Muhammad/Malvo sighted on September 19 2002, 4:30am, Petersburg Virginia

The Progress Index ^ | 10.30.2002 | JENNIFER FRANCIS

[Future Useless Eater]

Here is the elusive sighting of M & M on the morning of September 19th. ALL the best-known search engines had lost it, but thanks to AlltheWeb.com and Aristeides I found it again. I will add it to the Muhammad/Malvo Timelines sometime soon.

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Sniper suspects slept here: Before the attacks in Maryland and Virginia began, Muhammad and Malvo slept in the parking lot of the Ramada Inn in Petersburg
By:JENNIFER FRANCIS , Staff Writer 10/30/2002

PETERSBURG VA - Just two days before sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo allegedly shot and killed a clerk outside an Alabama liquor store, two Petersburg police officers found them sleeping in a local motel parking lot off Interstate 95.

According to a report taken around 4:30 the morning of Sept. 19, the Petersburg Bureau of Police received a complaint call from security guards at the Ramada Inn located at the East Washington Street/I-95 interchange regarding two men sleeping in a car in the hotel parking lot.

This year, all the rooms at the Ramada are being rented out to Virginia State University as dormitory space for some of the school's students and is monitored by VSU police officers and security.

"The security guard said that a blue vehicle with New Jersey tags was on the Washington Street side of the building and that two black males were possibly asleep inside," said Lt. John Corrigan of the Petersburg Bureau of Police. "The car was a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice."

The same car, he said, in which Muhammad and Malvo were sleeping when they were arrested at a Maryland rest stop last week as the main suspects in 13 sniper shootings following a three-week reign of terror in Maryland, Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia.

According to the report, when the officers pulled up along the side of the car, one noted that the back seat was full of clothing and that one of the men didn't appear to be older than 16 or 17. The older of the men told officers that his name was John Allen Muhammad, Corrigan said, and that his date of birth was Dec. 31, 1960.

Muhammad told the officers that the young man traveling with him, now believed to be Malvo, was his nephew. Police did not take down the name of the younger passenger.

"Mr. Muhammad said that he had traveled to Louisiana to visit family and that he had stopped in Petersburg because he was tired and needed to rest," Corrigan said. "The two were very cooperative and showed no signs of suspicious activity."

The officers ran the man's information and the car through local, state and national criminal databases but the check turned up nothing. Muhammad was told that he was trespassing at the hotel and that he had to leave.

Corrigan said the officers did not think about the encounter again until after Muhammad was arrested in connection with the sniper shootings.

"(Petersburg police) called the hotline immediately and then the FBI called (Petersburg PD) and asked for a copy of the written report," Corrigan said. "They were apparently here weeks before the sniper attacks began."

Lawrence Barry, Chief Division Counsel with the Richmond Field Office of the FBI, declined to comment on the Petersburg connection to the suspects, citing the ongoing investigation.

But a local police officer said on the condition of anonymity that Muhammad and Malvo's presence in Petersburg could help to piece together a time line of events that tie together shooting deaths across the East Coast.

"This could help to tell them if and when they scoped out the area and if they had planned an escape route along (Interstate) 85," the police source said.

The men's presence in Petersburg in September seems to make sense, the officer said, if the men were traveling from New Jersey to somewhere down south.

The shooting death of a clerk at a Montgomery, Ala. liquor store took place two days after officers encountered Muhammad and Malvo in Petersburg. The first of the sniper shootings in Maryland took place Oct. 2, just two weeks later. That spree would kill 10 and critically injure three.

