WASHINGTON, D.C. (WUSA) - A decade after the sniper attacks that terrorized our area and left a trail of bloodshed, one of the two men responsible for the violence has spoken from behind bars in a rare interview.
In the interview published by the Washington Post on Sunday, convicted sniper Lee Malvo describes himself as a monster and shares the moment that stood out for him.
Andrea McCarren has listened to the interview and is here to tell us more.
The Washington Post shared with us parts of its recorded phone calls with Lee Malvo. In chilling detail, he talked about the crimes, his victims and their families.
"What am I going to tell them? I'm sorry I murdered your own child. I'm sorry I killed your husband. I'm sorry I murdered your wife," Malvo said.
Lee Malvo, now 27, said he felt like the worst piece of scum on the planet when he saw the anguished expression on the face of the husband of one of his victims. As Linda Franklin lay in a pool of blood outside the Home Depot in Falls Church, Malvo said her husband's eyes reflected the worst sort of pain he'd ever seen in his life.
"I am sorry. I am sorry," he said.
For so many of us, involved in the news coverage every day, it was a frightening time.
At any moment, it felt like another random victim might be shot. Today, Malvo says he was a monster.
"If you look up the definition, that's what a monster is. I was a ghoul. I was a thief. I stole people's life.... What do I tell the child who is waiting for his father to come home? And dad never showed up," he said.
Malvo also described in frank terms how he and Muhammad carried out their deadly crime spree, including 27 shootings across the country.
"We'd go in the trunk. I'd put my window down half way and I can see whatever is in front of me, to my left and to my right. My focus is on witnesses, passengers (tighten up!) and whenever there was an opening, I told him to shoot.... And it was just one rapid (snaps fingers) after another after another after another. If there wasn't an opening within ten minutes, we moved," he said.
One of the more disturbing elements of Malvo's interview is that he urges the victims families to move one. He said, "Don't allow myself or Muhammad to continue to make you a victim for the rest of your life. It isn't worth it."
People may wonder, just how did Muhammad convince Malvo to carry out such horrific acts?
Remember Malvo was just 17 at the time. He'd been abandoned by his mother. His father wasn't around. Muhammad became a father figure, who offered consistency. Even though, as Malvo said, that consistency was madness.
