weapon used in the 2002 random shooting spree. Earl L. Dancy Jr., 36, faces a maximum 10 years in prison at sentencing June 24. He pleaded guilty to making a false statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm.

Dancy claimed on a federal form that he intended to use the weapon himself, the U.S. attorney's office said. During the November 2003 trial of sniper John Allen Muhammad, Dancy admitted he bought it for Muhammad.

Muhammad, 44, and teen accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, 19, lived in the Tacoma area before heading east and beginning a terrifying string of random sniper shootings that left 10 dead in October 2002.

Muhammad is on Virginia's death row for one slaying; Malvo has been sentenced to life in prison for two of the killings.

The store where Dancy bought the rifle is the same one from which authorities believe the snipers stole the rifle later used in the attacks.

[elmer fudd]

I might have actually met this guy. I was installing cable TV in a rather seedy house where a number of people were living and one of the guys was a strung out looking white guy in his late 30's. He had a couple of bullets on top of his TV and I moved them along with some other stuff so that I could set the digital box down on top.

Anyway, when the guy noticed I had moved the bullets he got all concerned and told me they had belonged to John Mohammed. The name didn't ring a bell with me right off the bat, so he said, "you know, the sniper." At that point it dawned on me who he was talking about. Then he started telling me what a great guy John Mohammed had been, how they had been buddies and that he just couldn't take the pressure and had snapped. Malvo however, according to him, was just an annoying little punk.

That was a strange day.