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September 10 2002 - Petersburg VA - So the unanswered questions still include:
WHY would the pair travel JUST TWO HOURS SOUTH of DC on the evening of Sept 18th to spend the night in Petersburg VA? They HAD to have some urgent 'business' near there late Sept 18, or early Sept 19.
Some possible Islamic-attractions come to mind:

• The Mosque in Petersburg... (RED star on map)

• Muslim and N.O.I. contacts at Virginia State University, (BLUE star on map)

• visiting someone at the Petersburg federal prison? (GREEN star on map)

• ...Or was it to visit or exchange messages with the other DC sniper - Mir Aimal Kasi at the Sussex 1 State Prison [11 miles south of Petersburg] (YELLOW star on map)
  Kasi was later moved to Greensville VA and executed November 14th. He once asked for penpals on the internet while on death row at Sussex.
• ...The Petersburg Ramada Inn is the RED pin shown in the center of town

  
  
  The Petersburg VA sighting was 44 hours before the murder in Atlanta GA. They probably slept another 3 hours Sept 19AM, and 7 hours Sept 19PM, plus TRAVEL time to Atlanta is another 8 hours
  That leaves 24 unaccounted-for daytime active-hours AFTER the sighting, in VA, NC, SC, or GA.. This is a considerable amount of discretionary time for plotting or planning their illegal activities with other people.

[Future Useless Eater]

...still pondering the size of the trunk on the caddieCONTINENTAL in Wash. State...
...Was his original connection in Joisey with Osbourne or someone else? I think someone else...

Yes, the white Lincoln Continental that Muhammad wanted to buy in Tacoma... No one ever said, by the way, that $2500 was too steep for that car. Salesmen just 'assumed' that was the reason because after 3 visits in 3 days, the pair stopped coming by. Then they almost immediatly surfaced again in Nu Joisey.

Muhammad came into $3000 using his gun on September 5th... more than enough to pay the 'real price' of a souped up car with a BIG ENGINE and BIG TRUNK days later. I've seen a few pictures of the Caprice too. It's not in bad shape as some reports would claim.

I'd guess their accomplices in NJ were one or more of ( Neil Osbourne, Walford(Wally) Osbourne, or Peter Gianquinto). I'd bet Walford is the smarter of the two Osbourne brothers, since he knew not to personally get tied in with the sniper pair. They probably had an accomplice in the Camden MVS office as well.

Peter Gianquinto is an interesting suspect too because he was a close associate in crime with Muhammad in Antigua. Gianquinto soured his relationship with his landlord by putting up five 'foreign students' in his apartment in Joisey, and also moving out suddenly, right after M & M were arrested, trashing the place. Gianquinto had multiple ID's and was arrested with welfare papers he could only have obtained fraudulently from NY. He was probably scamming multiple state's welfare rolls.

The OWNER of the All Nations cuisine in Camden swears that Muhammad and Malvo were there 3 or 4 times in one week in AUGUST, and they were not there in September. That would put them in Jersey both BEFORE AND AFTER the Tacoma car-shopping event. I think they had accomplics on both coasts helping them find the 'perfect sniper car'.

[Travis McGee]

I was screaming at my TV last night when Stone Phillips was interviewing one of M&Ms buddies in Tacoma. "What ever could have been the motive for John MOHAMMED to go on a killing spree? Hmm, it's just a mystery I guess."

Not one hint of his fanatical Islam, his praise of the 9-11 attackers etc.

[Sacajaweau]

First, thanks for all your info. It's just great.

This is from a Washington Times Article dated Oct. 25, 2002 entitled "Thank God, it's over"

"A duffel bag left at the site of Friday's shooting of bus driver Conrad Johnson in Aspen Hill has been tentatively identified as belonging to the suspects".

[Kenny Bunk]

Grampa Dave, I feel you are being too hard on P.C.Moose, Ph.D.

His outstanding work on the sniper case only delayed solving the case by a week or two. As you are aware, this is well within AAA police performance parameters.(AAAPPP)

I feel certain that you will join me, and thousands of other concerned citizens in recommending that P.C. Moose, Ph.D. be assigned to a sensitive overseas training post in either Haiti or Liberia. I feel these lands would have a true appreciation for his unique talents as a sensitive and ecologically involved, politically correct sort of Peace Officer.

P.C. Moose Ph.D. is ideally suited for police work which would not actually involve apprehending those, who because of religious intolerance, racism and early deprivation, are alleged to have comitted acts which an unjust society might term "crimes."

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