Documents Reveal Boastful Sniper Suspect

Some of the victims of last fall’s sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area were shot in the head for the “horrific effect” and to make a point to police, but the boy who was shot outside a Bowie, Md., middle school was hit in the back because other children were nearby, suspect Lee Boyd Malvo told investigators, according to law enforcement documents.

In a wide-ranging interrogation by police in November, Malvo, 18, disclosed graphic details of the sniper shootings, including a revelation that they began with the killing of five people in one day because he knew police “couldn’t handle it,” according to the documents, which are partial transcripts of Malvo’s audiotaped remarks to investigators and a memo that summarizes the parts that were not taped.

Malvo bragged about his shooting prowess, laughed while pointing to parts of the body where the bullets hit and said that, given the chance, he would do it all again.

The ultimate objective of the killings was to “terrorize” the community, Malvo said in the documents, and to force police to pay the snipers money to stop.

He believed he would get the $10 million the snipers asked for and mentioned no political or personal reasons for the shootings, emphasizing it didn’t matter who walked into the rifle’s sights when he was ready to shoot, the documents show.

Malvo frequently played a game of cat and mouse with the interrogators, at times appearing to offer key pieces of information and then backing down.

“You may never know,” he said at one point in the summaries. “That’s for you to find out,” he said at another.

He was disdainful of the media, envious of the police departments’ superior equipment and boastful that no one could have stopped them if not for his own lapses. Time and again, he likened the shootings to precision military operations. He discussed the details of some of the shootings, graphically describing how victims fell, where on their bodies they were hit and what happened immediately afterward.

John Allen Muhammad is co-defendant in the case. Malvo did not bring up Muhammad’s name during the interview, but investigators did several times, and Malvo did not deny Muhammad took part in the shootings.